Four of Them

Okay, so you all are vaguely aware of how much I love this guy, right? I mean, sure, he's a twitchy, awkward, borderline-obnoxious dude, but he loves movies, which I something I can get behind.

Let's think for a minute. Say what you will about Kill Bill, or Inglorious Basterds, or even Jackie Brown, but you must admit this: he will never phone a movie in, he will never half-ass it, his love of cinema practically bleeds through the reel. Every aspect is carefully detailed to the bloopers. In my opinion, he has never made a bad movie, precisely because he knows when to go off into cartoonish violence, and when to go to quiet dialogue and meaningful looks. He is the border between loud and thoughtful, action and indie. He is the only guy that can get the same crowd that loved Transformers into the same room as the ones who loved Brokeback Mountain (or maybe not). He can offend you with his gore and cursing and violence, but you will not leave the theatre. He is that guy.

I don't know if you've noticed this, but...he almost never has sex scenes in his movies. You might be tricked by the sleazy, lingering shots of ladybits (and feet) in Death Proof, Jackie Brown. But, not one real sex scene. And, I hypothesize: He has the worshipping lust of women not unfamiliar with twelve-year-old boys. The shots, for example, in Death Proof...opening, we have extreme closeup of women running around holding their bits (I couldn't really tell), followed by shots of another woman's ass. Yet, they never really feel dangerous or intrusive. Just the harmless stares of an adolescent boy, in my eyes. Say what you must, but on top of this, Tarantino seems to have either a boner or a god-worship for warrior women. Beatrixx Kiddo, Elle Driver, Shoshanna Dreyfuss, O-Ren Ishii, to some extents, Bridget von Hammersmarck, Jackie Brown, and Mia Wallace, they are all badasses chicks, and they all define a film type usually reserved for men: vengeance (Shoshanna and Beatrixx), psychopathic jealousy (Elle Driver), cool-headed professionalism/brutality (O-Ren), entitled heroism/betrayel (depending on what side you're on, Bridget v.H.), love and desperation (Jackie Brown), or plain-ass coolness (Mia Wallace). While some could argue that any role but the distressed, useless girlfriend is a step up for women, it takes a twisted sort of respect to take them to Tarantino's levels of empowerment, where, no matter what situation, the women are cooler, smarter, and tougher than the men.

That's aside from his hero-worship of actors in general. He can get a good performance out of Generic Blonde from National Treasure, man. He revitilizes careers (Travolta, you disappoint me).

But then, his dialogue can walk the line of mundane. But in this dialogue, he let's us see that not all hitmen talk nonstop about their target. Sometimes, they talk about cheeseburgers.

He is the king of the losers. Whatever he likes, it's cool in his universe. Blaxpoitation flicks, 50s diners, etc. Here, we have John Travolta as a badass. There you go.

Got this from Amiresque.