----------------------------Original message---------------------------- I received the following comments in my mailbox after forwarding postings to a friend re the Tarantino discussion. Thought other SCREEN-L'rs would find them interesting. --------------------- Forwarded message: Subj: Re: Fwd: Re: tarantino and violence Date: 95-03-11 13:48:43 EST From: RaptorJHF To: PSWood How-doo! First I must say that I'm all Tarantino'd out after my diatribe last week, for that was about all I had to say on the subject. However, I found the postings that you sent along interesting for a couple of reasons. Lemme 'splain: 1) I wholeheartedly agree that Tarantino's films are REFRESHINGLY devoid of weepy sentimentality, (if chock full of a gushy fondness for all things seventies in the nineties). I have noticed marginalized voices calling out for brash, unsentimental writers for quite some time. Typcially they hark back to figures like Oscar Wilde and Jean Genet. Is Tarantino worthy of such company? I don't think so. As for his boy-wonder violent film maker verve, I would recommend that anyone who was particularly amused by the "bring out the gimp" segment of "Pulp Fiction" run directly to the nearest video store and rent "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," a better flick. 2) Regarding the the arbitrary and no-issues nature of Tarantino's films having TAPPED INTO THE LETTERMAN GENERATION (Generation L?), I have to laugh. Dave's lame-o! I was watching when Madonna visited his show and attempted to be arbitrary and flout sentimentality (by talking about piss as an antiseptic, schlongs of the NBA, sniffing panties, and by intermittently saying the F word). Dave was clearly not amused, and neither was his mainstream audience. Though this behavior, coming from Madonna, could easily be dismissed as trite, the shitstorm of press that incident got focussed on how (surprise, surprise) crass, trashy and disrespectful Madonna had been on poor Dave's TV show. Yet she did exactly what people are saying is so brilliant about Tarantino's work--albeit by doting on sexuality rather than violence--and for a much wider audience. "Pulp Fiction" confirms that Tarantino is capable of doing tight, entertaining work, and that he has an eye for talented and underworked actors. I think his talent lies in the visual, not the written (see "True Romance"). Hey! Come to think of it, the absolutely Tarantino-penned "True Romance" balances out all of its gratuitous violence with gratuitous sentimental glop. Doesn't that throw a monkey-wrench into the "Tarantino: Unsentimental guy" theory? Something to think about... Ciao for niao! Thanks for the postings.