Quentin Tarantino is perhaps the most distinctive and volatile talent to emerge in American film in the last 15years. Unlike the previous generation of American filmmakers, Tarantino learned his craft from his days as a video clerk, rather than as a film school student. Consequently, he developed an audacious fusion of pop culture and independent art house cinema; his films are distinguished as much by their clever, twisting dialogue as their outbursts of extreme violence. Tarantino is one of the very few filmmakers in the contemporary film industry who can be seen as an auteur. Being an auteur means that you're ascribed overall responsibility for the creation of a film and its personal vision, identifiable style, thematic aspects and techniques, that you are the 'true' authors of film (rather than the screenwriters) because you exercise such control over all facets of film making and impart a distinctive, personal style to your films. Tarantino's personal style incorporates a lot of well thought out violence, swearing, repetitive casting, and many other filming techniques, all of which earn him the elusive title of auteur.
Violence plays a key role in Tarantino's films and in particular his first three: Reservoir Dogs, Jackie Brown and Pulp Fiction which I will be mainly focusing on today. Violence is prevalent in "reservoir Dogs", notably when Mr. Blonde tortures the captured police officer and cuts off his ear. This intense violence portrays many things about the film and about what Tarantino is trying to suggest. He manifests these gangster characters with such disregard to living, going to jail, and swearing simply to show the audience how he believes criminals act. Quentin therefore tries to present a criminal lifestyle as it most likely is, not worth it. He suggests that a life of crime and violence leads to dead ends such as jail, death, or predicaments such as having an informant on a well-planned out diamond heist! We also see violence cleverly utilised in Jackie Brown. In one scene Samuel L Jackson's character, Ordell, kills one of his gun dealers after locking him the boot of his car without remorse or hesitation, simply because he does not trust him. Tarantino presents a character that shows very little guilt for his actions, and a very short thought process before a murder. Once again, Tarantino uses these violent sequences in a didactic fashion to demonstrate the futility of a life of crime. Pulp Fiction is often cited as Tarantino's greatest work, and is undoubtedly my favourite Tarantino film. Violence also has a role to play in this critically acclaimed film. The most prominent use of violence is when Butch and Marcellus are locked up, and Marcellus is raped, Marcellus, in retribution shoots the genitals off of the fake cop that was raping him. This violence once again acts as a manifestation of a criminal lifestyle, and the path that one follows when entering this type of lifestyle; which is one made up of money, sex, drugs, and heaps of violence. All in all, violence is just one of the many stylistic devices used by Tarantino that merit his title as a cult-classic creator.
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This is quite a good essay, well written and filled with some very good observations about the hallmark themes and techniques that make Tarantino such an appealing artist to a certain section of society, but as an academic work it is weakened by two things which I would advise academic authors to be very aware of: 1) The author's adulatory bias causes them to overvalue Tarantino's work and to falsely ascribe a creativity and innovation to it that not even the director in question would wish for. 2) The lack of research into other critical perspectives upon Tarantino's work in particular, and auteurist film-making in general, means that the overall theory of what Tarantino's work means and how it fits into the broader picture of Hollywood cinema is a bit naive. If this is a first year work, the lack of theory reference and highly subjective style of writing is borderline acceptable. However, by the second year of undergraduate study, a more measured, well researched and objective mode of analysis is required. 3 stars if it's a first year essay. 2 stars if it's a level 2 essay.