Why I Saw This Movie
I know I’m probably seeing this
movie 20 years too late. People have been recommending this movie to me for
years now. And as someone who’s
interested in Tarantino, I’ve always been meaning to get around to it. But the final impetus came when a friend
invited me over to watch it with him one night.
Positives
* An all star cast and great performances
* Plenty of usual Tarantino metafilm references
* Good soundtrack
Negatives
* Sadistic violence?
* Loses a point for “the bad guy should have just shot but
instead decided to monologue” scene.
The Review
It’s a funny thing when a film
becomes a victim of its own success. So
many people have imitated Tarantino over the years that it’s difficult to go
back and objectively evaluate his early work.
“I guess this must have seemed very innovative back in 1993,” I kept
telling myself as I watched the movie.
As with
most of Tarantino’s work, the movie doesn’t really have much of a point, except
the experience of the movie—and the stylized ultraviolence— is an end in
itself. And the unpredictability of Tarantino keeps you on your toes the whole
time.
Rating :
6 out of 10 stars.
(If judged on cultural impact, I’m sure this movie would rate higher,
but I’m just judging it on watchability).
Other Things I Would
Talk About if I Wasn’t Limiting Myself to 100 Words
* Debating whether Tarantino’s movies are deliberately
designed to be sadistic, or if he introduces brutal violence as a way of
keeping the tension high in his narrative.
* Trying to evaluate this film in terms of its cultural
legacy.
Links
For my other thoughts on Tarantino films see Inglorious Basterds, Kill Bill, Kill Bill Further Thoughts and Kill Bill 2.
Also Tarantino has spawned legions of imitators, and the
1990s and 2000s were filled with a lot of bad Tarantino imitations. Many of them (Go, Things to do In Denver
True Romance in turn borrows heavily
from the Badlands (using the same
music, and homage scenes to the Badlands)—my
review of Badlands here.
External Links
Link of the Day
Noam Chomsky: The Race War of Drug Prohibition
and from cracked.com: 5 Disturbing Reasons Not to Trust the News (from a Reporter)
2 comments:
I haven't seen this movie since back-in-the-day, but suspect I'd be onside with most of your observations. The way I recall it, Tony Scott's pacing was still in lockstep with the 80s, so the movie bogged down. I also remember rolling my eyes at the early scenes setting up the relationship between Slater and Arquette. Now that Big Bang Theory is the most-watched show ever, I guess my attitude gave me away as being mired in the 80s as well.
Yes, that early part about the relationship made absolutely no sense. At least in the real world. I suppose the way to look at this movie is like Roger Ebert says--assume everything is not taking place in the real world, but in some teenage boy's fantasy world.
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