Few weeks back I watched Death Proof. “The worst movie I have ever done…”, Quentin Tarantino (QT) had once said about it. Perhaps yes. But actually it wasn’t that bad. If watched from right perspective (it being a tribute to B grade grind-house exploitation cinema) you can enjoy it. Anyway, having watched it, I have now watched all the feature length movies written and directed by QT and hence I feel it is a good time to write about QT.

There are many things which I like about his movies. And some of them are trademark QT. Be it the retro soundtracks, abundant pop culture references, graphic violence, juxtaposition of violence and humour, Mexican standoffs, profuse profanity or non-linear chapters. And these are the things people have come to appreciate and associate with QT. When asked about what do you like about QT movies, most people will mention above things. But there are things which I personally like more and are seldom mentioned the popular discourse about QT, so I am attempting to write them down in this blog.

And here are those things:

1. Originality:
Given that the every other Hollywood movie that is released these days is a adaptation of a novel, it looks like the screen writers have just abdicated their duty. Rest of the movies are either based on biography of a famous people, or based on some real world incident. I don’t have problem with such movies as long as they are made in the right manner. Only thing is it is not 100% original.
Rest of the movies are just newer versions of age old themes like alien invasion, man vs machine, virus outbreak, end of the world, psycho killer etc. There is very acute lack of originality. And here QT scores.
Agreed, that his work is heavily influenced by works of other great directors, movies that inspire him. But the end product always has something original. He takes the usual genre or themes and shakes them up with mix of interesting characters, dialogues and subplots, and it becomes a colourful strong flavoured feature. In fact, in the name of originality he would not hesitate to change the course of history where Hitler gets killed in the movie theatre by Jews and ending the World War 2 few years before it actually did! I am not saying he is the only one original but certainly he belongs to the handful ones of this kind.

2. Development of a scene:
While most of the movies are just a collection of hundreds (or thousands) of small scenes (ranging from few seconds to at the max 2-3 minutes), what QT gives you is 7-8 chapters. Each scene or chapter lasts for good 15-30 mins. While in other movies characters just say 1-2 sentences to take the story forward (or so the director thinks), QT develops the scene gradually. It starts casually with chit-chat about normal things which have no relation to the movies main plot (royale with cheese). This goes on for a while and before you know the lines which really matter for the main plot are delivered, sometimes very subtly. And then (in most of the cases) towards the end, the situation takes completely unexpected turn and the scene ends with a bang! I like this style very much. It is as if you are watching a play in a movie format! This gives depth to the characters and make them believable and likeable. And it certainly works for me.

3. Movie Movie experience:
QT had said in an interview that “..never while watching Kill-Bill you will think that you are not watching a movie. While watching the Bride take bloody revenge you are aware at the back of your mind that this is not possible in real world, it is just a movie…” He says things that happen in such movies take place not in real world but in “the movie movie universe”. In another words he defines his movie movie universe as “…when Vincent and Jules go and watch a movie, they watch Kill Bill“. But I feel that all his movies take place in the movie movie universe (including Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained).
And that, in fact is a good thing. I will tell you how. Once you know that what happens in the movie is not going to happen in real world, it becomes a sort of fantasy. And the good thing about fantasy (and the reason why they are so popular) is that the viewer can detach himself from the day-to-day mediocrity and enjoy it. Even if there is something bad, dark, bloody, violent in the fantasy, the viewer knows that it cannot hurt him and so he can enjoy even the darker parts of the movie. Contrast that with the movies which are realistic or based on real events which are dark, sad, horror. Such movies will affect you. Like “Million Dollar Baby” was so tragic that I could not watch the last one third of the movie. Not that I despise or look down upon such movies. Sometimes you as a viewer want to experience such emotions and we need such movies too. What I am saying however is that, once you detach yourself from (especially the negative things in) the movie, it becomes pure entertainment. This is why I enjoy QT movies no matter how many times I have previously seen them. It becomes sort of a folklore fantasy with characters which are like regular people.

I know that, when we talk about QT or his movies, it evokes very extreme emotions. There are some people for whom he is perhaps the best thing happened to movie making industry. And there are some others, for whom he is not only a bad director but perhaps the most over rated one. Well, wherever you find yourself on that spectrum between the two extremes, one thing sure, that you can like him or hate him but can’t ignore him.

I hope that he continues to entertain us and I am definitely looking forward to his next “The Hateful Eight”.