Culture

There are very few directors who can claim the accolades of an Academy Award, Golden Globe, BAFTA and the Palme d’Or as well as multiple Emmy and Grammy nominations. When you add in the extra details that this one particular director is also a high school drop out with an IQ of 160 the list becomes but a single name: Quentin Tarantino.
 
He first exploded onto the movie scene at Sundance in 1992 with Reservoir Dogs, a film that immediately garnered him a die-hard fan base and transformed him virtually overnight into an icon of the Nineties. Reservoir Dogs established Tarantino’s particularly unique style of story telling, which includes non-linear story lines, profuse profanity, pop cultural references and what many say is his obsessive and gratuitous use of violence. Empire magazine named Reservoir Dogs as the “greatest independent film ever made” and saw Wes Craven (director of Scream) walk out during one torture scene, because it was so unnervingly real.
 
Tarantino’s next film, Pulp Fiction, not only revitalised John Travolta’s ailing acting career, but was also nominated for seven Oscars, of which it won one for Best Original screenplay, which Tarantino co-wrote with Roger Avary. Its characters are perhaps some of Tarantino’s most famous and it was Pulp Fiction that showcased some much forgotten talent in Hollywood, giving instant iconic status to Mia Wallace, played by Uma Thurman, Jules Winnfield, played by Samuel L. Jackson and Travolta’s character Vincent Vega. Despite being modestly budgeted at only $8.5 million, the film grossed more than $200 million worldwide and became an immediate cult hit, with critics rating Tarantino as one of America’s greatest directors. Pulp also saw the immortalisation of conversations that dealt with seemingly mundane trivia, such as what Whopper’s are called in France and the hidden agenda behind foot massages. These heavily dialogue driven scenes are now a hallmark of a Tarantino production.
 
Tarantino’s next venture, Jackie Brown, paid homage to 1970’s blaxploitation films, and though it wasn’t as successful or popular as Reservoir or Pulp had been, it received largely positive reviews from critics and revitalised the careers of Pam Grier and Robert Forster. Jackie Brown received some heavy criticism from the director Spike Lee, who accused Tarantino of being infatuated with the racial epithet “nigger”. Tarantino responded that he had the right to construct whatever characters he wished and the use of the word was in context with the portion of Compton in which the film was set, Inglewood.
 
From Jackie Brown, Quentin went on a six-year hiatus, only to emerge with his back-to-back Kung Fu epics Kill Bill Volume 1 & 2. Originally scheduled for just a single film, once the running time was realised at over four hours it was decided to split the films in two. The film centres on the female assassin known as “The Bride”, who after being left for dead by her former partners in crime, sets out to seek revenge on her old posse and ultimately kill Bill, the head of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, of which she was a member. Once again Tarantino plays with audience expectations, which are so loaded in a martial arts film, while solidly anchoring the story with sound dialogue and intriguing plot twists and back stories.
 
In 2009, Tarantino released his most successful film to date, Inglorious Basterds, which followed the fictitious “Basterds”, a group of Jewish guerrillas deployed behind enemy lines to strike fear into the hearts of German soldiers. With the tag-line “you haven’t seen war until you’ve seen it through the eyes of Quentin Tarantino”, the film starred Hollywood heartthrob Brad Pitt, who reportedly agreed to do the film after talking to Tarantino over five bottles of wine and a “smoking device of some sorts” at his French countryside home. A massive success worldwide, with eight Academy Award nominations and Christoph Waltz, who plays Hans Landa, aka “The Jew Hunter”, picking up best actor at Cannes, as well as a BAFTA, Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
 
Tarantino’s new film, Django Unchained, is currently in pre-production and follows the story of an escaped slave who sets out to hunt down the man who has taken his wife hostage. Though there was much speculation about who would play various characters, it was recently confirmed that the film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Samuel L Jackson and Christoph Waltz. The film is to be released on December 25, 2012.