Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Gee LP (A) on November 14, 2004 at 20:35:34

In Reply to: It is silly to brand a director based on one work posted by Victor Khomenko on November 14, 2004 at 18:06:28:

If I may poke my head into this discussion, I think Tarantino enjoys looking at crime and violence from a comically sadistic viewpoint. After the work he did with Robert Forster and Pam Grier in "Jackie Brown" I had thought he was ready to move on to other films about other subjects, but appparently he is not ready to let go of his weapons yet.

I enjoyed "Kill Bill" and "Kill Bill Part 2", but only as live-action cartoons...not as serious explorations of film art. But then, they were not made for those kind of explorations.

Peckinpah and Kubrick also studied violence in film after film, but their methods definitely changed over the years... Peckinpah's work and viewpoint in "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" and "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" is different than his work in "The Wild Bunch" or "Ballad of Cable Hogue", just as that work is different from "Ride the High Country" or the early episodes of "The Rifleman". Kubrick's films are also explorations of violence, but what explorations! as it is possible to include "Lolita" and "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Barry Lyndon" as "violent films" alongside "The Killers" or "A Clockwork Orange".

As much as I like Tarantino, I think he is regressing. Of course he is young yet and hopefully has many years and films left in him. But where is his "Ivan the Terrible Part I" or "Magnificent Ambersons"?
He is only hitting one note on the piano. It's a great note, don't get me wrong, but what about the others?