the man and his movies

Monday, December 17, 2007

Focus Essay


What the public may perceive of celebrities can often be completely contradictory to what the person is truly like. With Quentin Tarantino comes a lot of confusion and many assumptions. Based on his movies, many people presume that he is a strange, disturbed man who grew up in an unsettling environment, but that is not true. Also, his material is often thought to be incredibly original, when in fact only the main ideas come from Quentin’s mind. Therefore, what the public think of this multitalented man are often severely warped versions of the truth.

Peculiar, unstable, and nerdy are words that often describe Quentin. People see his movies, and inevitably notice all the sick and twisted scenes that these movies consist of. Instantly, many people are disgusted and develop an aversion for Quentin and his movies. In their minds, he is the epitome of messed up people, and they assume that he had a messed up childhood to match his personality. Quentin himself implies hillbilly upbringings. Those who admire this man’s work, or know him personally know this is not the case. In reality, Quentin’s mother Connie raised Quentin Jerome Tarantino normally in an upper middle class society. His real father, Tony Tarantino left Connie and Quentin and so did the next two men who became Quentin’s stepfathers. Quentin never quite had a father figure, and this idea is prevalent in his movies. The beginnings of his affinity for movies originated when Quentin was young. He would often see movies, some that children his age should not have seen. It was no surprise that he aimed to become a famous director/actor. He was unique and creative as a child, and this imaginative spark grew as Quentin got older. Quentin often appears at somewhat important events dressed in jeans and a dirty t-shirt. Though he is seemingly a slob, he simply figures that people come to see his work, not him. When the name Quentin Tarantino was not yet widely known, people who saw his films then met the man himself all shared the same reaction. They did not expect what they saw. Quentin appeared to be too happy and seemingly naïve to have written such vulgar movies. Quentin Tarantino definitely does not fit under the labels he is so often given.

The originality of Quentin’s masterpieces is often questionable. While his unique filming styles and main storylines are all thought of by him, parts of dialogues taken from other films and even his friends can be found in his films. Some actions are taken from other films and his friends as well, however he never truly gives them credit. For example, Roger Avary wrote a whole third of Pulp Fiction, but Quentin modified it and made it his, without acknowledging Roger. Things that Quentin’s friends say in their everyday lives often show up in Quentin’s movies (also without acknowledgement), and some of them get sore about Quentin’s “first come first serve” perspective. Not only does Quentin use the material of others, he even “steals” his own material. A scene from a film he and Craig Hamman made in his amateur years called My Best Friend’s Birthday closely resembles a scene in Pulp Fiction, where Uma Thurman inhales heroin, thinking it’s cocaine. In a sense, it’s like quilt work. Quentin takes bits of material that, on their own wouldn’t look interesting, and puts them together in such a way that the end result is a unique, attention-grabbing masterpiece.

Most celebrities seem insecure about all the rumours that circulate through magazines and the television. Quentin Tarantino prefers to laugh at rumours, and actually find it quite interesting to hear what people think about him. Though the public may see Quentin as a troubled mind with an odd persona, he truly is just unique and goes for the shock factor. In addition, he may seem to have fresh ideas, but in actuality, a considerable amount of his work is similar to movies or people he took the ideas off of.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Destiny and Epilogue

Destiny
  • took a year off after Four Rooms
  • did much work during this "year off"
  • Banned from computer chat lines of America Online b/c he's so famous
  • was hurt when referred to as Jughead at the Golden Globes

Epilogue

  • Finally gave credit to Roger Avary b/c things were heating up in press
  • (Just stuff about awards now, and Quentin's reactions to awards and such)

Four Rooms

  • Never appears as what people expect him to look like
  • a "Film Geek"
  • Q went on a date with Allison Anders (met at Sundance)
  • both had father figure problems
  • Q was truly a romantic
  • "talks about movies during make out sessions"
  • (the rest of it is just about the movie, and the process of making it)
The Cathryn Thing
  • Cathryn James was Q's manager
  • let Cat go b/c he felt a director didnt need a contract
  • Cat felt really betrayed
  • Cat claims she payed Q's rent, but Q says she never ever gave him money!
  • other people have said that too, Q refuses to say its true whether it is or not
  • Like most people who meet Quentin, though Cat is used by him, she still adores him

The Craig Thing

  • Craig Hamann is Q's former acting class partner who got him his first manager, and screenplay (best friend's birthday)
  • wrote something with Craig, but wont release it because it has Craig's name on it, and wont release it to Craig
  • Too loyal to Quentin

The Violence Thing

  • Q believes that violence is one of the most fun things to watch
  • many people believe this condones violence, but others beg to differ

The Gay Thing

  • On the internet, there have been rumors that Quentin is secretly homosexual
  • Q finds it funny, and is able to joke about it

The Language Thing

  • Use of the N word is always in movies
  • some speculate he is freeing these words from the straitjacket of "political correctness" while others see it as racism
  • Q sees this topic as boring, and has little to say about it

Pulp Fiction

  • Has an affinity for feet, and Uma has the best feet in the business
  • didn't dress well to a lunch (in honour of movie), decided people were there for movie, not him
  • has an infectous quality, makes you sort of want to be like him when you're with him

Reservoir Dogs (the movie)

  • Didn't want the actors to see the dailies
  • at the Sundance screening, it was a disaster because Q had made the film in wide screen, but the projectionist didn't have some materials, so it came out blurry and bled onto the curtains, Q was freaking out, walking down the aisles and saying "stop! i cant take this"
  • no overnight success for Q, even after Reservoir Dogs was successful
  • made movie for himself, and everyone is invited (said Q)
  • Leaves it to audience to interpret movie meanings and title meanings
  • got to travel, something he never had enough money to do as a child
  • His theory on Madonna's "Like a Virgin" (in the movie) was something he truly believed to be true, and he finally got to meet Madonna
  • She sent him a copy of her album, and said "to Quentin-- its about love, not [what you thought it was"

Quentin Controversies:

The Roger Thing

  • Worked together at Video Archives, first as rivals then as friends
  • were as thick as thieves
  • Roger gave Q something he'd written called The Open Road, which turned into True Romance and NBK
  • A full third of Pulp Fiction consists of a screenplay written by Roger, but Q's version was better
  • Though it isn't a crime, Q is less than gracious about sharing credit
  • Complains about Oliver Stone taking his stuff, but takes Rogers stuff and gives him no credit really
  • Was an only child, can be selfish/self-absorbed
  • Q's riffs echo the Video Archives atmosphere

Reservoir Dogs (the background)

  • This was his first film that actually got produced, and it was directed by him rather than just written
  • Q was scared that if something he wrote (but did not direct) got produced, it would make him seem like a writer trying to become a director
  • Harvey Keitel called about the script, and wanted to act in the movie
  • this would add some attraction/interest to the film
  • Harvey took the boys out to the Russian tea room, which was a new experience for Q since he had very simple roots
  • There is a first time for everything: at the Sundance lab, Q came in with two scenes he wanted to shoot, but discarded one and decided to write a whole new scene then are there b/c the movie needed it
  • there is a contrast between Q as a person and the material he makes
  • not inward looking
  • in Q's perspective, he's "all over his stuff [(material)]."
  • after someone reads some of his script he feels embarrassed because he feels he's told too many of his secrets
  • Says material is dark, but he can be so happy because of where he is now, and where he came from
  • biggest demons have to do with boyhood masculine pride (shows in movies)
  • used to get in many fights and such

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

From Dusk Till Dawn and Past Midnight

  • worked with Robert Kurtzman on this horror film
  • In one scene, a Vietnamese boy's father (who adopted him) turns on him, the same way Curt turned on Q when he was younger (by leaving)
  • Sundance Festival: Kurtzman couldn't get anyone to use his movie b/c he was a new director, gave to Robert Rodriguez

Past Midnight

  • Got a salesman job at the Imperial (foreign films)
  • Q was perfect for job, had already worked in a mom-and-pop video store, could act, liked the material being sold and could do impersonations
  • the Coffee Thing- Q says he associates coffee with work; going to make a cup of coffee is a good way to get out of doing any
  • the Father Figure Thing - there is a character who is pining for an absent dad
  • a foot massage was changed to a back rub b/c though Q favoured the foot massage, the director disagreed
  • Q was naive and kid like
  • Just as Q was on the brink of fame, his longtime girlfriend, Grace Lovelace dumped him

Natural Born Killers

  • Oliver Stone tried to re-write Natural Born Killers (NBK) and was killed by the media for it
  • Quentin used character name "Mickey Knox" from parts of his past. Mickey was a character in a book he stole when he was a teenager, and also an actor named Mickey Rourke. Knox came from Knoxville, Tennessee, where his grandparents live
  • Q was very attached to his roots
  • One of his characters was named Grace Mulberry, but in original script, Q put Lovelace instead of Mulberry several times (Grace Lovelace = Q's love interest)
  • never considered himself a writer, but wrote out scenes just to play them in his head
  • seemed to use black humour in scripts
  • Has a theory about first films: a director's first movie has to make a splash, so he got Rand to continue to direct it himself. Q left the movie to Rand, but Rand handed it over to other directors and there were law suit problems
  • Cut off ties with his "go-nowhere friends" (Video Archives friends who didn't become famous so to speak) if he could talk with the likes of Uma Thurman or John Travolta
  • some believe that though Quentin didn't get famous fast, once he did get famous, he got really famous and it went to his head
  • Q still thinks of Rand (the man he sort of screwed over) as a friend, and thinks that it was the nicest thing anyone could ever do when he allowed Rand to direct it
  • After a while, regretted giving up NBK, because he could have made it later or used material from it for his other films

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

My Best Friend's Birthday and True Romance

  • Quentin was friends with Craig Hamman, who also had an aversion to authority figures
  • they shared a similar taste in movies
  • as a teenager, they wrote scenes for themselves to act in
  • "My Best Friend's Birthday" was co- written, produced, and starred by the two of them to showcase their talents
  • Q was Allan Carfield's first student
  • Filmed BF's B-day in Connie's house when she was on a business trip, house was a pigsty
  • Quentin used material from BF's Bday in Pulp Fiction (likes to use old material in his works)
  • pulled scams/took loans they never repaid (From Q's 2nd stepfather) in order to pay for movie filming equipment and materials
  • spent so much time of work, they only got around 3 hours of sleep, they were close to nervous breakdowns
  • This was a learning experience for Q, learned technical aspects of filming

True Romance:

  • this was another film made, after BFs Bday didnt work out
  • could not sell film due to such vulgar language and scenes
  • however, finally someone liked it
  • Bill Lustig was fired (he was the director)
  • he was fired because he wanted to change the script/ending (for commercial purposes)
  • Q got Tony Scott (new director of film) to convince Sammy Hadida to fire Bill
  • This showed that he really did not want to make changes to his film
  • "Quentin puts our culture into a blender and redistributes it as an artistic, entertaining phenomenon
  • Quentin co-wrote/co-directed/co-starred in a film he never finished
  • it was deleted (?)
  • Scott (a friend of Quentin's from the video store) killed himself in 1987, and left an elaborate journal & audiotape for Quentin and Roger Avary, saying he couldn't compete with both of them
  • Quentin truly loved his friends, and even puts them in his movies as extras, or names characters after them (also gives characters their traits)
  • Q liked to take quotes from his friends and incorporate them into his films (had a first-come-first-serve perspective)
  • His friends occasionally got angry and felt as if Q had stolen from them
  • On one of Stevo's birthdays, Q gave him a favour card, entitling him to any favour at any time, but when Q was famous and Stevo finally did call, Q refused

Monday, December 3, 2007

Video Archives

  • worked at a video store for five years, became quite close with co-workers who were all interested in some creative endeavour (writing, film making, art etc)
  • Video Archives went out of business when Q left, he was such a big part of it
  • Got fired from his job at the lounge because he was under aged
  • began acting lessons at James Best Acting Lounge
  • Quentin definitely belonged in his place of work (Video Archives, a video store) because of his vast knowledge of videos
  • For a while, Quentin was a disappointment to his mother who had worked as hard as possible for herself and her son for dropping out of school and pursuing his dreams of film making and acting
  • Took movies very seriously, was very upset (perhaps too upset) when disrupted by talking during a movie (even opening credits!)
  • Very opinionated, would take up arguments about filmmakers and films even with people he didn't know very well
  • Video Archives was like a second home where Quentin and his co-workers had access to money to use for food, and access to a place to sleep at times.
  • Once went to a plastic surgeon to see if his jaw could be shortened because Q wanted more acting roles
  • usually only nice when it benefited him/was in his own interests, could be a trickster at times (got people to do his bidding)
  • used to the account numbers of female costumers, and changed their name to something like "Dreamgirl" and show them, and it worked (Creative!)
  • True romantic
  • Grace Lovelace, who he met through the movie store, was the "love of his life" and got her a job
  • She left briefly but returned to his life
  • Q seems to gravitate towards strong women, probably because of his strong-willed mother (and her influence on Q)

Friday, November 30, 2007

"Little Q"

The Big Faint:

  • At the opening of Pulp Fiction, a man in the audience fainted during one of the more visual scenes.
  • It may have been due to his diabetic reactions to a needle, or it could have simply been a ploy to get attention

Quentin's Childhood, Adolesence, and life as a teenager:

  • Son of Connie Tarantino (who was a young mother) and Tony Tarantino (5 years older than Connie, law student)
  • Full name: Quentin Jerome Tarantino
  • Raised by grandparents in Tennessee (at around age 10 or 11) while mother was in college. It was an unintended parallel to Connie's early life, when she lived with her grandparents
  • Connie was always looking for an "escape" from her family, and heard of emancipation. She took it to mean that she would have to get married and so she married early and had Quentin.
  • Tony had told Connie he could not have children, but unexpectedly, Quentin came into the picture.
  • Was close with stepfather, musicially inclined Curt Zastoupil
  • raised in a household with many family members, who were all quite young (even parents were relatively young) (it was "like Disneyland")
  • Religion: Connie allowed Quentin to attend different churches and pick his own religion
  • Had a salty tongue as a child
  • Played with GI Joes and action figures with overtones that are prevelant in his movies (violence)
  • At a young age, Quentin showed much interest in writing, and acting out screenplays
  • The movie Deliverance, which Quentin watched as a child, had a profound effect on him and a certain vulgar scene was put into Pulp Fiction
  • He watched many movies - including some inappropriate ones - when he was young
  • Connie's 3rd husband, Jan, was also a movie freak. Took Quentin to many films
  • Comes from an upper-middle class neighbourhood, but enjoys the idea of having hillbilly roots (also evident in movies)
  • hated school, dropped out at age 16
  • "basically grew up without a father" found a makeshift father in Howard Hawk's films
  • Grandmother was an alcaholic, raised Quentin for a while
  • constant battles with his mom about his education (after he dropped out)
  • caught shoplifting a book called The Switch in K-mart, wasnt really officially shoplifting
  • as punishment, Connie made Quentin read all summer, wasnt allowed to do anything else.
  • Joined local community theatre group
  • Was allowed to drop out of school, on the condition that he got a job
  • worked at Pussycat lounge, porn theatre in torrance
  • further sign of emancipation: changed surname back to Tarantino
  • Didn't thank anyone when he received one of his oscars (first?)

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Pre-book knowledge of Quentin Tarantino


[My knowledge of Quentin Tarantino prior to reading the book]
  • Quentin writes scripts for films and directs them
  • Some of his works include Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill (vol. 1 and 2), and Pulp Fiction
  • He starred in his own film "From Dusk Till Dawn"
  • Violence is often in his films
  • Allegedly has a "foot fetish"