The Twenty-first Issue-- What Does Marsellus Wallace Look Like?

So, I'm going to do a post about Quentin Tarantino, if you ask why, it's because I really enjoy his films.  I've had a lot of people ask why I like Tarantino but I respect him and his films.  It think he does a good job with what he does, he may be ridiculous and over the top but he does a good job satirizing the film styles he enjoys while paying homage to them at the same time.

He was born Quentin Jerome Tarantino in 1963 in Knoxville, Tennessee.  Tarantino never went to film school or even college and worked at a video rental store paying attention to the movies people liked to rent.  He has stated that he plans to retire at the age of 60, he's currently 48.

Tarantino's first film was destroyed in a fire, however, the screenplay still exists and was the basis for another film.  He gain a huge amount of respect and attention with his first major motion picture Reservoir Dogs.  He gained even greater international success with his hit second film Pulp Fiction and after that he's more or less been able to do whatever movie he feels like doing.  Unlike other directors like James Cameron or Steven Spielberg for example, he didn't just turn to making popular, big budget, epic, blockbuster spectacles, he is true to what he started out doing and makes the campy, ultra-violent films that he likes.

One thing I enjoy about his films is his frequent use of nonlinear narrative, it's in almost all of his films and his purposeful use of campy b-movie techniques and motifs.  He makes his movies interesting and fun to watch while telling a good story and delving deeper into issues and just random cultural topics.

Now, let's give you a little run down of his films (considering I've seen nearly all of them)...
Tarantino's fist amateur film was call My Best Friend's Birthday (1987), which is about a guy who's plans to do something good for his best friend's birthday keep going wrong.  I've never seen it and most of it was destroyed in a fire.  Only a half hour of the film remains.

Reservoir Dogs (1992) was his first major film and involves the happenings both before and after a failed jewel heist. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105236/synopsis.
The film is one the most classic Tarantino films (even if it's not his most well known),  many fans believe that this is one of Tarantino's finest films.  I did enjoy this film a lot, from the opening discussion about the meaning behind Madonna's "Like a Virgin" to the end.  There are many iconic scenes in the film, such as the stand off between Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) and Mr. White (Harvey Keitel),
the torture scene with Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), or the mexican stand off at the end.  The movie truly is a classic with Tarantino's signature of over the top violence and gore, lots of profanity, and mild doses of humor.  It also has Tarantino's OTHER signature of a nonlinear story line.  It skips around a lot, however, it's never really hard to understand or follow.  The films also starred many actors who would go on to other Tarantino films, like Michael Madsen, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth, and Tarantino himself.  Even though I enjoyed this film, I wouldn't say it was my favorite film by him.  The movie was excellently done and had all of Tarantino's charm with a realness that hasn't been seen from him since Jackie Brown, however, I thought it was lacking something.  Maybe it was plot elements, maybe it was something else, I don't know, it just wasn't my favorite.  Worth the watch though, without a doubt.

Next up IS one of my personal Tarantino favorites, Pulp Fiction (1994).  Which tells the separate, yet intersecting stories of a couple mobsters, petty criminals, drug addicts, fringe players and the like. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110912/synopsis.   Pulp Fiction is probably the most classic Tarantino film and most likely his most endearing.  It has everything thing that makes a Tarantino film a Tarantino film (a lot of which is in Reservoir Dogs also), you can tell that by his second film he polished his craft and it really shows.  The dialogue is still iconic, the scenes are iconic, like the cheeseburger scene, the scene where Marvin (Phil LaMarr) accidentally shoots himself, the dance scene with Mia (Uma Thurman) and Vincent (John Travolta), the explanation of the gold watch and the dialogue about what Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) looks like (does he look like a bitch?).  The grotesque violence mixed with humor is there, the pop culture references are there, the plot line is entertaining, the repeated motifs, the nonlinear narrative is there, the style that plays on whatever film genre he's using (in this  case a kind of neo-noir), everything is there AND it has wonderful portrayals by John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson (who has become one of Tarantino's #1 collaborators).  This movie you should probably watch right now, seriously, stop the blog and watch it.  If you have it, watch it, if you don't, get it and watch it.  If you've never seen a Tarantino film, this is the one to start with (trust me).

Tarantino's third film, Jackie Brown (1997) is not as well known as his first two, or any after really.  It's about a flight attendant who gets mixed up in drugs and drug lords.  I haven't seen all of this film, only a small part of it (however, I DID notice it was on the instant queue on Netflicks), so I can't really comment on it much, however, I'm sure it's at least worth a watch (but there are reasons why it's less popular I'm sure). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119396/synopsis.  ANYWAY, there's that (and sorry about it).

Next came Kill Bill (part 1 released in 2003 and part 2 in 2004), his two part epic that is a play on everything from spaghetti westerns to old samurai flicks to gangster films. I liked Kill Bill, even though it's slightly ridiculous (I know that this is one of the films that Tarantino critics bring up).  The film tells the story of a woman (played by Uma Thurman), who attempts to exact her revenge on the group of assassins that she previously worked for who tried to kill her on her wedding day. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266697/synopsis + http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0378194/synopsis.  I'll start talking about this film by saying that the second volume has, what is probably one of my favorite characters (and definitely my favorite Tarantino character) ever, Pai Mei. The horribly stereotypical asian kung-fu master who hates everyone and is a very harsh teacher, I thought the character was hilarious.  ANYWAY, the film is a revenge film (which is a common subject for Tarantino), it has the violence and the nonlinear story yadda yadda, you already know all of that, this one also has the kung-fu spoof feel.  It's paying homage to old martial arts films (I mean Uma Thurman's jumpsuit in the first volume is pretty much the same as Bruce Lee's in The Game of Death), but, just like all Tarantino films, strongly pays homage to what came before.
 A lot of people, namely the ones that criticize his films don't really realize that Tarantino is in love with film and wants to relive it and recreate it and have other people enjoy it too.  He jokes about what he loves and pays his respects too.    I respect that.  Once again, in this film, there are tons of iconic scenes, like the fight with the Crazy 88, the scenes with Pai Mei (who is an iconic character, even if he IS modeled after other kung-fu characters), and the five-point-palm-exploding-heart technique.  The film is definitely worth a watch, especially if you like campy kung-fu films.

The next film was Death Proof, which was one movie in the double feature Grindhouse (2007), the other film being Robert Rodriguez' Planet Terror.  Death Proof tells the story of a stunt driver that uses his customized car to kill unsuspecting women.  Now, I must say that I thought this was the worst Tarantino film I've seen.  I won't ruin the ending for you, but it was just awful, in fact it ruined the entire film for me (I hate it when that happens).  Anyway, I'm not going to say a lot about this film, it had Tarantino's style, it had the low budget feel and purposefully horrible editing and confusing jump cuts to make it feel like a 70s grindhouse horror.  I just wouldn't recommend this one personally. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1028528/synopsis


Tarantino's latest film (made in 2009) was the WWII revenge film remake of Inglourious Basterds (that's right, remake). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361748/synopsis.  It told the story of a group of Americans who go into Nazi occupied France in an attempt to take out Hitler during a movie premier.  The movie seemed to have more humor than a lot of Tarantino's previous works, with Brad Pitt's character being one of the more interesting characters in Tarantino's library.  Christoph Waltz also played a delightfully demented Nazi commander, the character was excellently portrayed.  It's another Tarantino film that is full of iconic scenes and lines, but unlike most Tarantino films, it is not done out of order, it DOES however have titles cards for each section (which is VERY common in his films).    This movie includes another of my most favorite Tarantino characters, Hugo Stiglitz, who is a rogue Nazi that eventually joins the Basterds (and, more or less, a total badass).  I think that this film will go down as a Tarantino classic, and one people will remember, if you haven't seen it yet, watch it for sure.

Tarantino has already announced his next two projects.  The first once being a spaghetti western about a slave who goes and exacts vengeance on his former master, it's going to be titled Django Unchained, Christoph Waltz and Samuel L. Jackson have both been announced as part of the project. The film that was announced after that he will be doing a third volume of Kill Bill, the reason for the length between the installments was to give The Bride and her daughter at least ten years to get settled.  I personally can't wait for either of these projects, both sound great.

Finally, I've found this photo of a statue of Bruce Lee in Hong Kong that I thought was cool and would share...

ANYWAY... there it is, hope you liked it, buh-bye...