Author: AVentola

A writer should have this little voice inside of you saying, Tell the truth. Reveal a few secrets here.

— Quentin Tarantino

In Once Upon a Time In…Hollywood Randy (Kurt Russell) says about Cliff Booth(Brad Pitt) “I don’t dig him. And I don’t dig the vibe that he brings…”

That could very easily say the same thing about Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time’s writer and director. Tarantino has just never been someone that I felt a moral obligation to go see just because he’s “brilliant.” Or that as a film student and wanna be writer I should automatically fall in line with the Quentin train.

I want to be very clear about my experience with Mr. Tarantino’s work. Before yesterday, I had only seen two of his movies all the way through. Reservoir Dogs and Django Unchained. I had also seen Four Rooms where he directed the final room, as well as From Dusk ‘Til Dawn. Plus a decent amount of Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2, and Inglorious Basterds between bits and pieces shown to me in film school or forced on me while someone else channel surfed or watched them while I was in the room.

My point being, my exposure to Tarantino’s films has been spotty at best, extremely limited at worst. How then can I cast an opinion on his body of work? Well, that’s just how strong of a reaction I had to it the first time I saw it.

Before I spend time explaining why I am turned off by Tarantino, I want to plant my flag of opinion down on something extremely important.

Quentin Tarantino is a creative genius.

I know what you’re thinking. “WHAT THE HELL IS THIS BLOG EVEN ABOUT??!??” That’s exactly my point. I can recognize the genius and the talent this man has. Shit, he has more talent in his pinky toenail clipped and thrown away than I’ve had in my entire life.

I honestly idolize Quentin as a writer. His process very much lines up with my own; albeit with much better results.

• He believes the writing is one of the most, if not the most, important part of the film making process
• His focus and love for dialogue matches my own. Some of my favorite scenes in movies are just two people talking. Tarantino writes the best dialogue I’ve ever watched unfold on screen.
• He does not necessarily worry about outlines. Instead, he just gets in his characters heads and writes. He lets the story come from the characters. Often he doesn’t even know the ending of his story until the characters do. This is the way I like to write (even if it drove my film teachers crazy).

So if I think he’s such a genius, why do I actively stray away from his movies? It’s because of these assholes:

This fucking movie. I’m not a prude. I can watch any number of movies filled with any number of depravities. Boobies, booties, blood, all of it. I love a good anti-hero movie, or even a story that puts a “bad guy” in the protagonist role.

But there is something about this movie that just made me say “fuck you, Tarantino” and I never quite got over it. Two reasons.

One. I hate the idea of bad guys being bad guys for absolutely no other reason than being bad guys. I love a good villain. Or villain as lead with some redeeming qualities is a great story. Daniel Ocean in Ocean’s 11 is a bad guy. He’s robbing a casino. Committing crimes, even for love, makes you the bad guy. But we like George Clooney. Heath Ledger’s portrayal of The Joker in The Dark Knight is a killer with no moral compass. He just wants to watch the world burn. But there is something about him that connects to us.

None of those dick bags in Reservoir Dogs did this for me. I hate all of them. And not in a “I love to hate you” kind of way. For two hours I watched horrible men who I had no empathy and no emotional connection with perform horrific acts of violence for no reason.

Fun

That violence is my second issue. Again, I’m fine with violence. Blood, viscera, and gore are all fine to me. Tarantino brings this to a whole other level. The violence he presents in his movies don’t serve the plot. The break in scene in Once Upon a Time In…Hollywood was at a 13, but could’ve been dialed down to an 8 and told the same story. Same could be said for Django Unchained and more.

Now, he has always been very vocal that he makes movies that he finds fun. That’s actually something I admire about him. He makes movies he likes and says fuck anyone who doesn’t. It just turns out I’m one of those ones he says fuck to.

The “bad guys being bad”, and the “excessive violence” have seemed to exist in almost every movie he makes. So I just don’t find a reason to go see them.

Maybe as I grow older I’ll find more that I like. I enjoyed Once Upon a Time… A lot actually. But my main two gripes were not remotely on display in that movie. I’ve been told I would like the Kill Bills and Django was alright, if nothing else but as a look at a revengeful take on history.

Then again, what do I know. My favorite movies have teddy bears, near miss incest, and space wizards.