Tarantino is back and he’s brought nazis with him

There are lots of people out there who could easily order a quarter-pounder with cheese in a Parisian McDonald’s, requesting it by its local name – a Royale with cheese – despite never having been to the city and being completely unable to speak French. The reason is PulpFiction, the indie smash hit that set a benchmark for junk culture excellence in the ’90s and made director Quentin Tarantino a household name.

Since Pulp Fiction’s release in 1994, Tarantino has never left the spotlight, despite turning out only three other solo directorial efforts in the 15 years that have followed. That’s because, to fans, Tarantino movies are not just movies. They are landmark events in pop culture that manage to simultaneously synthesize a million other fragments of cinematic inspirations while transforming the future of cinema in their wake. Or is it all hype? For every diehard Tarantino junkie, there seems to be a vocal detractor, writing off his movies as all style and no substance, glorifications of violence or, at worst, shameless rip-offs of obscure genre films from the vaults of cult. With the release of Tarantino’s first period piece Inglourious Basterds, one must wonder whether the director is as relevant now as he was when he was first accused of changing the face of cinema.

The Video Store Clerk That Could

Tarantino’s own story is the stuff of legend. There isn’t a devotee out there who doesn’t know that Tarantino went from video store clerk to writer/director virtually overnight. Making a name for himself selling the screenplays for True Romance and Natural Born Killers for peanuts just to get by, Tarantino had no high school diploma, no formal film schooltraining and no connections in Hollywood. What he did have was an encyclopedic knowledge of virtually every genre of film thanks to countless hours spent watching and re-watching old movies.

Despite the fact that he would write his scripts out in longhand, was afflicted with various learning disabilities and was more than a little rough around the edges, Tarantino began to be noticed by important people. When his directorial debut and independently financed Reservoir Dogs became a sensational hit at the 1992 Sundance film festival, Tarantino joined forces with the Weinsteins of Miramax fame, who have produced all his films since then.

After Reservoir Dogs proved a resounding success, Tarantino was offered projects left, right and centre. Instead of jumping at the first opportunity, Tarantino fled to Amsterdam, where much of the script for his follow-up, Pulp Fiction, was written. Upon its release, the film became something of an instant classic. Pulp Fiction won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival, earned over $100 million at the box office (an incredible featfor an independent film) and was nominated for best picture at that year’s Academy Awards. Although Forrest Gump would snag the Oscar, Tarantino can take solace in the fact that Pulp Fiction is considered by many to be the best film of the 1990s.

 “The Cult of Quentin” has been edited for NakedEyeMag.com; the complete story appears in the Summer 09 issue of Naked Eye.