Master auteur, Quentin Tarantino has carved out an illustrious, unrivaled career since making his directorial debut with Reservoir Dogs in 1992. Famous for his unique approach to screenwriting and expert command of the camera, Tarantino has consistently produced engrossing tales that are still appreciated today.
Unfortunately, praise is often accompanied by criticism. And he was well aware that some critics believed the influences in his films were perhaps overdone.
He undoubtedly made a significant contribution to the history of film and inspired future generations of filmmakers with a wholly original style and method of filmmaking. This can only be referred to as ‘Tarantinoesque’. Well, this term is now recognized by the Oxford English Dictionary.
What, then, makes Tarantino’s movies so unique? He is frequently praised for his concise dialogue, his often graphic but stylized violence, or his use of an irregular narrative flow.
But what sets him apart from other filmmakers? He once acknowledged that some critics do not agree with his method of filmmaking, despite the fact that it is unmistakably unique.
Was Quentin Tarantino Unfairly Targeted By Some Critics?
It is no secret that Quentin Tarantino draws inspiration from a wide range of sources for his movies. Even so, he has been very outspoken about this approach. He once revealed to Empire (via Variety):
“I steal from every single movie ever made. If my work has anything, it’s that I’m taking this from this and that from that and mixing them together.”
Some critics, however, believed that Tarantino’s homages to his works were outright stolen or copied. After collaborating with the filmmaker on The Hateful Eight, composer, Ennio Morricone seemed to have a slight grudge against the director.
In a 2018 interview with Forbes, Morricone expressed a number of negative sentiments about his former partner. He felt Tarantino lacked the same level of inventiveness as the earlier directors.
“He just steals from others and puts it together again. There is nothing original about that. And he is not a director either. So not comparable to real Hollywood greats like John Huston, Alfred Hitchcock or Billy Wilder. They were great. Tarantino is just cooking up old stuff.”
He Once Addressed the Charges Leveled Against Him
Quentin Tarantino, best known for his films, Pulp Fiction, The Hateful Eight, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, and Django Unchained, had previously responded to the accusations made against him as he felt like he was being singled out by critics. In 2009, he spoke with NJ.com.
“It’s like I’ve got a target on me. Critics know I’m a cinephile, and they know I’m not shy about embracing genre, and they turn it into a kind of checklist. … It’s just, you know, it’s vaguely insulting. ‘Oh, he takes a slice of Leone, adds a pinch of Cimino,’ that whole thing. I wouldn’t have lasted this long if that’s all there was to it.”
Moreover, Tarantino was also accustomed to his movies having an impact on other people’s creative endeavors. The 60-year-old director once talked about the brief period when a few movies were imitating his style. He explained to Powerful JRE:
“People would ask me about that and they go, ‘Hey, did that really bug you?’ When, there was a period where it seemed like, five years in the 90s when every crime film kind of had this ironic bit and they talked about TV shows and played music in a weird way. Everybody was a smart-a*s. They asked me, like, ‘Well, did that bother you?’ And I go, ‘No, it doesn’t bother me.’ One, I don’t think any of them are as good as mine. So it just makes mine look better and better.”
The Movie Critic, Tarantino’s upcoming film, is anticipated to be his tenth and last as a director. According to him, The Movie Critic will break a long-standing tradition.
“There is a lot of speculation as to who it is based on. And yes, he is a real critic, but he is not known… and I am not going to tell you more… It will also not be what you might call a revenge story.”
The Movie Critic is most likely to be released in 2024.
Source- Empire (via Variety)
