# Why Don't I "Get" Quentin Tarantino Films? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 21, 2009, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-i-get-quentin-tarantino-films/500447 "2009-06-21T03:19:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-i-get-quentin-tarantino-films/500447/1 "2009-06-21T03:19:59Z")
I watched _Pulp Fiction_, _Reservoir Dogs_, _Kill Bill 1_, and I’m not sure I am “seeing” these films as I should. Is it satire? If so, it’s missing the mark, because the films just basically are nauseating to me, and I consider myself a fan of horror movies. (Well, the old ones, mostly: The Hammer Dracula films, for instance;)) Is it gore, for gore’s sake? Like that one with the one-legged stripper who strapped the huge gun to her stump and let loose? Is it comedy? Is it me being 59 years old? When we used to discuss his films at work, people were actually taken aback when I said I don’t like Tarantino’s work. Like they suddenly realized I’m not as open-minded as they thought. So help me out, Cafe Society. What am I missing? Thanks Q ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-i-get-quentin-tarantino-films/500447/2 "2009-06-21T03:22:21Z")
Listen. You don’t need to understand Kill Bill. You need only to know that it is the best movie ever. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-i-get-quentin-tarantino-films/500447/3 "2009-06-21T03:23:57Z")
I only really like Pulp Fiction. When you watched Pulp Fiction, what were your thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-i-get-quentin-tarantino-films/500447/4 "2009-06-21T03:27:43Z")
It was hard for me to believe people could be that depraved. Watching Travolta was nauseating to me. Also, I like George Clooney’s work, and I can’t for the life of me see those two as having anything in common. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-i-get-quentin-tarantino-films/500447/5 "2009-06-21T03:29:45Z")
It is kind of satire, and a love affair with violence. They aren’t my most favorite of flicks but they can be entertaining. Don’t take them seriously, they aren’t meant to be taken so. So…what’s in the case? My favorite mcguffin to argue over, other than maybe the case in Ronin. 🙂 I say it was souls. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-i-get-quentin-tarantino-films/500447/6 "2009-06-21T03:32:19Z")
> [@Quasimodem](#): > > It was hard for me to believe people could be that depraved. Watching Travolta was nauseating to me. > > Also, I like George Clooney’s work, and I can’t for the life of me see those two as having anything in common. Clooney? 😕 Anyway, I think there actually are a lot of people like the people in Pulp Fiction. That movie was like a roller coaster. You went up and down, but in the end, you were fine. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-i-get-quentin-tarantino-films/500447/7 "2009-06-21T03:37:34Z")
**Quasi** , I’m more than 20 years younger than you and I feel exactly the same. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-i-get-quentin-tarantino-films/500447/8 "2009-06-21T03:42:24Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Clooney? 😕 Maybe he also watched _From Dusk Til Dawn_? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-i-get-quentin-tarantino-films/500447/9 "2009-06-21T03:43:16Z")
I liked Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. Kill Bill, too, but he seemed a bit full of himself in that one. I think I’ve gotten a bit sick of him now, though. They’re clever, but I don’t think they’re for everyone. There’s lots of films that a lot of people like that I hate, and that’s all good. I’ll never “get” Wes Anderson movies, but it takes all kinds to make a world, you know? ---
**Author:** ![Orr\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ee59a6/32.png) [@Orr\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orr_G)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-i-get-quentin-tarantino-films/500447/10 "2009-06-21T03:53:49Z")
I’m not a huge Tarantino fan, but I enjoyed most of his stuff. I think the Grindhouse movies (the gunleg chick) point out best what makes him who he is as a filmmaker. He loves cool fucking movies. I mean he fucking lives for 'em, you know, man? It’s like, you know, those awesome blacksploitation films where everybody just kicks ass and puts one over on the Man? It’s like, spending all day Saturday, every Saturday, watching the cheeziest, coolest fucking Kung Fu movies that they show on the UHF station where you had to make your brother stand there with the antennae and the tin foil just to get it in, Man. It’s the drive-in, the shameless, less than “B” grade (but more than a “C” cup!) “chicks with guns”, just dripping with cool and awesome and bullets and fake butter on your popcorn. Tarantino makes no-budget, low grade brainless popcorn fodder, but does it with an unparalled passion, and an incredible bankroll. Oh, and sometimes some fairly deep or at least interesting writing occassionally makes it into the script. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-i-get-quentin-tarantino-films/500447/11 "2009-06-21T04:09:00Z")
> [@Orr\_G](#): > > I’m not a huge Tarantino fan, but I enjoyed most of his stuff. I think the Grindhouse movies (the gunleg chick) point out best what makes him who he is as a filmmaker. It should be pointed out that Rose MacGowan with the gun-leg was in the half of Grindhouse that Tarantine _didn’t_ direct. That was Robert Rodriquez. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-i-get-quentin-tarantino-films/500447/12 "2009-06-21T04:17:02Z")
Yeah, sorry, I meant I saw them together in From Dusk Till Dawn. David Carradine claimed he was never appreciated as an actor until Tarantino put him in Kill Bill 2. I had to smile at that. **Orr, G.** , that was very descriptive! 🙂 Okay, what I remember from discussing Tarantino at work, was the idea that as an actor, you’re a “nobody” till you’ve been in one of his films! 😉 Now here’s a kind of departure from what I wrote up there: I saw all of the Saw films, and yeah, those were gory too, but I found myself actually “pulling” for some of those people in the “game”. It’s kinda like not being able to look away, and with Tarantino, I couldn’t _wait_ to look away, if that makes any sense? I also didn’t like King’s _The Mist_ because the ending nauseated me. I thought to myself “Oh my God! I’ve just been pulled into this thing and am being thrown back out with no happy ending!” I don’t remember, but did the _story_ itself end that way? \*\* Dr. Drake\*\*, That does make me feel better, thanks! Q ---
**Author:** ![Orr\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ee59a6/32.png) [@Orr\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orr_G)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-i-get-quentin-tarantino-films/500447/13 "2009-06-21T04:18:55Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > It should be pointed out that Rose MacGowan with the gun-leg was in the half of Grindhouse that Tarantine _didn’t_ direct. That was Robert Rodriquez. Ah, thank you for the clarification. I tend to like Rodriguez’ stuff better than Tarantino’s, but, for obvious reasons, I think of them as being two of a kind. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-i-get-quentin-tarantino-films/500447/14 "2009-06-21T04:59:45Z")
> [@Orr\_G](#): > > Ah, thank you for the clarification. I tend to like Rodriguez’ stuff better than Tarantino’s, but, for obvious reasons, I think of them as being two of a kind. Yeah, I’d say they are both defiantly independent filmmakers with a mutual love of genre films. I enjoy both, Tarantino more - I’ve never actually disliked any of his films, and he’s never had anything as weak as “The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl”. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-i-get-quentin-tarantino-films/500447/15 "2009-06-21T05:07:34Z")
Before Tarantino had a budget, the point of his movies was just what people were saying. You could pretty much just turn off the video and listen to the movie. Personally, I don’t think that Tarantino’s dialogue is all that great compared to Shane Black, but Shane Black wrote “Hollywood” films, whereas Tarantino sold his produce as artsy. As he got budgets, he turned to taking all the coolest scenes in all the cheesiest low-budget movies ever made, but as you’ve noted, a cool yet bloody scene done with a modern Hollywood-budget is a bit grizzly. Personally, I don’t think it’s too bad. The worst example of violence and gore in something that was written for an age when the special effects were worse would be [Titus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titus_(film)). Much more disturbing than it would have been with stage effects. But personally, I’m not terribly sold on Tarantino. I think Shane Black does better dialogue, and I’m not too impressed by someone going around stealing random scenes from other movies. I’d rather just go and watch the originals. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-i-get-quentin-tarantino-films/500447/16 "2009-06-21T05:10:38Z")
> [@Quasimodem](#): > > David Carradine claimed he was never appreciated as an actor until Tarantino put him in Kill Bill 2. > > I had to smile at that. Too bad he’ll only be remembered for “chokin’ himself”, so to speak. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-i-get-quentin-tarantino-films/500447/17 "2009-06-21T05:19:03Z")
> [@Quasimodem](#): > > If so, it’s missing the mark, because the films just basically are nauseating to me, and I consider myself a fan of horror movies. (Well, the old ones, mostly: The Hammer Dracula films, for instance;)) > > Is it gore, for gore’s sake? I don’t get this. There is surprisingly little gore in Tarantinos films. I’ll spoiler for those who may not have seen them: Pulp Fiction: Shooting their informer and having to clean up brains and blood from the car. Kill Bill: OK, there was a lot of blood in the “House of Blue Leaves” segment and plucking out Elle Driver’s eye. But compared to “torture porn” films like the Saw series? He’s not even in the same ballpark. > [@](#): > > Is it comedy? To some extent, yes. In the “House of Blue Leaves” segment and O-Ren Ishii telling the Yakuza bosses how things will be, yes - a flying head is funny. Base, indefensible, but still funny. > [@](#): > > Is it me being 59 years old? Nope. I’m 48 and my wife is 52 and we both love his stuff and can hardly wait for “Inglourious Basterds” > [@](#): > > When we used to discuss his films at work, people were actually taken aback when I said I don’t like Tarantino’s work. Like they suddenly realized I’m not as open-minded as they thought. Open-minded has nothing to do with it. You like art or you don’t. For instance, I saw the new Jim Jarmusch film [“The Limits of Control”](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1135092/) and thought it was one of the ten stupidest films I had ever seen.\* But a lot of people love Jim Jarmusch. I don’t think it is a failing of mine. I have what I believe are perfectly valid reasons for _why_ I think it is stupid, but when you get down to it, I just didn’t like it. \*(It was even more stupid than Southland, and a hell of a lot less enjoyable, which makes it worse.) ---
**Author:** ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-i-get-quentin-tarantino-films/500447/18 "2009-06-21T05:21:35Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > Listen. You don’t need to understand Kill Bill. You need only to know that it is the best movie ever. No, it stunk. But I really, really liked Pulp Fiction. ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-i-get-quentin-tarantino-films/500447/19 "2009-06-21T05:30:29Z")
Tarantino has a huge passion for pop culture and for “ugly but cool” movies" off the mainstream radar, especially those from the 70’s. And I think that passion is connecting with people, even if they don’t share his scope. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-i-get-quentin-tarantino-films/500447/20 "2009-06-21T05:38:16Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Personally, I don’t think that Tarantino’s dialogue is all that great compared to Shane Black, but Shane Black wrote “Hollywood” films, whereas Tarantino sold his produce as artsy. True enough. [Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373469/) is brilliant: **Harry:** Umm, clearly I’m interrupting. I feel badly. Let me… What are you drinking? **Harmony:** Bad. **Harry:** Bad? Sorry… feel…? **Harmony:** You feel bad. **Harry:** Bad? **Harmony:** Badly is an adverb. So to say you feel badly would be saying that the mechanism which allows you to feel is broken. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-i-get-quentin-tarantino-films/500447.md?page=2)