Quentin Tarantino: The Art of The Movies

“Storytelling has become a lost art. There is no storytelling, there’s just situations. Very rarely are you told a story.” These phrases are from Quentin Tarantino, a screenwriter, storyteller, producer, director, an actor, and film maker. Though his films are often said to be too diabolical, they are being looked at as a “breath of fresh air” and have become influential to modern day filmmakers (“godamongdirectors.com”). Tarantino’s films are unique and artistic. The films have created space for many films and films to come. Even though violence is used in all the films, the most important aspects include the manipulating of music, race, religion, and thought provoking dialogue.

Before analyzing Tarantino’s films, Tarantino’s background must be looked at. What has made him the artistic and original filmmaker he is today? It could be how he grew up, or how he was brought into the cinema business. Tarantino started out watching and analyzing films very young. Living in the diverse city of Los Angeles, he grew up around many different kinds of people and films. Some kids would be watching Kung Fu and “Shaft” movies, which gave him inspiration for his latest movie

Tarantino’s films are also different and artistic because of the extreme violence that is portrayed with humor. Most would see just graphic violence, but “There is much more implied than actually seen” (Bowden 3). Violence in Tarantino’s films is real with little glamour. For instance, in any other movie with violence when someone gets killed, the character is never seen again. In Tarantino’s films the characters suffer, lying in a pool of blood giving their last words of what they are feeling. While “The violence is disturbing, as violence should be” (4), the humor behind the violence is also there. In “Pulp Fiction,” the hit men drive over a bump and accidentally shoot a hostage in the back seat. This result is surprisingly funny. Tarantino shows violence in the real world and lays a coating of humor over it, which is something that most filmmakers never attempt.

Another interesting aspect of music behind the films is how they generate culture around pop music. “A song could have a meaning outside of its lyrics and tune, conjuring up connections with a time, place or event that it does not necessarily refer to” (Boyce 2). Of the many songs in the films, many of them we wouldn’t really see as fitting to the scene that they are in. One of the most famous scenes in “Reservoir Dogs”, which is known for the “slicing of the ear” of a cop (3), shows a cop being tormented by one of the characters while the song “Stuck in the middle with you” is playing in the background. This song is interesting because it is in the only real violent scene in the film. All the other scenes depict violence, but no real violence is actually shown. “He (Mr. Blonde) does his torture as a dance to the music. It’s only when the spell of the music is over that we are freed” (Jones 1). This shows that playing a song that is catchy to a helpless cop that is being tortured, a way of saying that we can’t culturally define what is right and what is wrong. It is “stuck in the middle with you”.

When Tarantino’s films are looked at, they must be examined for what makes them exclusive. Two important films to explore are “Reservoir Dogs” and “Pulp Fiction.” These films have become legendary for dialogue, soundtrack, and most important, the art of film. Both films take a study of “relationships and moral dilemma, mistrust and paranoia” (Bowden 1). In Pulp Fiction, a story about hit men, there is “homosexual rape, drug overdose, ac

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