Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Jerome Tarantino (born March 27, 1963 in Knoxville, Tennessee) is an American screenwriter, film director and actor. He rapidly rose to fame in the early 1990s as a stylish auteur whose bold use of nonlinear storylines, memorable dialogue, and bloody violence brought new life to familiar American film archetypes. His father was Italian and his mother was of mixed Irish and Native American descent.

Criticism

Tarantino has come under criticism for his use of racial epithets in his films, particularly the word nigger in Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown, most notably from Black American director Spike Lee. In an interview for Variety, Lee said: "I'm not against the word... and I use it, but Quentin is infatuated with the word. What does he want to be made? An honorary black man?"

Related Topics:
Nigger - Pulp Fiction - Jackie Brown - Spike Lee - Variety

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An oft-cited example is a scene in Pulp Fiction in which a character named Jimmie Dimmick, incidentally portrayed by Tarantino himself, dresses down Samuel L. Jackson's character, Jules Winnfield, for using his house as "dead nigger storage", followed by a rant that uses the word profusely. The fact that Jimmie had a black wife was also seen as an insult, specifically by Spike Lee. Lee makes direct reference to this in his film Bamboozled when the character Thomas Dunwitty states: "Please don't get offended by my use of the quote-unquote N word. I got a black wife and three biracial children, so I feel I have a right to use that word. I don't give a damn what Spike says, Tarantino is right. Nigger is just a word."

Related Topics:
Samuel L. Jackson - Bamboozled

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Tarantino has defended his use of the word by arguing that black audiences have an appreciation of his blaxploitation-influenced films that eludes some of his critics, and, indeed, that Jackie Brown was primarily made for "black audiences":

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:To me the film is a black film. It was made for black audiences actually. It was made for everybody, but that was the audience. If I had any of them in mind, I was thinking of that because I was always thinking of watching it in a black theatre. I didn't have audiences ridiculously in mind because I am the audience, but that works well for that too because I go to black theatres. To me it is a black film. http://film.guardian.co.uk/Guardian_NFT/interview/0,4479,78447,00.html

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Tarantino has also been criticized for allegedly plagiarizing ideas, scenes, and lines of dialogue from other films. For example, some scenes in Reservoir Dogs are based on ones in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three and Ringo Lam's City on Fire, among other films. Others say that Tarantino is simply referencing the directors and films he admires. Much debate has been sparked on when such references cease to be tributes and become plagiarism. Tarantino, for his part, has always been open and unapologetic about appropriating ideas from films he admires (see Quotes).

Related Topics:
Reservoir Dogs - The Taking of Pelham One Two Three - Ringo Lam - City on Fire - Quotes

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