PULP FICTION
In anticipation of Friday’s KILL BILL opening, I needed a Tarantino fix. Once again, I put in my PULP FICTION Collector’s Edition DVD and, once again, I was completely fixated on every frame of this brilliant film. Having seen it so many times, I thought I might just watch my favorite scenes. Turns out, they were all my favorites and I couldn’t skip any of it.
The plot of PULP FICTION is beside the point. It’s about a director so in love with his medium that he has taken the care to make every performance, line of dialogue, and visual setup unique and interesting. In many ways it reminds me of CITIZEN KANE, and not just because of the unconventional story structure. Orson Welles once said something to the effect of filmmaking being the greatest toy train set that a boy ever had. Quentin Tarantino seems to have the same sense of fun and freedom.
How great is it that a movie with a major plotline about a fighter throwing a match has not one scene in the boxing ring. If you had told me that an extended dialogue scene of a couple at a diner on a first date could be as fascinating as the one in this film, I wouldn’t have believed you ($5 milkshakes). Tarantino’s use of dialogue has already revolutionized the movies, so I will not belabor that point.Every character is perfectly cast to the point that I could see an entire movie being made about any of them.
The standout among standouts is Samuel L. Jackson as the hit-man, Jules. At first glance, he seems to be playing the ultimate bad ass, which he is. At the same time he seems to be going over the top, Jackson is subtly building an internal struggle that provides PULP FICTION’S moral center. This is not an exploitation film as its critics contend. All the violence and comedy reveal very moral message about choices and consequences. (Those critics also don’t seem to understand that this movie, like FIGHT CLUB, is a comedy.)
Tarantino’s use of popular music is also justly famous. The opening PULP FICTION logo over the frantic surf tune “Miserlou” send more chills up my spine than any title sequence not beginning with “A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away.” Another sequence has John Travolta’s heroin addict hit-man waiting for Uma Thurman, his boss’s wife, while Dusty Springfield’s “Son of A Preacher Man” plays on the soundtrack. This scene about nothing is so effective that Quentin has said that is if he couldn’t get the rights to the song, he would have cut the whole scene from the movie.
I could go on about every scene (haven’t even mentioned the needle through the heart thing) so I’ll just stop here. Damn, I can’t wait for KILL BILL.
KILL BILL VOLUME ONE
I will occasionally see a movie twice, just to catch the reaction of the people I’m with, who are seeing it for the first time. With KILL BILL VOLUME ONE, Quentin Tarantino seems to be doing the same thing. Instead of showing us the blaxploitation, and Asian kung-fu/samurai movies that shaped him, he has made a loving homage to them. Because he’s one of the most talented directors ever to make films, this movie is much better than its influences.
Quentin would probably disagree with that, but his love of grindhouse or exploitation films is shared only by a small but dedicated cult. I respect this cult, but I’m not part of it. I regard both my favorite blaxploitation and kung fu films, FOXY BROWN and ENTER THE DRAGON respectively, as entertaining, but silly guilty pleasures. (For the record, I don’t consider CROUCHING TIGER or Jackie Chan films in this genre.)
Back to KILL BILL. This movie just rocks! The visuals are unforgettable and, though not as prominent as in the past, the dialogue remains clever and smart. For the first time, Quentin shows what he can do with extended action scenes. As a love letter to the seventies, there’s no CG allowed, just amazing fight choreography and stunt work.
Uma’a performance allows Quentin to be as wild and crazy as he needs to, by providing a strong and sympathetic center to the film. The other notable performance was by martial arts cult hero Sonny Chiba as the wise old sword maker. It’s the one sequence where the audience is allowed to catch their breaths and its very charming. His relationship with The Bride reminded me of Yoda and Luke in EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, but I may be alone in that observation.
I guess you can’t discuss this movie without talking about the gore. There is a lot of blood in this movie, but it’s so cartoony and over the top that it’s not the least bit disturbing. A couple of the friends who I saw this with felt that the violence was no where near as intense as the “ear” scene in RESEVOIR DOGS. It’s to Quentin’s credit that many people think they saw the ear removed, when, in fact, it took place off-screen. (Same with TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, despite the title and intensity – no gore.)
The music is completely out of left field and cool as hell. It’s mostly instrumental stuff that reflects the same influences as the film. Can’t wait to see that Japanese girl band on tour!
KILL BILL VOLUME TWO
To me the most striking thing about Quentin Tarantino is his sheer audacity. He is utterly unafraid to make films that reflect his vision and passions. If anyone else likes it, bonus, but Tarantino makes the films he wants to see. Each of his films are complete departures from their predecessors and Kill Bill Vol. 2 is no exception.
The first Kill Bill was a non-stop assault of mayhem and violence, part blaxploitation film and mostly derived Asian kung fu / samurai cinema. The stroke of genius in Volume 2 is that he has completely abandoned the first film’s style and turned the sequel into a spaghetti western. Anyone who has seen Segio Leone classics like The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly or Once Upon a Time in the West knows that spaghetti westerns (called so because they were filmed in Italy) are morally ambiguous, highly stylized, and very deliberately paced.
Quentin does not hide his influences. Whereas Vol. 1 had a crazed mash of musical gems, Vol. 2 is dominated by some lesser known works of Leone’s favorite composer, Ennio Morricone. Time is given for character development, but also to study the contrast between close ups of faces (specifically David Carradine and Michael Madsen) and landscapes, just as Leone did. Tarantino has set a bit of a higher bar because Vol. 1 was superior to its influence, but Vol. 2 cannot hope to be better than the Leone masterpieces. It is, however, worthy of being considered in the same class.
Specifically, Kill Bill Vol. 2 reminds me of Once Upon a Time in the West. Both film attempt to define the role of women in society. In the earlier film, Claudia Cardinal’s Jill McBain breaks out of Leoni’s usual view of passive women to aggressively use her intelligence and sexuality to avenge the murder of her family. That was 1969. In 2004, Uma Thurman’s Bride is a full-fledged warrior who need not hire gunmen to take revenge for her. It’s interesting to note that both films come to the same conclusion – a woman’s highest purpose is to be a mother (of a community or a child.) I also see a bit of Henry Fonda’s cold, but charming malice in David Carradine’s engaging read on Bill. That these similarities are deliberate I believe is proven by an exact camera move replica. As the assassin’s enter the church, the camera cranes up in a way very reminiscent of the Leoni shot of Jill entering the developing town.
There are still touches of the Asian influence left. The training sequence with Gordon Lui as a harsh samurai master struck a cord with me. Shortly after seeing Vol. 1, I decided to check out a Shaw Bros. Kung Fu festival playing at a local art-house. I chose wisely. It was 36th Chamber of Shaolin, an extremely fun film about training to be a samurai master and staring Gordon Liu as the student.
In anticipation of Friday’s KILL BILL opening, I needed a Tarantino fix. Once again, I put in my PULP FICTION Collector’s Edition DVD and, once again, I was completely fixated on every frame of this brilliant film. Having seen it so many times, I thought I might just watch my favorite scenes. Turns out, they were all my favorites and I couldn’t skip any of it.
The plot of PULP FICTION is beside the point. It’s about a director so in love with his medium that he has taken the care to make every performance, line of dialogue, and visual setup unique and interesting. In many ways it reminds me of CITIZEN KANE, and not just because of the unconventional story structure. Orson Welles once said something to the effect of filmmaking being the greatest toy train set that a boy ever had. Quentin Tarantino seems to have the same sense of fun and freedom.
How great is it that a movie with a major plotline about a fighter throwing a match has not one scene in the boxing ring. If you had told me that an extended dialogue scene of a couple at a diner on a first date could be as fascinating as the one in this film, I wouldn’t have believed you ($5 milkshakes). Tarantino’s use of dialogue has already revolutionized the movies, so I will not belabor that point.Every character is perfectly cast to the point that I could see an entire movie being made about any of them.
The standout among standouts is Samuel L. Jackson as the hit-man, Jules. At first glance, he seems to be playing the ultimate bad ass, which he is. At the same time he seems to be going over the top, Jackson is subtly building an internal struggle that provides PULP FICTION’S moral center. This is not an exploitation film as its critics contend. All the violence and comedy reveal very moral message about choices and consequences. (Those critics also don’t seem to understand that this movie, like FIGHT CLUB, is a comedy.)
Tarantino’s use of popular music is also justly famous. The opening PULP FICTION logo over the frantic surf tune “Miserlou” send more chills up my spine than any title sequence not beginning with “A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away.” Another sequence has John Travolta’s heroin addict hit-man waiting for Uma Thurman, his boss’s wife, while Dusty Springfield’s “Son of A Preacher Man” plays on the soundtrack. This scene about nothing is so effective that Quentin has said that is if he couldn’t get the rights to the song, he would have cut the whole scene from the movie.
I could go on about every scene (haven’t even mentioned the needle through the heart thing) so I’ll just stop here. Damn, I can’t wait for KILL BILL.
KILL BILL VOLUME ONE
I will occasionally see a movie twice, just to catch the reaction of the people I’m with, who are seeing it for the first time. With KILL BILL VOLUME ONE, Quentin Tarantino seems to be doing the same thing. Instead of showing us the blaxploitation, and Asian kung-fu/samurai movies that shaped him, he has made a loving homage to them. Because he’s one of the most talented directors ever to make films, this movie is much better than its influences.
Quentin would probably disagree with that, but his love of grindhouse or exploitation films is shared only by a small but dedicated cult. I respect this cult, but I’m not part of it. I regard both my favorite blaxploitation and kung fu films, FOXY BROWN and ENTER THE DRAGON respectively, as entertaining, but silly guilty pleasures. (For the record, I don’t consider CROUCHING TIGER or Jackie Chan films in this genre.)
Back to KILL BILL. This movie just rocks! The visuals are unforgettable and, though not as prominent as in the past, the dialogue remains clever and smart. For the first time, Quentin shows what he can do with extended action scenes. As a love letter to the seventies, there’s no CG allowed, just amazing fight choreography and stunt work.
Uma’a performance allows Quentin to be as wild and crazy as he needs to, by providing a strong and sympathetic center to the film. The other notable performance was by martial arts cult hero Sonny Chiba as the wise old sword maker. It’s the one sequence where the audience is allowed to catch their breaths and its very charming. His relationship with The Bride reminded me of Yoda and Luke in EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, but I may be alone in that observation.
I guess you can’t discuss this movie without talking about the gore. There is a lot of blood in this movie, but it’s so cartoony and over the top that it’s not the least bit disturbing. A couple of the friends who I saw this with felt that the violence was no where near as intense as the “ear” scene in RESEVOIR DOGS. It’s to Quentin’s credit that many people think they saw the ear removed, when, in fact, it took place off-screen. (Same with TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, despite the title and intensity – no gore.)
The music is completely out of left field and cool as hell. It’s mostly instrumental stuff that reflects the same influences as the film. Can’t wait to see that Japanese girl band on tour!
KILL BILL VOLUME TWO
To me the most striking thing about Quentin Tarantino is his sheer audacity. He is utterly unafraid to make films that reflect his vision and passions. If anyone else likes it, bonus, but Tarantino makes the films he wants to see. Each of his films are complete departures from their predecessors and Kill Bill Vol. 2 is no exception.
The first Kill Bill was a non-stop assault of mayhem and violence, part blaxploitation film and mostly derived Asian kung fu / samurai cinema. The stroke of genius in Volume 2 is that he has completely abandoned the first film’s style and turned the sequel into a spaghetti western. Anyone who has seen Segio Leone classics like The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly or Once Upon a Time in the West knows that spaghetti westerns (called so because they were filmed in Italy) are morally ambiguous, highly stylized, and very deliberately paced.
Quentin does not hide his influences. Whereas Vol. 1 had a crazed mash of musical gems, Vol. 2 is dominated by some lesser known works of Leone’s favorite composer, Ennio Morricone. Time is given for character development, but also to study the contrast between close ups of faces (specifically David Carradine and Michael Madsen) and landscapes, just as Leone did. Tarantino has set a bit of a higher bar because Vol. 1 was superior to its influence, but Vol. 2 cannot hope to be better than the Leone masterpieces. It is, however, worthy of being considered in the same class.
Specifically, Kill Bill Vol. 2 reminds me of Once Upon a Time in the West. Both film attempt to define the role of women in society. In the earlier film, Claudia Cardinal’s Jill McBain breaks out of Leoni’s usual view of passive women to aggressively use her intelligence and sexuality to avenge the murder of her family. That was 1969. In 2004, Uma Thurman’s Bride is a full-fledged warrior who need not hire gunmen to take revenge for her. It’s interesting to note that both films come to the same conclusion – a woman’s highest purpose is to be a mother (of a community or a child.) I also see a bit of Henry Fonda’s cold, but charming malice in David Carradine’s engaging read on Bill. That these similarities are deliberate I believe is proven by an exact camera move replica. As the assassin’s enter the church, the camera cranes up in a way very reminiscent of the Leoni shot of Jill entering the developing town.
There are still touches of the Asian influence left. The training sequence with Gordon Lui as a harsh samurai master struck a cord with me. Shortly after seeing Vol. 1, I decided to check out a Shaw Bros. Kung Fu festival playing at a local art-house. I chose wisely. It was 36th Chamber of Shaolin, an extremely fun film about training to be a samurai master and staring Gordon Liu as the student.
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