Going medieval on those Tarantino bashers

Drew McWeeney used to write as “Moriarty” for AICN, he now has a column at HitFix called Motion Captured. If you have a free spot in your morning RSS fix, then subscribe, he’s one of the best movie critics on the net, and for the following paragraph, I’m puting him in my cool book. You’ve probably heard of this whole story and I’ve mentioned it before, so without going much into it, just enjoy Drew’s eloquent words (and for the record this isn’t about defending Tarantino because we’re a Tarantino fan site, this is about people who have a problem with someone else not doing what they expected him to do, to those I say, make your own damn movies):

Why is it that when I read articles in which people rant about how much they hate Quentin Tarantino, the subtext is inevitably about how Tarantino didn’t do what they wanted him to do with his career?  Although I think it’s ridiculous to pan a movie based on a single teaser trailer, I’m not going to bash the guy for it.  But what does disturb me about this sort of a rant is the implication that Tarantino owes anyone a different kind of movie than the kind he’s making.  I know people who complain that what he’s making now is totally disconnected from his “early great movies” like “Reservoir Dogs” or “Pulp Fiction.”  I don’t think that’s true or especially fair.  Tarantino’s in an enviable position, where he’s been able to follow his particular whims as an artist without any restraint, and whether you like the results or not isn’t the point. They’re his interests.  These are the films that he feels like he has to make.  In the end, all you can judge is whether or not he pulled off the art that interested him, not whether or not he lived up to your particular wants for his career.  When did we stop reviewing what an artist actually does versus what we wish he would do? (continue reading)

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Sebastian

Sebastian is the founder and owner of the Tarantino Archives and has been a fan and observer of QT for over two decades now, cherishing his work and the window in the the wider world of cinema his movies have opened up. Inspired as such, he runs the Spaghetti Western Database (SWDb), the Grindhouse Cinema Database (GCDb), Furious Cinema, its German sister Nischenkino and The Robert Rodriguez Archives. He lives in Berlin.

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