Tarantino Poll

^^yeah i mean it's got some vague grindhouse elements but i feel like other than the overall general concept and the poster for the film it's all tarantino. it abandons any grindhouse trappings pretty quickly. xxxp

nah the ear was never shown being cut off

ookay, thx u

Sure that's why Death Proof is the MOST extreme conclusion to that scene!

film festival crowds are notoriously weak when it comes to being able to handle gore imo

yeah basically you see our first-half heroine's face get ripped off by a tire

I saw Tarantino talking about the making of "RD" on some about-movies special where he talked about how he shot that scene about a bazillion different ways and the one where the camera veered away and all you got was a window and the dude's agonized howls was far and away the most visceral, effective rendering of that scene. (It is certainly one of my, not favorite, but most-remembered movie moments.)

I mean it's why all the nonsense about DP being just a pure GH homage is just nonsense.

- alex

already responded to that point, alex. it's not "just a pure GH homage", but it is constrained in some ways by tarantino's reverence for the source material and for cinematic art in general. this is especially true in that the reverence in question prevents DP from being a simple exploitation flick. this is not a fault, mind, but rather an observation, a distinction. i don't think planet terror is better for being more authentically trashy/exploitative.

xp: oh shit I was only half-watching "Death Proof" (lol WoW) so I only saw homegirl get her legs severed

here's another shot that i love from death proof: the super extreme close up of kurt russell eating nachos. actually that whole scene when him and mcgowan first meet is the biz

"but it is constrained in some ways by tarantino's reverence for the source material and for cinematic art in general"

You could make this argument about any Tarantino movie though.

Inaccurate, anachronistic or whatever, there's little changing my mind that Planet Terror is the more entertaining half of Grindhouse, though I'll admit that Death Proof (when it's on) is the better film.

I haven't seen anything after Kill Bill but I've thought that he peaked with RD/PF, but countered with a subtle (well, for him) masterpiece with JB. Both the KBs I thought were OTT to the point self-parody that i doubt will age well.

something i wrote about RD's "ear scene" a while back:

...it's cool cuz it's not just a gnarly suspense/torture sequence, but also a smart & funny little meta-essay on how restraint and excess complement each WR2 screen violence. the first half of the scene is gruesome & tense as hell, but OT doesn’t show us any blood. he almost rubs this (relative) restraint in our faces, making a point of how brutally he can treat the audience without ever lowering himself to "mere splatter".

so, he makes this point, hangs us on a hook, and then takes a break. mr. blonde walks out of the garage into broad daylight (one of the only shots in the film that takes place in open air). the jarring quality is like a huge neon sign, drawing attention to the fact that something significant is happening...

and when mr. blonde goes back in to finish the job, tarantino shoots the entire remainder of the scene in tight, bleeding close-up on the victim’s severed ear. such a hilarious inversion of what came before. he’s rubbing it in again, standing apart from his own film like a college professer, saying, "see! i fucked you up with no blood at all, but not cuz i have to, not cuz i don’t wanna go there. i did it just to show you i can. and now i’m gonna fuck you up the other way too!" so great.

it’s everything that’s wonderful about tarantino wrapped up together with everything insufferable. it’s sadistic, self-indulgent, smug, smart, juvenile, referential and exceptionally well constructed. the movie is pretty damn good overall, but the ear scene is all-time brilliant.

You could make this argument about any Tarantino movie though.

― Alex in SF

goddang, man. yes you could make that point, and i would. alls i'm saying is that since planet terror is less reverent (i mean, it is, but in a less artistically meaningful way), it's therefore able to be more authentically trashy, base, exploitative.

"goddang"?

i put goddam, but it felt mean, so i changed it. goldang? gosh darn it?

I would have gone with "ARGH". That's just me, tho

"Goddang" seems a little too much like my cousin who will not curse but will say "nigga" at the drop of a hat, leading to him once saying "Bump that, nigga; I do not give a flip!"

^ display name

hahahahah i love "bump that"

it's therefore able to be more authentically trashy, base, exploitative = more reverential in a way doesn't it? Don't know why I'm arguing this, frankly. You can prefer it for whatever reason you want.

here's another shot that i love from death proof: the super extreme close up of kurt russell eating nachos. actually that whole scene when him and mcgowan first meet is the biz

― nascar jesus (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, February 10, 2009 7:26 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

that place's nachos are fly as fuck btw

they are much tastier than that scene suggets

idk if that scene is supposed to make them seem repulsive or like they are the bomb but it always made me hungry as fuck for some nachos

I am two blocks from that place RIGHT NOW.

fancy a nacho?

ha if only

i am up on the north side today, gon' get a friend addicted to the wire!

well, that's the best excuse I can think of

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

PF of course

but we will need to revisit this once inglourious basterds comes out

(massive x-posts) The best thing about the ear scene is how, at that point in the film, you the viewer haven't seen Mr. Blonde's evil side. As far as you know, he's this cool calm and collected who just stands there when Mr. White rages and screams at him for going on his shooting spree, you think, "Mr. Blonde? The guy that went 'psshw' with his fake finger-gun at the start of the movie? The guy that snarks 'You gonna bark all day, little doggie?' No way he could be a crazy psycho!"

So then fast-forward to the torture scene and Blonde has the cop tied up and then he puts on Stealers Wheel and he's doing his funny little dance............ and then all of a sudden... WHAM!! It hits you and the smile just goes right off your face and you're just like 'Holy shit! This guy really IS a fucking psycho!!' It's a lot like what I think Martin Scorsese was aiming at (and failed, in my opinion) with Joe Pesci's character in the "You think I'm funny?" scene in Goodfellas: Build up the audience's expectations and then throw a total curveball when you see just how fucked up the characters really are.

The only problem with Reservoir Dogs is the ending. It just seemed like a bit of a copout to me.

no i think in goodfellas scorsese was showing that pesci's character actually WAS totally crazy and even his best buddies were terrified of him going off at any second

indeed. I have to wonder how anyone could miss that.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

huh pretty good results

i caught abt 10 minutes of 'death proof' last night on encore or some such - first time i'd seen it since the theater...the scene where the gas station attendant has a copy of italian vogue was way weird & bad. idk i just generally do not think it is a good movie

^ part of what makes me think QT just can't deal w girl culture the way he's used to dealing w boy culture. i cringed all the way through that scene

word i read some of your posts upthread and agree w/ that a lot...think i made similar sentiments originally when grindhouse was released

like around that time i recall him being on conan i think trying to expound abt 'girl talk' as a topic and i cringed all the way thru it

surprised that so few people voted for KB1 and so many voted for KB2 :D

(i like KB2 btw, but no one on the thread even spoke up for it as an all-around best)

i'm pretty sure i went with pf, but this poll got me thinking: one thing rd has going for it over its successor is there are no scenes completely without merit; i like it all. otoh tarantino's "dead nigger storage" bit in pf is just needlessly pugnacious and juvenile with no real payoff (i loved his 'like a virgin' speech in rd tho!). the blueberry pancakes bit is pretty annoying, too, as i think someone mentioned upthread.

i hated the d.n.s. stuff, and really all the stuff with Keitel and Julia Sweeny seemed totally useless, and kind of: "hey I've finally made it in Hollywood and now I'm gonna get all my friends and idols cameos in my great movie!"

Movie was way too long. By the time we get back to Jules and Vega in the restaurant, I really didn't care what happened. Every time I've watched it on VHS (it's been that long since I've seen it) I've turned it off after, "Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead."

What? The "Dead nigger storage" scene is hilarious!! And it invented the phrase "That's Kool and the Gang," which I adopted as my own (Hey, cut me some slack, I was 15.)

the only scene Tarantino has ever acted in that I liked him in, was the last one in Four Rooms.

yeah the more i think about it, they could of edited like 15 minutes out of this bitch and been a-ok.

actually, i find myself saying that about like 90% of the movies i go see these days.

xxpost

What? The "Dead nigger storage" scene is hilarious!! And it invented the phrase "That's Kool and the Gang," which I adopted as my own (Hey, cut me some slack, I was 15.)

i don't mind the rest at jimmy's house, it's just the way QT delivers DNS, like 4 times with no apparent reason than to say "nigger"

& tbh, it would probably annoy almost as much if he was saying "dead fireman storage." it's more his delivery & awkwardness that kind oftakes me out of the action completely. Again, i kind of like the "dick dick dick dick dick dick dick" bit in RD. I believed that guy. (Mr. Brown?)

actually, i find myself saying that about like 90% of the movies i go see these days.

ya same here

when I saw PF in the theater, a bunch of people walked out during the D.N.S. scene. made an impression on me.

I've always had a completely diff reaction to the DNS scene - a number of scenes in pulp fiction show how power is exercised in the relationships between the players. the DNS scene demonstrates how low tarantino's character is, using the situation to humiliate jules in a way he likely wouldn't dare to otherwise - similarly to how butch is humiliated by marcellus and vincent at the bar. it also shows how jules handles things differently than hotheaded vince, who's in the same desperate situation but still can't help mouthing off to the wolf.

the problem with the scene is that tarantino doesn't have the gravitas to sell it, so he ends up looking like a guy who thinks it's funny to say "nigger" a lot.

can't argue with that first sentences, but the last one is more OTM