Tarantino has come under criticism for his use of racial epithets in his films, particularly the word nigger in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, most notably from black American director Spike Lee. In an interview for Variety, Lee said: "I’m not against the word… and I use it, but Quentin is infatuated with the word. What does he want? To be made an honorary black man?"
An oft-cited example is a scene in Pulp Fiction in which a character named Jimmie Dimmick, portrayed by Tarantino himself, rebukes Samuel L. Jackson’s character, Jules Winnfield, for using his house as “dead nigger storage”, followed by a rant that uses the word profusely. Lee makes direct reference to this in his film Bamboozled when the character Thomas Dunwitty states: "Please don’t get offended by my use of the quote-unquote N word. I got a black wife and three biracial children, so I feel I have a right to use that word. I don’t give a damn what Spike says, Tarantino is right. Nigger is just a word."
Tarantino has defended his use of the word by arguing that black audiences have an appreciation of his blaxploitation-influenced films that eludes some of his critics, and, indeed, that Jackie Brown, another oft-cited example, was primarily made for "black audiences:“
To me the film is a black film. It was made for black audiences actually. It was made for everybody, but that was, pretty much, the “main” audience. If I had any of them in mind, I was thinking of that because I was always thinking of watching it in a black theatre. I didn’t have audiences ridiculously in mind because I am the audience, but that works well for that too because I go to black theatres. To me it is a black film. [1]
Tarantino has also been criticized for borrowing ideas, scenes, and lines of dialogue from other films. For example, the general plot of Reservoir Dogs seems to be culled from Ringo Lam’s City on Fire and Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing, while the idea of the color-coded criminals is taken from The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. The infamous ear-cutting scene in Reservoir Dogs was copied from a movie named Django made in 1966 by the Italian director Sergio Corbucci.
The Don Siegel version of The Killers played an influence on the opening and ending sequences of Pulp Fiction, and the events and dialogue of the adrenaline-injection scene closely resemble a story related in Martin Scorsese’s documentary American Boy: A Profile of: Steven Prince. The line about 'going to work on him with a blow torch and pair of pliers” is from the Don Siegel movie called Charlie Varrick made in 1971.
Meanwhile, the story of True Romance is practically the same as that of Terrence Malick’s Badlands, while several plotlines, characters and scenes of Kill Bill Vol. 1 seem to be taken from Lady Snowblood. In addition, Kill Bill appears to have been made based on the works of the late Hong Kong director Chang Cheh. [2]
The Superman monologue delivered at the end of Kill Bill Vol. 2 was copied almost verbatim from Jules Feiffer’s 1965 book, The Great Comic Book Heroes. [3]
Much debate has been sparked on when such references cease to be tributes and become plagiarism. Tarantino, for his part, has always been open and unapologetic about appropriating ideas from films he admires (see Quotes).
One other criticism of Tarantino is that some of Tarantino’s dialogue can be found in other films. The verse Samuel Jackson quotes in Pulp Fiction can also be found in the movie Karate Kiba (a 1970s Japanese action film starring Sonny Chiba, also known as The Bodyguard). In this movie the narrator has the following lines:
The path of the righteous man and defender is beset on all sides by the iniquity of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper, and the father of lost children. And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious anger, who poison and destroy my brothers; and they shall know that I am Chiba the Bodyguard when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.
[edit]…wikipedia
… I didn’t know that the color coded names wasn’t qt’s or most of all this. I thought i heard qt say he wrote “the path of the righteous”… with the bible verse. And i always loved the Superman speech, but i guess thats not original either. I know qt wanted to give some props… but goddamn.
I thought Spike Lee criticised Tarantino for Jackie Brown primarily, which used Nigger like over 30 times or something.
All i wanna know is if all this stuff he uses is a “homage” and that he said it was. Im just taken aback by half of this stuff, that i didn’t know. Because this page and many others are acting like hes riping them off. I mean there already is like a million references to other movies. And that the beginning and the end of Pulp is from “The Killers”. That the adrenaline-injection scene closely resemble a story related in Martin Scorsese’s documentary American Boy: A Profile of: Steven Prince. Quentin is my life and now im pissed. So someone set me striaght.
This is totally gay. The gender of this information is totally attracted to information of the same gender. Sickening.
Anyways, yea, its kind of dumb. Not that hes upset, but that people choose to get upset about such specific things. He didnt seem to be offended by sexist slurs from dogs such as “Eddie, you keep talking like a bitch, I’m gonna slap you like a bitch.”. It presents it as caring about a certian race of people, but not women in general, and its ridiculous and annoying. Regardless, I understand where hes coming from, but these are characters in a story, not QT himself.
[quote=“plunderbunnie”]
This is totally gay. The gender of this information is totally attracted to information of the same gender. Sickening.
[/quote]
Tee hee ;D
[quote="$5 Shake"]
All i wanna know is if all this stuff he uses is a “homage” and that he said it was. Im just taken aback by half of this stuff, that i didn’t know. Because this page and many others are acting like hes riping them off. I mean there already is like a million references to other movies. And that the beginning and the end of Pulp is from “The Killers”. That the adrenaline-injection scene closely resemble a story related in Martin Scorsese’s documentary American Boy: A Profile of: Steven Prince. Quentin is my life and now im pissed. So someone set me striaght.
[/quote]
Wow, I’m worried that you said Quentin is your life, because if you didn’t know about those “homeages”, you must not know very much about his films at all.
All this stealing/homeage/referencing bullshit has been done to the death. You will find that people will say “oh, QT ripped this” but then won’t go on to say what that means. So we’d be like “yeah, so?” and they won’t be able to say anything after that. A lot of directors steal, it’s virtually impossible to have a body of work which hasn’t taken aspects from other bodies of work in the film industry. Get over it, it’s nothing new, and doesn’t detract from the fact that Qt is a genius filmmaker, in fact, if anything, I think the taking of other ideas and moulding them to his own style and presenting them in an enhanced form, serves to heighten this guys qualities.
Carry on what you’ve been doing Q, we love ya!!
[quote=“The Pink Floyd”]
Wow, I’m worried that you said Quentin is your life, because if you didn’t know about those “homeages”, you must not know very much about his films at all.
All this stealing/homeage/referencing bullshit has been done to the death. You will find that people will say “oh, QT ripped this” but then won’t go on to say what that means. So we’d be like “yeah, so?” and they won’t be able to say anything after that. A lot of directors steal, it’s virtually impossible to have a body of work which hasn’t taken aspects from other bodies of work in the film industry. Get over it, it’s nothing new, and doesn’t detract from the fact that Qt is a genius filmmaker, in fact, if anything, I think the taking of other ideas and moulding them to his own style and presenting them in an enhanced form, serves to heighten this guys qualities.
Carry on what you’ve been doing Q, we love ya!!
[/quote]
The only “homeages” 
I knew were the ones on the dvds or what i read Qt say. Qt is my life. Pulp Fiction changed my life, and really got me into “movies”. I have every movie he has any part of and i study his craft. Yeah i knew that he took alot of ideas but then i stumped onto these sites and the shit made me think about being completely original and w/e. Basically im just going insane which i do alot…And it pisses me off.
P.t. Anderson is also a big fav of mine. I can’t believe he doesnt have any projects in the works. Oh wait! I just checked IMDB, he’s filming right now! There Will Be Blood There Will Be Blood (2007) - IMDb
I don’t think QT is doing homages, except in Kill Bill, and in it they don’t work that well. Mostly, he’s just taking what will work and using it.
That doesn’t make him an unoriginal artist. I can’t think of a single great filmmaker who hasn’t cribbed scenes, characters, shots, and even plots from other sources. QT stands out only because he talks about it allot.
The example I keep bringing up (undisputed so far) is Shakespeare. And shut up, I’m not comparing the quality of QT’s work and Shakespeare’s. But virtual all of Shakespeare’s body of work consists of stories that were taken from previous work. And not just older work in different forms; I’m talking about other plays he would have read or seen in his life. Even entire Shakespearean monologues that we totally attritute to his genius were taken from old poems and plays.
But taking from other sources is nothing new; it’s just less tolerated today, because people have gotten in their heads that the only goods things are totally original and that stealing ideas is like stealing real things. Bollocks.
Pulp Fiction is as good as any other movie ever made, and that’s all that matters.
<LINK_TEXT text=“http://www.godamongdirectors.com/tarant … ality.html”>The Originality of Quentin Tarantino</LINK_TEXT>
I dont understand why people get up tight about Quentin stealing from other movies and not the Black Eyed Peas releasing 3 singles in a row with borrowed music.
I find the Black Eyed Peas stealing a lot worse than QT’s could ever be. Atleast QT is entertaining, The Black Eyed Peas steal and they release garbage.
Besides, if you werent allowed to borrow from other artists there would be no Hollywood, there wouldnt be any rock bands after the Beatles and books would have stopped being written long ago.
Good Filmmaking is about using your own ideas and ideas from others who have come before you (think abou painting, music, writing). There would be no great movies like Touch of Evil or Taxi Driver or Pulp Fiction if the directors never used ideas and inspiration from other movies. I think the only thing that makes QT stand apart in this area is that hes very upfront about it. He knows its part of the craft so he tells people where he gets alot of his ideas from. This is also a great thing for aspiring filmmakers and people who love to see movies they may never have seen yet. How many movies have we seen thanks to QT saying “I used ---- for inspiration on this scene”? I personally see him stealing as a smart thing, not a negative thing.
Another aspect about the stealing thing is, just because you steal ideas doesnt mean youre going to make a great movie. QT has an innate talent to take ideas and use them in the best of ways and re-energize ideas. Not every filmmaker can do that.
[quote=“Nalliac”]
I dont understand why people get up tight about Quentin stealing from other movies and not the Black Eyed Peas releasing 3 singles in a row with borrowed music.
I find the Black Eyed Peas stealing a lot worse than QT’s could ever be. Atleast QT is entertaining, The Black Eyed Peas steal and they release garbage.
Besides, if you werent allowed to borrow from other artists there would be no Hollywood, there wouldnt be any rock bands after the Beatles and books would have stopped being written long ago.
[/quote]
The Pink Floyd would still be.
[quote=“WinslowLeach”]
Good Filmmaking is about using your own ideas and ideas from others who have come before you (think abou painting, music, writing). There would be no great movies like Touch of Evil or Taxi Driver or Pulp Fiction if the directors never used ideas and inspiration from other movies. I think the only thing that makes QT stand apart in this area is that hes very upfront about it. He knows its part of the craft so he tells people where he gets alot of his ideas from. This is also a great thing for aspiring filmmakers and people who love to see movies they may never have seen yet. How many movies have we seen thanks to QT saying “I used ---- for inspiration on this scene”? I personally see him stealing as a smart thing, not a negative thing.
Another aspect about the stealing thing is, just because you steal ideas doesnt mean youre going to make a great movie. QT has an innate talent to take ideas and use them in the best of ways and re-energize ideas. Not every filmmaker can do that.
[/quote]
You nailed it out of the park. My whole paranoia thing has left. Last week any movie i watched, any scene i was thinking is this Original. Just because i read some shit…(too much coke)… But now im fine, in fact because of qt i bought “John Carpenter’s The Thing” and “Dawn of the Dead” i only saw half of “Dawn” a long time ago and it to go in the collection. Rented alot of horror classics today also. After listening to Eli Roth…HA
Evil Dead 2
Night of the Living Dead
Day of the Dead
Chainsaw Massarce :o
America Werewolf in London
Great Escape
Rio Bravo
De Palma-
Dressed to Kill
Blowout
Pretty much every movie i’ve wanted to see in the last year of so… But never got around to renting.
Now go get Suspiria or Profondo Rosso . Two great horror thrillers.
[quote=“The Pink Floyd”]
The Pink Floyd would still be.
[/quote]
Granted.
[quote="$5 Shake"]
Meanwhile, the story of True Romance is practically the same as that of Terrence Malick’s Badlands[/quote]
how the hell is BADLANDS anything like TRUE ROMANCE? The plots are very different, tha only thing thats the same is that they’re both about couples.
[quote=“DangerMouse”]
how the hell is BADLANDS anything like TRUE ROMANCE? The plots are very different, tha only thing thats the same is that they’re both about couples.
[/quote]
Well, there were some similarities in music as well. Somebody who remember better can perhaps elaborate more on that.
But yeah, sometimes people go a little too far off with saying that QT steals everything. Like for example, the rape scene in Pulp Fiction is supposed to be ripped off from Deliverance. Totally different scenarios and Deliverance surely isn’t the only movie out there including a male rape scene.
I think True Romance is sorta like Taxi Driver too. The whole thing with Clarence going and shooting Alabama’s pimp. I know that QT loves Taxi Driver and that found its way into the script. Do I care if he stole it? Hell, no, hes a post modern director and thats what those kinds of films do, tell a story but also use ideas from older films and comment on film at the same time.
Also stealing IDEAS and reworking them into your film and stealing EXACT scenes from other films is different. I think QT usually takes certain ideas and puts them in his films, he doesnt just copy entire scenes shot for shot.
Well this forum is a testament to how these homages have actually increased popularity of Quentin’s favourites.
Half of the discussion that goes on is about comparing where certain scenes came from and the quest to watch all of Quentin’s favourites.
You can not argue that what QT has done hasnt been good for the films.