Tarantino’s Revolution of Necessary Violence On-Screen
By RJ Edrolin
Violent. Unique. Gory. When you ask someone walking out of a theater who just saw the latest Quentin Tarantino flick, more than likely they would use one of those three words to describe what they just saw. Director and screenwriter, Quentin Tarantino, is no stranger to moviegoers and controversy. His artistic style is eccentric, unique, and indescribable. However, his artistic style is also the reason why he gets in trouble so much in the first place. Tarantino has been the subject of several controversies; from the rampant usage of the N-word in his films to the arguably problematic ways he depicts his characters that are based on real-life figures. But, since the beginning of his filmmaking career, he’s been subjected to one controversy, that even he has admittedly been long annoyed by; the usage of violence in his films. Although violence in movies is not a foreign visual, the director has long been criticized for his overuse of it, which some critics simply just find unnecessary. Tarantino has stated in the past that violence in his movies adds even more depth to his stories and doesn’t find his usage of violence in his movies unnecessary. Whether film critics agree with his statement or not, it’s meaningful to note that Tarantino shifted the utilization of violence on the screen by integrating it as a vital part of the plot to help catalyze the story rather than just using it as a spectacle.
The presence of violence in film is not new. Film historian Tom Pollard cites that, “from the earliest days of cinema, violence emerged as a powerful audience draw, proving almost as effective as sex in attracting audiences.” Although the statement can be off-putting, Tarantino has defended audiences’ draw towards violence, claiming that “we live in a violent world” and that it’s almost natural for someone to be attracted to it in movies, even if they unknowingly do so. Whether some moviegoers like to admit it or not, violence sells almost as well as sex does. This finding is further supported by a study published by the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which found that “Horror/violence movie types affected the subject by making him feel more stressed and anxious; however, romance made him feel sleepier.” Based on this study, the average moviegoer is more likely to engage with a film that possesses elements of surprise or some sort of violence. Audiences will always enjoy watching some form of exhilarating action when they watch a film. When you ask someone about the most satisfying moment in an action movie they enjoy, they most likely will respond with the scene where the hero finally defeats the villain. Even outside of action movies, most people find ultimate satisfaction in watching their favorite characters get what they want. But most of the time audiences fail to link that in most cases, their hero defeated their villain or got what they wanted through violence. If you’re a James Bond fan, Mission Impossible fan, or even a Marvel fan, you have at one point found satisfaction in your hero using violence in achieving their goals.
However, some critics of Tarantino fail to realize their draw to violence and instead blame their discomfort with it on the director. Journalist Roy Chacko wrote in The Guardian that, “Tarantino’s films reveled in extreme violence,” and suggested that it was time to “cancel” the director over what he claimed was “extreme violence against [his] female characters.” Chacko goes on to describe Kill Bill (2003) as a “cinematic orgy of onscreen violence,” describing Uma Thurman’s character as, “severely beaten throughout” and criticizing showing her getting “buried alive.” In another article, Chacko praises Marvel for its new Loki TV show. He mentions Loki’s character in Avengers: Infinity War (2018), recalling that he, “died at the start of Avengers.” Chacko doesn’t go further into detail on Loki’s death and continues to praise Marvel for their next move. It’s strange for him to find Loki’s death bearable and to describe it in such a nonchalant way when in reality audience watched Loki brutally beaten to death, gasping for air, his skin turning blue and veins popping out when he was getting choked by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. It’s odd that Chacko could describe that scene so calmly but call a female samurai sword fight in Kill Bill a “cinematic orgy of on screen violence”. Although Tarantino’s critics can argue that the level of gore violence was portrayed differed in these franchises, it isn’t justifiable to claim Tarantino “reveled in extreme violence” or enjoyed watching his characters get “severely beaten throughout” when you can argue the same thing for Avengers: Infinity War (or really any action movie). Chacko goes on to say even further, “it’s fair to say male characters were also subjected to extreme violence” in Tarantino’s movies. This statement entirely contradicts his claim that Tarantino enjoys extreme female violence when in reality, the director doesn’t. This trend in criticism of Tarantino’s movies is common, where critics justify their complaints by making unrelated claims because they’re uncomfortable with watching violence without actually analyzing how Tarantino uses violence to aid his story and character-building.
In the 2-and-a-half-hour Nazi-hunting fairytale, Inglourious Basterds (2009), Tarantino doesn’t shy away from using violence; however, once compared to the action series Mission Impossible, this use of violence is not excessive. Inglourious Basterds has three main characters, American ‘Nazi-hunter’ Lieutenant Aldo Raine, Jewish cinema owner Shosanna Dreyfus, and Nazi officer Hans ‘The Jew Hunter’ Landa. All of these characters are connected in some form, following paths in hopes of succeeding in their vengeance. Like most of Tarantino's films, Inglourious Basterds wasn’t safe from the many criticisms the director faced in the past. Although Inglourious Basterds is regarded by many as his best work, up until that time, it was also considered to be his most violent piece. From the scalping of numerous men to the carving of a swastika on someone’s forehead, Inglourious Basterds was criticized by numerous critics as a glorification of violent revenge. While the film does have a very violent nature, the criticism of Tarantino glorifying violent revenge is weak through the fact that many action movies’ storylines are based on revenge. In fact, revenge is a subgenre in action movies. In comparison to action movies, which are known to be violent, I find it hard to understand how critics overlook the action genre when it comes to the argument of the glorification of violence and instead label it on Tarantino’s work. Often in action movies, there are high spectacles: cool cars crashing into one another, big fires, and a high-stakes life or death situation. All of these elements are visually appealing, add to the cinematography, and are extremely violent. But what all of these elements fail to bring is relevancy to the plot. Take the multi-billion dollar action series, Mission Impossible, for example. Among the 6 Mission Impossible movies, they’ve all had these cool, costly spectacles. But if you take away these elements, does it change anything about the story? It doesn’t in fact, as these violent components don’t actually serve the plot in any way, they’re just cool to watch and adds to the cinematography. So why then do critics find it acceptable – and are honestly drawn to it – for action movies to repeatedly showcase these ultra-violent spectacles, but Tarantino is criticized when violence is actually relevant to the plots of his movies? Is the problem really that Tarantino’s movies are too unnecessarily violent then? Or do they just not like what they see?
One notable employment of violence in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds can be found in Lieutenant Aldo Raine’s character. Aldo Raine is an American Lieutenant who prides himself on his group of Jewish-American Nazi hunters. Once his group of Nazi hunters finds Nazis, they peel back their scalps as punishment for their Nazi affiliation. After a successful ambush on a group of Nazis, Aldo Raine takes one survivor and lets his second, Sergeant Donny Donowitz ‘The Bear Jew’, carve a swastika on his forehead. This scene was the cause of criticism when the film originally came out. Multiple critics found the scene to be insanely graphic and unnecessary. Even when I talked to my friends about Inglourious Basterds, almost all of them asked me if I, “remembered the scalping scene.” The scene is memorable, to say the least, but it is not unnecessary. One of the skills Tarantino is so accomplished at is character building. Decades later when you walk down the street, you’re likely to see someone sporting a Pulp Fiction shirt with the iconic Uma Thurman smoking a cigarette even if they never have seen the movie. Tarantino is an expert on building his characters and is known to add characteristics of violence to his characters. In particular, the entire plot of Kill Bill and Django Unchained were the main characters’ vengeance. Aldo Raine is no exception from this, scalping being a part of his character. But the fact that he scalps people is not an unnecessary usage of violence and is actually relevant to the story. The reason his character is so feared in the first place is that he scalps Nazis. In the film, even Adolf Hitler is scared of him. If Tarantino took out the violent nature of his character, he wouldn’t have left as big of an impression on audiences. Instead, we need to know that he is as violent as he is known to be in the film so we feel, like the rest of the characters in the movie,fearful of him. It’s not unnecessary to show him in action as some viewers would suggest because it's both relevant to the story and to an audience’s experience.
Another character in Inglourious Basterds also has an important characteristic of violence embedded in her story. Emmanuelle Mimieux aka Shosanna Dreyfus is a Jewish teenager whose family was killed by Nazis, led by Hans Linda, while they were hiding out in a French household. Years later, she now owns a cinema. When the star of a German propaganda film suggests having the premiere at her theater, Shosanna views it as an opportunity to enact her revenge and plans to set the building on fire with the Nazis and Hans Linda, who was invited to the screening, locked in. Shosanna’s character arc is almost entirely violent. She is so driven by her lust for vengeance that almost nothing else matters to her. Tarantino creates depth within her character by weaving violence into the person she is, unlike in other movies, where violence is used solely for spectacle and does little to advance the plot. But without Shosanna’s lust for revenge and her idea of burning the theatre down, her character would be nonexistent. Violence is what keeps her going and what makes her character contain so much depth. She’s traumatized by the slaughter of her family and has turned the love she possessed so deeply for them into rage against the Nazis. Violence is a vital part of her character and is something Tarantino masterfully manages to incorporate. Tarantino didn’t unnecessarily add the theatre burning down just because he loves violence. He does it because it’s actually relevant to the story he’s trying to tell.
Whether or not critics agree with Tarantino’s usage of violence in his films or not, one cannot deny that he did leave an imprint on how violence is used in his films, making it applicable to both the story and character, not just the cinematography of a film. Tarantino is not the first person to do this, but he is among the most prominent directors this day to do it. The “violence isn’t an answer” trope is so common today, that it’s almost refreshing to see someone choose a different storytelling path. Although Tarantino has been the face of a number of controversies, violence in his films shouldn’t be one of them as he doesn’t unnecessarily use it, but rather makes it a significant part of the story he is trying to tell. I believe the reason why some critics find his usage of violence so off-putting isn’t solely because it’s unnecessary, but because they simply don’t like to see the normalization of gory violence becoming an integral device in world-building and story-telling. But as Tarantino said in an interview in the Chicago Tribune it’s his, “responsibility to make characters and to be as true to them as I possibly can.”
Works Cited
Chacko, Roy. “End of the Affair: Why It's Time to Cancel Quentin Tarantino.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 23 July 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jul/23/cancel-quentin-tarantino-once-upon-a-tim e-in-hollywood.
Chacko, Roy. “Tom Hiddleston Reveals Loki TV Spinoff in the Works.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 22 July 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jul/22/tom-hiddleston-reveals-loki-tv-spi noff-in-the-works.
Dargis, Manohla. “Tarantino Avengers in Nazi Movieland.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Aug. 2009, https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/movies/21inglourious.html.
Dickos, Andrew. “Epilogue: Comments on the Classic Film Noir and the Neo-Noir.” Street with No Name: A History of the Classic American Film Noir, University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 2002, pp. 235–244.
James, Caryn. “Why Inglourious Basterds Is Quentin Tarantino's Masterpiece.” BBC Culture, BBC, 16 Aug. 2019, https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20190815-why-inglourious-basterds-is-quentin-taran tinos-masterpiece.
Mattar, L., et al. "Effect of movie violence on mood, stress, appetite perception and food preferences in a random population." European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vol. 69, no. 8, Aug. 2015, pp. 972+. Gale Health and Wellness, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A424532308/HWRC?u=usocal_main&sid=bookmark-HWRC&xid=0d164cd5. Accessed 21 Apr. 2022.
Pollard, Tom. Sex and Violence the Hollywood Censorship Wars. Taylor and Francis, 2015. Tarantino, Quentin, and Lawrence Bender. Inglourious Basterds. The Weinstein Company, 2009. Zuckerman, Esther. “Everything Quentin Tarantino Really Thinks about Violence and the
Movies.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 30 Oct. 2013, https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2013/01/quentin-tarantino-violence-quotes/3 19586/.