‘Something stopped me in school a little bit. Anything that I’m not interested in, I can’t even feign interest...’
I’ve always had a complicated relationship with Tarantino. I would count Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction among two of the greatest films ever made. I also adore Jackie Brown and From Dusk Till Dawn, and I have a lot of time for the Kill Bill movies. After that however, QT kind of lost me for a while there. While his later movies certainly have moments of genius, they are also deeply flawed, mainly due to the man’s flagrant self-indulgence (a self-indulgence that he has earned it should be noted).
After stumbling across a genuinely fantastic pop culture book shop in Notting Hill, I hesitated over purchasing Jami Bernard’s ode to Tarantino, but what eventually convinced me is the fact that it only covers the early part of the master director’s career. Everything from his micro budget early effort My Best Friend’s Birthday to his anthology movie Four Rooms. And what a whirlwind that period was…
Quentin Tarantino – The Man and His Movies presents us with Tarantino’s origin story as a movie geek working in a video store right through to his takeover of Hollywood with Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. We hear plenty from the man himself, but Bernard also speaks to former employees of Video Archive (the hallowed video store that started it all), fellow indie directors and family members, many of whom seem to adore QT even if they often have an axe to grind. What emerges is a picture of a man obsessed with movies, an auteur who borrows liberally from his influences, but who also proudly wears those same influences on his sleeve. While Bernard’s prose is sometimes a little too reverential, this is still an excellent chronicle in the most important period for one of the most important directors of the last thirty years.
Tarantino is still big enough that every film he releases feels like an event. This book is a timely reminder of why he was so respected in the first place. Essential reading for any Tarantino fans, but especially those that still find themselves drawn to his early output.