"Well then, I must be King Kong."
Quentin Tarantino’s main strength is not his visual style, his knowledge of films, or even his dialogue, as intelligent and razor sharp as it is. His most accomplished talent as a film maker is his understanding of the audience.
Consider the scene in Inglourious Basterds that takes place in the tavern basement.
(WARNING: Spoilers ahead. If you didn’t see the movie yet, don’t read on! It will ruin one of the best scenes in it).
You have at least 20 to 30 minutes of long, drawn out conversation punctuated by a meager 10 seconds of action at the end. Now, in any other movie, the audience would feel shortchanged. Why the hell sit through all that boring crap for not even a decent minute of great action? And the action is definitely great. That one tiny sequence is better than every single fighting scene from both Transformers combined, visual effects and all. But as you watch the scene end, you don’t feel jipped, you feel satisfied, like you just witnessed a great scene that will undoubtedly become a milestone of great movie scenes. How did he do it?
Let’s break it down: There are the two German-speaking Basterds pretending to be Nazis, the British agent pretending to be a Nazi with a weird accent, and the German actress/spy relaying them the info. Then, a wrench is thrown in the gears of their plan when an actual Nazi officer unexpectedly joins them and finds something fishy with the British dude’s unplaceable accent. The tension has begun. The Nazi plays it cool and they have a friendly game of 20 questions while the frustration, impatience, and questions of “does he know what i know and does he know that i know that he knows” underneath just builds and builds. Finally, the British officer has had enough and he outright tries to kick the Nazi out of their table. The Nazi counters and still plays it cool and calm. All the while, the tension is being tightened like a guitar string, ready to burst at any moment. Then, finally, the guns are drawn and that beautiful sequence of 1 second cuts are blasted in rapid succession.
Now, what Tarantino displays here is not his love for the spectacle. What he practices is an incredible amount of restraint. He’s constantly messing with the audience’s expections. In Resoivoir Dogs, he never shows the heist and yet, there’s still so much excitement and twists that come with great heist movies. In Death Proof, he makes the first half long, boring, and introduces characters that you immediately hate, only to brutally kill them in what should be a refreshing and relieving scene but is suddenly too grotesque to really feel all that good about. In Basterds, he deliberately holds back what the audience wants, which is a great action sequence, knowing FULL WELL that by keeping it from them, they know to expect it. And despite this, he holds it back further and refuses to give it prematurely or even on time. Most directors will simply build the adequate amount of tension and then deliver the goods, which would not be some measly 10 second sequence. Most directors would build the tension for about 5 minutes just so they could release all the stops and have a blast choreographing a glorious 20 minute shoot out. But Tarantino does the exact opposite. He relishes the half hour of tension pulling and feasts on the build up. Rather than focusing his attention on the shootout, he choreographs every single nuance and intricacy of the conversation and puts it together like it’s the most important part… because it is! The richness of the dialogue is the actual meal that you can chew on; the small bite-sized action at the end is merely an after-dinner snack. Most action is junk food anyway. What he knows that most directors don’t is that audiences don’t want to be catered to, they want to be challenged.
It takes balls to pull off a scene like that. And that’s what he does pretty much all throughout the movie. He knows the audience so well because he HIMSELF is the audience. He’s been watching movies his whole life and he knows the filmic language fowards, backwards, sideways, and upside down. So many films just pander to you, like giving a dog a bone. Tarantino treats his audience with intelligence and respect and treats them to a well thought out, well planned, well executed, full course meal.
And what a meal it is. Inglourious Basterds is a feast from start to finish. There is just so much to go through and think about and discuss. As i was walking out of the theatre and thinking about what i just saw, i immediately wanted to see it again. And i didn’t even mention Christoph Waltz’s masterful, confident, idiosyncratic, and hilarious performance. I wouldn’t say this is Tarantino’s best, my personal favorite is still Kill Bill Volume 2 (for its melding of genres and stunning conclusion), but it is definitely one of the year’s best and should be watched in a dark theatre with a good friend to talk about it afterwards.
