Tribute To Quentin Tarantino

I want to pay tribute to my favorite writer, the screen-writer Quentin Tarantino. Yes. He is a master of dialog as well as action. Many times I have heard actors such as David Caradine, who have played Shakespeare, say that Tarantino's dialog is comparable, though we often fail to see it as we overlook his genius because it is so contemporary. We tend to hold dead people in higher esteem.

Shakespeare had the amazing ability to mix drama and comedy so that we would cry tears of sentiment with one eye while shedding tears of laughter with the other eye. It is not merely coincident that we see so many comedians imitate the scene of Hamlet holding the skull and speaking of poor Uric. Naturally we would not be able to discern the identity of a person by just perceiving a bare skull, and untrained people most likely couldn't even tell if it was a man's head or that of an ape. But Hamlet was being silly in context of his character of a bipolar adult with attention deficient disorder. So at the same time as being amused by Hamlet's brashness, we are touched by the dramatic feeling of remembering a loved one.

It is in this way that Tarantino's characters' speeches are so entertaining. I love the dialog in his movies such as 'Reservoir Dogs' where the crooks are planning a dangerous heist but squabble about their code names like "Mr. Pink" saying his name sounds so sissy-like, and then haggling because he doesn't want to leave a tip for the waitress even though the Boss is paying for the meal. Or the hit men who are about to kill some young guys who double-crossed the head drug dealer who discuss why they have to call the Quarter Pounder a Royale in France because of the metric system in the movie 'Pulp Fiction'. And in the flick, 'Kill Bill', we have that long speech comparing Superman's type of secret identity with that of Batman or Spiderman. And when Ulma Thurman is buried alive in a wood casket and remembers how her curmudgeon karate master made her learn how to bust a board with her bare knuckles with only a three inch punch, then she busts the top of the casket and climbs out of the grave and walks across the desert to an all night diner, covered in dust and dirt, sits at the counter proudly and asks for a glass of water.

It is this subtle mix of asinine comedy in the midst of drama that is so cool. Or at least I think so. Maybe not. But at least I wrote my first feature article for the Asinine News! It's a start, anyway! This may not fair very well at all in a language arts class, but then again, I have seen very few newspaper articles that would. I'm on my way to being a real hack like Dusty Doggy and Lyanne Sakks!