Hollywood has a way of charming people, as can be seen by Quentin Tarantino who spent most of his days as a video clerk before directing. Because of him, we have something known as “sensationalism”, meaning “an articulated system of beliefs and practices”. Here in application to Tarantino, it applies to people whom “create sensations through cinematic depictions of violence” through film and other media. Here, Tarantino is “a mythic entity, a cult figure, because he actualized a transformation to which his followers aspire. In him, the Ultimate Fan became the Ultimate Auteur” (616-17). Because of his origins as a video store desk clerk, he learned every bit of info and fact about numerous films from samurai movies from old Chinese cinema, to grindhouse films and classics from Hollywood’s golden age. This is how he impressed Hollywood executives and got his screenplay made into reality. Tarantino’s movies propel the sensationalist culture forward and he creates movies that at first seem void of meaning, but are actually fun.
Thomas De Zengotita wrote, “There is no significance content of any kind” in his work and asks, “What kind of culture invests so much in something so hollow, hollow by design, hollow as a matter of principle?” Simply put, the answer is a “sensationalist culture devoted to fun” (622). Tarantino and filmmakers like him are a rare breed in modern cinema indeed, filmmakers who have intelligence in their film, but also the ability to have fun. Perhaps this has something to do with his days a video clerk, a situation that one can easily imagine him in chatting up customers about films they were renting or buying and giving his opinions and recommendations. This charisma and knowledge of movies is what propelled him to fame, and it is because of this that his films (“Pulp Fiction”, “Kill Bill”, and “Inglorious Basterds” to name a few) are so enjoyable.
Works Cited
Zengotita, Thomas De. “She’ll Kill Bill While You Chill.” Common Culture: Reading and Writing about American Popular Culture.
Ed. Michael Petracca and Madeleine Sorapure. Sixth ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall, 2009. 617-623. Print.