Friday, July 14, 2006

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!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Although Tarantino's movies are ewebiquitous, i haven't seen enough to comment. I don't believe Hamlet has ADD though. On the contrary, he is focused on one problem throughout the play.

Tom & Icy said...

We apologize to anyone who might have any education about allowing Lammy to submit a feature artile like this to our rag. This just shows that as a seventeen-year-old high school drop out with the head of a lamb, she might make a good hack writer but what she knows about Shakespeare or what makes writing comparable to such classics is very doubful. We believe that she not only has the head and face of a lamb, but the brain of one as well. She had better write better stuff than this in the future or she is out of here; or as she puts it: she's outtie!

To see an short scene excert of one of the script text examples she gave and see for yourself concerning any literary merit, or more precisely, the lack of it CLICK HERE.

Ariel the Thief said...

I enjoyed this writing! but I agree with Weirsdo that Hamlet couldn't have an ADD, if it'd been up to him we'd still be sitting in the theatre waiting for the play to end...

Anonymous said...

Maybe Lammy wanted to write this because she is intrigued by ilambic pentameter.

Anonymous said...

I thought it was a wonderful movie review! I think that Lammy has the chops to be an excellent critic!

Anonymous said...

I think she should be a musician and take up the tubaa.

Cie Cheesemeister said...

Then she could join a marching baaand.