Quentin Tarantino: Life at the Extremes(Modern Filmmakers)

This book places Quentin Tarantino at the heart of Hollywood, showing a director who speaks film through film, who examines the world beyond the movies in a way few have previously attempted, and at which fewer still have succeeded. Quentin Tarantino: Life at the Extremes explores the uses of violence in the films Tarantino has written, directed, and produced. Arguing that extreme violence is central to Tarantino's art, the book helps readers understand its purpose in his films—as metaphor, as movement, and as motivation. For Tarantino, the book explains, violence serves the purposes of film. In each of his movies, he explores the boundaries of taste and audience reaction, using violence and shock to bring questions of responsibility and expectation to the forefront of discussions on cinema. After introductory chapters placing Tarantino and his films within the broader context of American cinema, author Aaron Barlow focuses on Tarantino's six major directorial efforts. Each film is discussed from its genre starting point and the differing directions the films take are explored, as are the structural elements. In the end, readers will see how Tarantino deliberately pushes film in new directions through old techniques, styles, and even actors, crafting original art from what others have discarded.

Table of Contents:
Series Foreword by Vincent LoBrutto Preface 1. Tarantino in the World of Ideas 2. History and a World of Influence 3. Mayhem and Farce, the World and the Movies 4. Reservoir Dogs: Stuck in the Middle with Nietzsche 5. Pulp Fiction: Comedy, Structure, and Consequence 6. Jackie Brown: Music, Metadiegesis, and Meaning 7. Kill Bill: An Extreme Fairy Tale 8. Death Proof: Making Movies 9. Inglourious Basterds: Spelling It Out 10. Conclusion Timeline Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Aaron Barlow , PhD, teaches writing at New York City College of Technology at the City University of New York, Brooklyn, NY.

Review :
Arguing that extreme violence is central to Tarantino's art, the book helps readers understand its purpose in his films—as metaphor, as movement, and as motivation. Anyone who enjoys Tarantino's movies and wants a greater context to place them in . . . or simply would like to share in the enthusiasm of a knowledgable narrator while thinking about issues such as violence in film and how we react to it would find it well worth their time to peruse the book. Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.