Flashback Friday: Quentin Tarantino XX

On October 23, 1992, the world was introduced to Reservoir Dogs, the debut of one of America's most prolific directors. Since then, he has produced such mega-hits as Jackie Brown, Kill Bill, Inglourious Basterds, and, of course, Pulp Fiction. His brutally violent, ultra-profane, and dialogue-driven style has made him one of Hollywood's most profitable and successful film directors. Today on Flashback Friday, we're celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the career of Quentin Tarantino.

A film buff from a young age, Quentin Tarantino despised education and dropped out of high school. He took a job at a video rental store called the Video Archives, where he met Roger Avary, another avid movie fan who co-wrote some of Tarantino's screenplays.

Tarantino never attended film school, instead opting to watch movies. His job at the rental store allowed him to observe what kinds of movies people were watching. Plus, Tarantino's obsession and encyclopedic knowledge of everything film allowed learn by simply watching movies. All of his films contain allusions to other works of cinema, such as the mysterious briefcase in Pulp Fiction (a reference to Kiss Me Deadly).

While working at the Video Archives, Tarantino wrote the screenplay for True Romance, a romantic thriller about a Martial-arts film buff becoming involved with gangsters. By 1990, Tarantino had left the Video Archives to work for Cinetel, a production company that also allowed him to take acting classes. At Cinetel, he met director Tony Scott, who loved the screenplay for True Romance and bought the rights to it.


His place in Hollywood now secure, Quentin Tarantino was able to film his first movie as a director, a project called Reservoir Dogs. Originally, Tarantino planned to produce the movie on a minimal budget, with his friends playing the lead characters. However, actor Harvey Keitel got a hold of the script, and was able to secure a little over a million dollars for the budget. With Keitel co-producing and playing the lead role, Reservoir Dogs became more and more prominent each day. It finally premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 1992, receiving critical acclaim and skyrocketing the career of Tarantino overnight.

Reservoir Dogs is an intelligent heist film, featuring a team of professional thieves that get set up during a diamond store robbery. The thieves, known only by their colored aliases (i.e. Mr. White, Mr. Orange), begin to accuse one another of betrayal while they are stuck in a warehouse rendezvous point. The film also features one of the most violent and gut-wrenching torture scenes in cinematic history: the "Stuck in the Middle" ear sequence instigated by Mr. Blonde. Reservoir Dogs grew in greater popularity after the high success of Tarantino's next film.

After Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino next sought to produce Pulp Fiction, his masterpiece film about a pair of hit men who interact with various characters in Los Angeles. With a rousing pop soundtrack, featuring "Miserlou" and "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon", the film epitomized the Tarantino style of bloody violence, extreme language (with 272 uses of the "f-word"), and intelligent dialogue driving the plot. The film was also shot with hyperrealism, which means that the actions were so realistic that they were almost unbelievable.

Pulp Fiction revitalized the career of John Travolta, who along with the film was nominated for an Academy Award (Tarantino won for Best Screenplay that year). The movie has since become a classic, landing on AFI's Top 100 Movies of All Time and still remaining popular with audiences.

Quentin Tarantino's follow-up to Pulp Fiction, 1997's Jackie Brown, was a tribute to the Blaxploitation movies of the 1970's. The Blaxploitation movies, such as Foxy Brown, featured, and were catered towards, a predominately African American audience. Jackie Brown, though not as commercially successful as Pulp Fiction, still received great reviews and renewed the careers of Pam Grier and Robert Forster.

Since the 1990's, Tarantino has directed several more films, like the Kung-Fu movie Kill Bill, and the Nazi-hunting film Inglourious Basterds. In December, he will release his ninth feature film, Django Unchained. Django will tell the story of a slave (Jamie Foxx) turned bounty hunter who tries to rescue his wife (Kerry Washington) from a malicious plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio). 

Other trademark styles of Quentin Tarantino include casting a comedian in a cameo role (such as Chris Tucker in Jackie Brown and Mike Meyers in Inglourious Basterds) and frequently working with the same actors (Harvey Keitel, Samuel L. Jackson, Tim Roth, and Uma Thurman). He also personally chooses the soundtrack for his movies, with pre-written songs instead of an original score. With long, drawn-out scenes, unusual characters, and a penchant for glorifying crime, audiences know what they're getting from a Tarantino picture.

Personally, Pulp Fiction is a film that holds a very special place in my heart. After the explosive and mind-blowing opening diner sequence of that movie, I knew I was in a for a cinematic experience unlike anything I'd ever seen before. It is the movie that really rejuvenated my love for cinema when I was in a dry spell of watching bad movies, and since then I've always turned to Quentin Tarantino when I’m in a movie funk. His films always manage to prove to me how much I love the cinema. He makes audiences share his love for the movies, and I am eternally grateful to him for allowing me to reignite my passion. 

Tarantino is a cinephile, someone who is obsessed and lives around the movies. He's put his personal life on hold in order to do the one thing in life that makes him happy. And audiences are very appreciative. With one of the most loyal fan bases today, the director has made his mark on cinematic history. He modernized the film industry with his autuer-like filmmaking of combining both art and popular culture. And, with Django Unchained just around the corner, the world will not have to wait much longer to see his signature style once again.

Happy twenty years of doing what you love, Quentin Tarantino.