Colby Barker

Professor Reddoch
Film 1023
May, 1 2014
Auteur of Quentin Tarantino
What is an auteur? The auteur theory shows a directors film that reflects the directors
personal creative vision, established techniques and recurring themes that happen during their
films and throughout their filmmaking career. Today, some film critics use the term auteur to
describe a well-respected director who embodies repetitive techniques, meanings and
structures. (Bordwell and Thompson) Quentin Tarantino is a prime example of having or being
an auteur. Tarantino has many things that allow him to be an auteur; he has many trademarks in
his films, which is consistent throughout most of the films that he has made during his career. He
is known for reusing the same cast, most of these reused cast members are famous actors that
even the most non-movie watcher know, his extreme use of violence and bloodshed, starting his
films with a scene instead of credits, strong finale and his non-linear storytelling amongst others.
The main themes of his films are blood, sharp blades, feet, comic strips, bathrooms and
coolness. (Dawson)

First and foremost Tarantino always has a trunk shot where he places a camera in the
trunk of a car while his characters are having a conversation or having a monologue with
themselves. The one movie you can say that doesnt have one of these trunk shots is Inglorious
Basterds where in the film they are very little cars, so what Tarantino did instead was he placed
the camera very close to the ground, shooting the actors from an extremely low angle.

Tarantino likes to put a strong female lead in most of his films such as Jackie Brown,
Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, and Inglourious Basterds even though in Basterds Diane Kruger is more
of a supporting role, but still becomes a Basterd in the film.

Quentin Tarantino is one of the few filmmakers that isnt afraid to put too much
violence in his films. In fact, he loves having gore and blood in his films. For example in Pulp
Fiction when John Travolta accidently blows Phil LaMarrs brains out or the famous scene in
Kill Bill Uma Thurman slices up the crazy 88 gang. Inglourious Basterds is all about killing Nazi
in horrible ways, then taking their scalps as trophies or proof of death.

All of Tarantinos films have some sort of restaurant scene, such examples are the
introduction to Reservoir Dogs and the ending scene are in a restaurant, the scene where the
basterds blow their cover in Inglorious Basterds, and in Pulp Fiction, the famous sequence with
the $5 milkshake at the Jack Rabbit Slims Restaurant.

When watching a Tarantino film at some point in the film characters start talking
about things that aren't relative to the plot or all. Just a nice normal conversation when something
serious is going on. Pulp Fiction has many of these moments such as the scene when Samuel L.
Jackson and John Travolta start talking about what a Quarter Pounder is called in France.
Characters in Reservoir Dogs start arguing about the meaning of Madonna's song "Like a
Virgin." In Inglourious Basterds, German Colonel Hans Landa learns how to properly say bingo
the American way. Which, in Tarantinos films the word bingo seems to be a recurring theme
that his characters use the bingo in some way.

Tarantino has admitted he has a foot fetish, and that fetish of his has been shown
throughout a lot of his films. In Kill Bill the Bride waking up from a coma, trying to wiggle her
big toe to regain control of her body or the actress Diane Kruger with her leg in a plaster that
Colonel Hans Landa carefully looks at near the end of Inglourious Basterds.

The Auteur Theory or being considered an auteur is a tricky subject since people have
opinions even the most straightforward definition of auteur theory will make some people shake
their heads in disbelief. Some people might disagree with this paper others agreeing that
Tarantino is an auteur, saying he never went to film school and watched a whole bunch of films,
that allowed him to steal concepts and ideas in put them into his own movies when he started
his career. Others can argue that the concepts he took from other films paid homage to them and
he twisted those into his own style, thus allowing to his own personal vision or an auteur.

Every famous filmmaker supposedly will be considered an auteur. This paper is about
how Tarantino is considered auteur. By knowing what an auteur is or knowing the definition of
The Auteur Theory, one will now be able to look at other famous directors and find what makes
them an auteur. Examples would be someone like Lucas, Spielberg, Hitchcock and many others
one can think of. Every director has their own unique techniques and styles which make
audiences favor them as their favorite movie director.

All of the examples given in this paper are what has made Quentin Tarantino establish
himself as an auteur. These are the themes, techniques, and personal creative visions that he has
put throughout all his films. Tarantinos films are distinguished products his films are one of a
kind, just like how authors of certain books only have that unique story that turn them into a
classic. Pulp Fiction is regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time. (Sander) Django
Unchained was Quentins biggest commercial success and Reservoir Dogs is named as the
greatest independent movie of all time by Empire magazine. (Filmsite) Quentin Tarantinos
personality, creativity, imagination, and even Tarantino himself are always part of the films that
he has created throughout his career as a filmmaker.

Works Cited
Bordwell, David, and Kristin Thompson.Film art: an introduction. 9th ed. 9th ed. N/A:
McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; 9 edition, 2009. Print.
Dawson, Jeff. Quentin Tarantino: the cinema of cool. New York: Applause, 1995. Print.
Flimsite. "50 Greatest Independent Films." 50 Greatest Independent Films. N.p., n.d. Web. 28
Apr. 2014.
Sander, Julian . Stylistic Innovations in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction". N/A: GRIN Verlag,
2010. Print.