MovieChat Forums > The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1944) Discussion > Life and Death of Tarantino worship

Life and Death of Tarantino worship

posted 11 years ago by Dantès
4 replies | jump to latest

I'm not a Quentin Tarantino fan, and I'm very annoyed by the fawning praise over how he's changed cinema, particularly with the chronological ingenuity of Pulp Fiction.

Colonel Blimp did a very similar thing in a much less gimmicky way, over 50 years prior. I wish more movie critics knew more about movies.

[–] Marmadukebagelhole 11 years ago

To give Tarantino credit, he has always acknowledged the P&P influence and has championed their films many times. In fact, during his promotion of Pulp Fitcion (nearly twenty years ago, jeez that makes me feel old) he would talk about almost little else but The Life & Death Of Colonel Blimp.

@Twitzkrieg - Glasgow's FOREMOST authority

[–] Steve Crook 11 years ago

I wish more movie critics knew more about movies

You might as well wish for the moon on a stick while you're at it. A few movie critics know what they're talking about and are worth listening to, but the vast majority don't and aren't

But as martin-johnstone said, you shouldn't blame Tarantino for what people say about him, and he has always acknowledged his debt to P&P.

From the "Famous fans of P&P" list at http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Famous.html:
Quentin Tarantino said that The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp was a direct influence on Reservoir Dogs - the central action scene (the duel, the jewel robbery) being much built-up to and then not seen (but commented on extensively by characters afterwards), and the shifts in time from past to present.

Steve

[–] OldSamVimes 11 years ago

Nice Steve. Thanks for that link!

[–] Beau_Buffet (332) 6 years ago

The narrative structure style of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction are much more closer to Kubrick's The Killing (1956), than to Blimp. Meaning: a lot of back and forth.

Blimp's structure is a classic "in media res", akin to Citizen Kane (1941) and Le Jour se Lève (1939): it starts near the end, and then follows a very long flashback which is more or less chronological.