Director Analysis

Quentin Tarantino has captured the attention of the media with his controversially unique films such as Kill Bill Volume 1 & 2, Pulp Fiction, Django Unchained and CSI: Grave danger. All of which follow his typical thriller/ crime genres. This allows him to explore lighting and editing in a particular way which intensifies the scene.

While none of the plots are particularly similar certain themes do appear to cross over. Kill Bill follows a woman’s vengeance after her 4 year comatose as a result of an attack by her previous assassin squad. This revenge is very important as the attack took away a priceless possession- a daughter. Also, Pulp fiction follows several stories circled around the mystery of Marcellus Wallace’s brief case which has been described as priceless and of the upmost importance. Many fan theories have speculated as to what was inside the case; perhaps the most intriguing is questioning whether or not it is Wallace’s soul.

The idea of mystery seems like one of Tarantino’s fortes as it is further used in CSI: Grave Danger and Django Unchained. CSI was split in 2 parts as one of the co-stars is kidnapped and held at ransom while his team search not only for him but for his kidnapper. Django unchained used actor Zoe Bell to portray a non-speaking, masked bandit to further add to writer and director Tarantino’s mystery.

Kill Bill has very unique editing as the two volumes are almost portrayed as real life comic books. The fight scenes are blown out of proportion as movements and flips are hyperbolized and focussed on so the audience know that this is intentional. Both the Kill Bill films and Pulp Fiction (to name a few) are structured in chapters. Some of these show the present, the past and other characters. This supports the idea that his films are similar to comic books or graphic comics. Coincidentally, Tarantino uses comics as props in many of his films.

Tarantino has been described as ‘concocting his own genre of film’. His films follow certain trademarks of his which appear across his entire career so much so that fans believe most of his films occur in the same movie universe. His use of the POV shot is very common, particularly dead body POV, the ‘God’ POV and the ‘trunk’ POV. The use of black and white is another recurring trademark most common in Kill Bill, Natural Born Killers and In Death Proof. He also likes to use close ups of feet and lips and use car and torture scenes.

Tarantino makes a habit out of using the same actors across many of his films. Harvey Keitel is one of the most used along with Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Samuel L Jackson, Michael and James Parks and of course Uma Thurman. Tarantino has also made cameo and small appearances in 8 of his own films including: Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Django Unchained.

Tarantino’s self created production company is A Band Apart which mainly produce his own directed/ written films or shows and movies from his co-producers. Some these may include Lost In Oz and Metallica: cunning stunts.