The Tarantino Influences: Deliverance

Deliverance is a 1972 movie by John Boorman that tells the story of four men looking for adventure in wild nature. Its themes of survival and danger of the unknown are universal and one scene in particular served as an inspiration for Tarantino.

Deliverance tells the story of four city dwellers taking a canoe trip along the Cahulawassee river in Georgia. The trip begins as a scenic, weekend adventure before turning into a violent struggle of survival. The men encounter locals who prey on them, leading to murder and questions of morality and justice. The brutality of the river then causes death and injury, forcing the men to adapt to primitive means to escape back to their familiar civilization.

Deliverance is known largely due to its most famous scene, which is referenced in Pulp Fiction. In some respects, both movies are notorious in shocking viewers with scenes of sexual assault. However, to stereotype both Deliverance and Pulp Fiction ignores the brilliance and star power of each work.

Reynolds is compelling as Lewis, a weekend thrill seeker who arranges the canoe trip. He emerges as the group’s leader and in true Reynolds fashion serves as the movie’s most masculine and vibrant character. He’s definitely the alpha of the group, yet reveals himself to be in awe of the nature he’s about to face. When asked by Jon Voight’s Ed why we wants to “fuck with the river”, Lewis replies: “Because it’s there.”

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The Tarantino Influences: Branded to Kill

Branded to Kill is a 1967 movie directed by Seijun Suzuki. It’s style, non-traditional structure and quirky characters could have served as inspirations for Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill and Inglorious Basterds.

I’ll start this review with a disclaimer: I try to enter these movies blind. I don’t do any research prior to viewing nor do I read any criticism. This is a learning process for me and I don’t others’ views clouding my own opinions.

Having said that, I know I’m missing something with this movie.

On one hand, Branded to Kill is a weird, visual fun house that is both hilarious and hopelessly dark. On the other hand, it’s an elaborate mess featuring a cast of sincerely unlikable characters. It’s a fascinating blend of styles and bending of genres. Branded to Kill is an art house, existential Yakuza movie that forces you to do some heavy lifting. There’s a lot to invest in here, yet the payoff is lacking.

Branded to Kill tells a fairly simple story. Hanada, a hit man, fails to complete an assignment, which leads to him falling out of favor with his organization. He is then tracked by another hit man, which leads to a final showdown. Along the way, the story’s main character is involved in tortuous relationships with two different women.

Hanada is the #3 hit man in what appears to be a Yakuza organization. Early in the movie, he is defined as “a pro”, which stands in contrast to another associate, who is a bumbling, erratic drunk. The contrast is striking and interesting later in the movie, when Hanada begins to portray a similar character. At times, Hanada is fascinating and endearing. Initially, he exhibits an almost unreachable level of cool – he flaunts post-modern 1960’s style and a puffy faced look of nonchalance. Hanada is quirky too. In a running gag, he wants to surround himself with the aroma of rice, which serves as an aphrodisiac of sorts.

However, the luster of Hanada’s appeal is quickly lost after seeing his interactions with his wife, Mami. The relationship is mostly physical and features a lot of brute force. Hanada is aroused by the smell of boiling rice, then violently slaps Mami – which in turn gets her aroused. They have endless sex by continuing this loop. There’s no real communication between the two outside of sexual aggression. Later in the movie, Mami comments that “beast needs beast” before shooting Hanada. Yet even as he staggers around bleeding, it’s virtually impossible to sympathize with Hanada. He is an extraordinarily unlikable character.

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The Tarantino Influences: Band of Outsiders

Band of Outsiders is a 1964 Jean Luc Godard movie that focuses on a trio of students who attempt to pull off a robbery. Its style, attention to subtext and tone may have served as inspiration for Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.

The most common link between Tarantino and Band of Outsiders is the movie’s famous dance scene. According to Tarantino historians, the scene was a direct inspiration for Vincent Vega and Mia Wallace’s Jack Rabbit Slims dance in Pulp Fiction. However, the subtext floating around the story’s main plot celebrating American gangster movie culture is what makes Band of Outsiders a quintessential Tarantino influence.

The story is pretty simple. Two students, Franz and Arthur, decide to rob a house. They enlist the help of Odile, who lives in the house with her Madame Victoria. It’s a strange arrangement, as both Franz and Arthur are smitten with Odile and are competing to be with her sexually. Yet, they also need her to pull off the robbery. Odile seems to be both enraptured by and scared of Arthur and Franz’s attention towards her. The relationship is often muddled, as Odile is a pawn in the overall scheme, yet also is the fulcrum of the rampant teenage emotions permeating each encounter.

Franz and Arthur were clear Tarantino inspirations in that they are consumers and actors of American pop culture. Franz in particular dresses like a 1950’s mobster and attempts to wear the menacing scowl of a movie bad guy. Arthur reads comic books and talks about X-ray vision. Both play extended games of Billy the Kid, drawing on each other with finger guns and playing out exaggerated imaginary death scenes.

However, Arthur and Franz prove to be vastly different characters. While both are playing the roles of robbers both literally and figuratively, it’s clear Arthur is better equipped to pull it off. He’s the leader of the trio and we later learn that his family appears to have real-life criminal connections. Arthur is the realist of the duo – he’s direct, purposeful and confident in his actions, while Franz sometimes exists in a more philosophical realm of being. Each is dangerous – perhaps as a result of their criminal intentions, imagination and youthful arrogance, which can lead to accidental disaster.

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The Tarantino Influences: The 36th Chamber of Shaolin

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin is a 1978 kung fu movie starring Gordon Liu. The movie’s beautifully designed fight sequences and vibrant look and sound were influences on Tarantino’s Kill Bill.

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin tells the story of San Te, a student who is coerced into resisting the brutal Manchu regime. After surviving a vicious Manchu attack, San Te escapes in pursuit of the Shaolin school, where he is determined to learn martial arts. After a year of performing menial tasks, San Te begins his training and gains wisdom and skills through enduring the school’s 35 chambers. Upon completing the 35 chambers, San Te is given a choice of which chamber he wants to lead. He breaks from Shaolin tradition by wishing to introduce a 36th chamber, one that would provide Shaolin teaching to the outsiders being victimized by the Manchus. San Te is forced from the Shaolin school and returns to his home, where he leads a band of rebels against the oppressive Manchu forces.

You can see the influence the movie had on Tarantino through its various training sequences. San Te progresses through the school’s 35 chambers and performs tasks and skills similar to Beatrix in Kill Bill. In particular, the knife skills shown in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin are a heavy influence, as well as starring actor Gordon Liu’s ubiquitous presence in both movies.

I’m not ashamed to admit it: I had no idea Gordon Liu played both roles in Kill Bill.

There’s a great scene early in San Te’s training where he is attempting to balance on logs floating in water. He is soaking wet and starving and his teacher taunts him with a bowl of rice, which is continually dropped. Hunger is a great motivator, as San Te learns his first lesson on the importance of speed, balance and weight. The scene is a great full-circle moment later found in Kill Bill, when Beatrix is struggling with the chopsticks and Liu’s Pei Mei throws her bowl to the ground in disgust. Liu is excellent as a young San Te, who is impulsive and clumsy, yet eager to learn. His personal growth through the movie is formulaic yet it’s rewarding to watch him emerge as a master.

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The Tarantino Influences – The Killing

The Killing is a 1956 crime movie directed by Stanley Kubrick. The movie’s style, tone and characters likely influenced Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs , Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown.

The Killing tells the story of Johnny Clay, a recently freed criminal, who orchestrates a plan to rob a local horse track of potential millions. He recruits five other men to help him pull off the job. However, one of the men tells his wife of the plan – which leads to another scheme and an eventual explosive ending, which sees everything go up in smoke.

It’s clear that this movie was an inspiration for Tarantino (and probably dozens of other writer/directors). The characters in Reservoir Dogs borrow their toughness and quirkiness from The Killing, along with some classic dialogue exchanges and a violent shootout towards the movie’s climax. A younger Tarantino could have also been influenced by the way Kubrick plays with the narrative structure and puts an emphasis on time during the movie’s second half. Along with Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown and The Hateful Eight all employ similar linear storytelling traits.

The movie starts with Sterling Hayden’s Johnny Clay meeting up with Fay, his girlfriend. Hayden instantly commands the screen: it’s clear this is his story. He doesn’t allow Fay much intimate space and her only real dialogue points to her low self-esteem. She claims she isn’t smart or pretty and seems to only exist through Clay’s orbit. A similar relationship is shown with Marvin, the oldest of the criminal group, who initially appears to serve as a father figure. However, his actions are similar to Fay in that he appears in awe of Johnny’s presence.

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The Tarantino Influences: Lady Snowblood

Lady Snowblood is a 1973 movie that follows a young woman seeking revenge on her family’s murderers. From its female heroine to its style, setting and themes of vengeance and redemption, this movie is a clear influence on Tarantino’s Kill Bill.

It’s obvious that Lady Snowblood was a huge influence on Tarantino’s Kill Bill. The original features a female assassin out to avenge her family’s murder at the hands of an evil killer group. The idyllic snowy setting, use of animation and stylish flashbacks in Lady Snowblood are directly honored by Tarantino. You can quickly glance the following trailer and figure out which parts of the movie were Tarantino’s favorites.

The movie opens with a cryptic scene that shows Lady Snowblood’s mother struggling to give birth in a prison. We learn that her mother was raped by a group of criminals, who also murdered her husband and son a year prior. She conceives Lady Snowblood solely for her to be raised to exact vengeance. After a long struggle, the mother gives birth and then dies.

We later see a young Lady Snowblood receiving training from a priest and then becoming a dangerous assassin. She finds herself in a destitute village, where she enlists the leader of a beggar group to find the four criminals responsible for her family’s deaths. Eventually, she tracks down three of the four murderers.

Along the way, she is helped by a journalist who publishes sensational articles of Lady Snowblood’s exploits. This leads to a final showdown with Gishiro, who is the most powerful of the remaining criminals.

The film’s second scene establishes Lady Snowblood as a deadly force. She quickly defeats a local crime boss and his three henchmen – using her concealed umbrella sword. We immediately learn Lady Snowblood is coldly efficient and dispassionate. Or in other words, she’s an assassin. The setting is directly reminiscent of Tarantino’s House of Blue Leaves. It’s snowy, serene and if the scene had more time to develop, could probably be considered a beautifully meditative environment.

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The Tarantino Influences: The Great Silence

The Great Silence is a 1968 Western directed by Sergio Corbucci. Considered to be his finest work, the movie appears to have influenced Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight and Django Unchained.

The uniqueness of a Western in a snowstorm is striking – the movie’s opening is an expansive shot of a snowy trek, which illustrates the struggle of all involved. The horse can’t find its footing and both animal and rider are defeated by the conditions. It’s a gorgeous opening not in a majestic way but rather because it signals a gritty, unpolished tone to follow. There is both a bleakness and beauty in the landscape – something that Tarantino emulates in The Hateful Eight and Django Unchained.

For a movie that’s ultimately defined by its viciousness, the opening is campy. A newly hired sheriff encounters a group of hungry bandits that have been pushed into the wilderness. The sheriff appears hopeless from the start – first in an odd one-off scene with the Governor of Utah and then as the bandit crew spares the sheriff’s life in exchange for his horse – which they solely want to eat. The bumbling, freezing sheriff is then picked up by a carriage, which carries the movie’s protagonists in Silence and Loco.

The plot’s origins are a bit convoluted as Loco and the town’s Justice of the Peace are engaged in a shady murder for bounty scheme. Silence arrives in town due to a letter sent to him by a young widow who wants to exact vengeance for her husband’s death at the hands of Loco. It’s a bit comical to see the protagonists in such close proximity and makes the movie’s first 30 minutes far-fetched. However, we know we’re headed for a showdown between the two leads.

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The Quentin Tarantino Movie Rankings

Quentin Tarantino movies have now been a part of my life for 25 years. I recently decided to take the time to rewatch and rank all nine of his movies – mainly because I wanted to see if tastes have changed and really, because why not? I’m far from a movie critic and I’m not concerned about film theory or anything like that. These are my personal rankings.

1. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

2. Pulp Fiction (1994)

Without Pulp Fiction, I would have never known that movies existed. Of course, I was aware of movies and sometimes went to the movies. However, movies were a passing interest – something easily detachable. Pulp Fiction changed that. I had no idea that something could be so cool, original, fun, violent, hilarious – let alone a movie.

What I later learned was that Pulp Fiction was an entry to everything that made it cool, original, fun, violent and hilarious – all the little movie, TV and pop culture references that shaped Tarantino’s vision. Because of this one movie, I discovered hundreds more and all the wormholes attached – great directors, cool actors – all the influences both great and awful. I learned movie history from Anthony Cocca 49 cent general rentals and in each one, there’s some path that leads you back to Pulp Fiction.

Naturally, I’ve followed Tarantino ever since. And naturally, the movies have changed. Tarantino is still innovative, writes killer dialogue, creates visually stunning environments and is remarkably – still cool. I’ve loved all of his movies but I would always go back to Pulp Fiction as his best work. Or at least my favorite.

Maybe nostalgia informs this ranking – there’s a comfort in the characters, the soundtrack, the moments – being in the Warren Twin Cinema and for the first time experiencing a Royale with Cheese, personality going a long way or “I shot Marvin in the face!”

But then again, maybe there’s more to nostalgia.

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