The Screenwriter Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino: The Beginnings of a Writer

Quentin Tarantino is known for making great films such as Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, but what he might be better known for is his style. Tarantino’s films are violent, funny and dance the subtle line of reality. By isolating his writing style from his directorial style in such films as True Romance, Natural Born Killers and From Dusk Til Dawn, which he wrote but did not direct, we can see more clearly the tropes that mark a Tarantino film.

At the beginning Quentin Tarantino was an actor. After many disappointments and trouble getting work he exclaimed, “If people aren’t going to hire me as an actor, then I’m going to do my own films” (Gallafent 12) He promptly started writing movies. His earliest script was called Captain Peachfuzz and the Anchovy Band, though he never finished it. He then wrote My Best Friend’s Birthday with friend Craig Hamann whom he met in an acting class. The movie was made to showcase their skills as actors but was never completed. However, Tarantino now had some writing experience under his belt and wrote a feature film called True Romance, which he intended to be his first film. Unfortunately he could not get funding for the film and sold the script for $30,000 in 1989. Tony Scott directed the film and it was released in 1993, after the success of Reservoir Dogs.

The story of True Romance is simple. It is a romance between Clarence and Alabama against the backdrop of a world governed by power and “the belief in the ability to use violence to injure and destroy” (Gallafent 55). Alabama is a prostitute who falls in love with Clarence because they are similar and there is great comfort in that. The response Clarence gives the Hollywood producer when asked why he is selling the cocaine for such a low price illustrates this perfectly: “Me and my wife are minimum wage kids; $200,000 is the world.” Alabama decides to run away with Clarence and as they leave Clarence grabs a suitcase filled with what he thinks are Alabama’s clothes. To the couples surprise the suitcase is really filled with cocaine and they decide to go to Los Angeles to sell it.

Although the story is preserved in Scott’s film there are two major deviations from Tarantino’s script: the order of events and the ending. One of the hallmarks of a Tarantino script is that it is written non-linearly. He gets this style from modernist authors such as William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and Virginia Woolf. He often likens his story telling structure to novels and defends it by saying that no one would question a good book written non-linearly why should they question the structure of his films?

Tarantino discusses this briefly in a 1994 interview with Charlie Rose.

Scott’s film rearranges Tarantino’s script to tell the story chronologically and in a more conventional fashion. Tarantino’s original script started with the arrival of Alabama and Clarence at Cliff’s (Clarence’s father) trailer shortly followed by the murder of Cliff at the hands of Cocotti. The effect of this would have been jarring and immediately assaulted and intrigued the audience. Also, the murder of Drexel (Alabama’s pimp) and acquisition of the suitcase of cocaine is told later on during the conversation Clarence has with his childhood friend Dick via flashback. Scott defends his decisions out of convention.

In this scene from True Romance, Tarantino effectively uses the juxtaposition of humor and violence to add tension. Also characteristic of Tarantino in this scene is the use of graphic violence, and the interplay between the violence and the dialogue.

Tarantino’s original ending was also changed. His ending had Clarence dying in a shootout with drug dealers in a hotel room. Alabama grabs the suitcase of money and drives away, alone, into the sunset. In Scott’s ending the couple survive and leave the bloodbath with the suitcase of money, unscathed, we then flash-forward to them playing on the beach with their child in the sunset. Scott defends this decision by saying that by this point the audience is very attached to the couple and needs them to survive. Tarantino’s ending was more realistic.

To help finance True Romance Tarantino wrote Natural Born Killers. Eventually this script was sold, directed by Oliver Stone and released in 1995, after the success of Pulp Fiction. The story is that Mickey and Mallory Knox are products of a society, our society, laden with images of violence and in which serial killers raised to the status of celebrity. They become murderers because the American dream is that you can be whomever you want and that is what they choose to be. They go on a cross county killing spree and are apprehended by the cops but become celebrities along the way. This is Tarantino’s most political screenplay. It makes a statement about the influence of the media on society.

Unfortunately, like True Romance, Tarantino’s original script was tampered with. In this case, so much so that Tarantino would only take the “story by” credit on the film. First Stone, like Scott, made the story chronological and linear. The effect was that the role of the media became less subtle. Tarantino started the film with the couple already in jail and told it in flashbacks from a television show and movie being made about the couple. Stone’s script kept the television show but ditched the movie. Stone also cut out characters such as Wayne Gales production crew. In so doing, he cut out a lot of the banter and comedy that Tarantino is known for. Stone also gave context to Mickey and Mallory’s violent nature. Finally, Stone changed Tarantino’s dialogue making it less vulgar and verbose, both of which are trademarks of a Tarantino script.

This scene from Natural Born Killers is one of few left the way that Tarantino wrote it.

Tarantino had sent both of his early scripts to Robert Krutzman of KNB FX. In 1991 Krutzman asked Tarantino to write a script from an idea Krutzman had about gangsters and vampires. Tarantino wrote the script in three weeks for $1,500. This is allowed Tarantino to quit his day job and support himself as a writer. He says about the experience, “Even more than directing my first movie, writing From Dusk Till Dawn was the most exciting time of my life” (Beeler, Woods 99). The film was eventually directed by Robert Rodriguez and released in 1996. When Tarantino found out it would be directed by his friend, Rodriguez, he decided to rewrite it. The structure stayed the same but he expanded his own character, Richard, to being a sexual predator, which added much more tension and made the relationship with his brother, played by George Clooney, deeper. He also, upon finding out his friend Juliette Lewis would play Kate, expanded that character so it would be worthy of her (98). He added the scene in the bathroom on the camper and made her a vampire-killing machine.

The story is that Richard has recently busted his brother Seth out of jail. They have robbed a bank and taken hostages. We meet them on their escape route to Mexico where they will meet Carlos, who will help them start their new life in El Ray, at a bar called Titty Twisters at dawn. However, the bar is filled with vampires. This script really emphasizes Tarantino’s love of genre films. It is both very much a road movie for the first half of the film and a campy vampire flick for the second. The script also shows Tarantino’s strong characterization of the male bond in his depiction of the brothers.

Such is the case with this scene from From Dusk Til Dawn,

After watching all of the films written by Tarantino there are certain things are embedded in Tarantino’s signature. Other than what has already been mentioned, his scripts are laden with pop-culture references which often appear in monologues. For example, in True Romance they mention Elvis, Sonny Chiba, T.J Hooker, Mad Max and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. His narratives surround running toward or away from something such as From Dusk Til Dawn where they are running toward Mexico and away from the law. Significant in Tarantino's films are the "meaning of settings, who notices them, what is possible in them, and how movements between them are experienced in terms of enchantment of release/rescue" (Gallafent 3). He uses the television as a character like in Natural Born Killers where Wayne Gale is telling the audience vital information about the story. Tarantino often uses vulgar language filled with racial slurs seen in the scene where Cocotti kills Cliff in True Romance. Mixing violence with comedy is a key element in Tarantino scripts. He also achieves comedy by reversing traditional gender roles. Finally, there are some little, subtle things that Tarantino also like to put in his scripts like interracial couples, mention of the Vietnam War, and shots of feet.

Quentin Tarantino is a very talented writer. His screenplays evoke powerful emotions from his audiences and tell stories written in a way that feel real and unreal at the same time. He achieves this through his own, unique style.

Works cited:
Beeler, "Tarantino's Pulp Horrors." Quentin Tarantino: the film geek files. Ed Paul A. Woods. Plexus Publishing: London, 2000.

Gallafent, Edward. Quentin Tarantino. Essex, England: Pearson Education, 2006.

True Romance. Dir. Tony Scott. Perf. Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Val Kilmer, Christopher Walken, and Brad Pitt. DVD. Warner Bros. Pictures, 1993.

Natural Born Killers. Dir. Oliver Stone. Perf. Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, and Tom Sizemore. DVD. Warner Bros. Pictures, 1994.

From Dusk ‘Til Dawn. Dir. Robert Rodriguez. Perf. Quentin Tarantino, George Clooney, and Harvey Keitel. DVD. Miramax, 1996.

Cuddy-Keane, Melba. “Modernism, some characteristics.” Modernism. University of Toronto at Scarborough. 1 July 2008. http://utsc.utoronto.ca/~mcuddy/ENGBO2Y/Modernism.html

Tarantino, Quentin. “Natural Born Killers.” http://www.godamongdirectors.com/scripts/killers.shtml