Eleanor Wemyss

Back to the Future: A trip into Postmodern TarantinoQuentin Tarantino is widely recognized as a patriarch of the postmodernism era through his

constant borrowing of other directors, genres and ideas. Though this has caused a great amount of

criticism his films are still cult classics and merit a large following. In his films “Reservoir Dogs”

(1992), “Pulp Fiction” (1994), “Django Unchained” (2012) (1) he uses several themes and motifs that

reoccur throughout and give him the title of auteur as audiences identify with him. He is also

referred to as a postmodernist through his cultural and artistic references within his films.

The theory of postmodernism is exactly that: a theory. The term has been in circulation since the

late 1800s and referred to the notion that “there are no new ideas” and within Jean François

Lyotard’s theory of meta and micro-narratives, we as humanity follow universal truths and each try

to find our own micro-narratives to help ourselves. Tarantino is an arbiter of this theory using his

own aesthetic in an innovative way to sell his text to audiences and allows low and high culture to

collide within the concept of being postmodern. His career focused on regurgitating old concepts

and expanding cultural references through heavily stylized archetypes such as his gore filled scenes

in “Django” and current concepts of media in “Pulp Fiction” with corrupt authoritative figures. Each

of Tarantino's films, either high concept or otherwise, function within a small clique of preexisting

ideas but with an optimistic outlook on an otherwise dystrophic regime. (4)

The title of Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 hit “Reservoir Dogs” is in itself bricolage as the title borrows

from ‘Au revoir, les enfants’ (1987) and the violent ‘Straw Dogs’ (Sam Peckinpah, 1971) but

incorporates the style of French New Wave (Jean Luc Goddard and François Truffaut) and classic

Hollywood. As well as pastiche reference throughout, counting the opening title featuring the

“dogs” walking in slow-motion, an imitation of Ocean’s Eleven (1960).(16)

Since its release, Tarantino made his name as a ‘thief’ of other

director’s work such as his identical plot from the film ‘City On Fire’ (Ringo Lam, 1987) to Reservoir

Dogs as both follow an undercover cop infiltrating a jewel thief’s gang and being unable to commit

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to betraying his new allies, particularly one character he gets close to. Though charges are dropped

as post Reservoir Dogs the cinema screens were filled with guns, pop culture references and

Mexican style stand-offs all following the similar style of Tarantino, linking to the bricolage of

postmodern films. Example seen in ‘Kaante’ (Sanjay Gupta, 2002) of which Tarantino hails as

“fabulous” and “of the many rip offs of Reservoir Dogs I loved this one, ‘Kaante’”. (3)

Reservoir Dogs uses non - linear structure to an extreme, bombarding audiences with images and

overloading the flashbacks technique to the extent the text has no precise plot to be discussed. (16)

Clip – Reservoir Dogs (1992) - 19:20-20:50 Duration:1m30s (Mr Pink Heist Chase)

Non-linear is evident in this clip as Mr Pink’s dialogue is missed but rather shown to the audience in

a flashback, Tarantino’s entire film is revolved around this technique. After the action is shown it

reverts back to the present day happenings as though nothing has changed for the characters.

The film itself is about the "bloody aftermath" of a "botched" jewel heist shown through broken

scenes to create a style of mystery, Tarantino borrowing from several genres. Mr Orange (Tim Roth)

spends the present time set nursing a gunshot wound on the warehouse floor whilst the other

characters argue over a suspected "rat“ in their system. Like many novels Tarantino is able to switch

between the scenes seemlessly to continue the film. (11)

“Familiar but irrelevant” can be used to describe Tarantino’s pastiche and pop culture references

throughout Reservoir Dogs. (3) His characters, particularly Mr Brown (Quentin Tarantino), review

homage pieces sat around a non descript table, Madonna’s “Like A Virgin” being a main topic, his

own theories coming into place. (11) Postmodern theorist Judith Butler remarks “you are allowed to

take what you want, make a new identity” which is what many postmodern icons embody. Fredric

Jameson sees it as “rummaging through the styles of the past for usable images as a central

strategy of all postmodernist art” such as Tarantino does, which is reflected in his films. (16)

Eleanor Wemyss

“Pulp Fiction” is no exception to the postmodernist rule as it incorporates the use of non-linear

narrative, bricolage and its aspects of self-awareness are combined with numerous intertextual

references and pay homage to several icons. It tells the story of gangsters, robbers and a boxer

through interweaving storylines and a lack of chronological awareness, bringing in aspects of high

and low culture to conform to Tarantino’s auteurship style. (2)

The use of homage throughout creates a positive audience reaction as they can identify where the

intertexual references are used and it makes them feel more involved. Tarantino himself hails it as

“part of the fun of Pulp, is that if you're hip to movies, you're watching the boxing movie ‘Body and

Soul’ and then suddenly the characters turn a corner and they're in the middle of ‘Deliverance’”. Its

usage is deliberate to keep his audience off balance (5) as well as a remark to pop icons of previous

decades.

Clip – Pulp Fiction (1994) – 32:45-35:30 Duration:2m45s (Vincent and Mia Jack Rabbit Slim’s Diner)

The character of Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) becomes self-aware through her imitation of creating

a square for it then to appear on screen without the character ever stating the word; this is in the

true postmodern style of breaking the fourth wall and reminds the audience they are watching a

movie. Throughout the remainder of this clip pastiche representation is seen, such as the Zorro

figure or the Monroe, highlighting postmodern theology. Not only are they attributed to Tarantino’s

own childhood love of films and pop culture but they also incorporate the more world dynamic

themes such as the bible quote from Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) but inherently linking back to films as

seen in ‘Night of the Hunter’ (1955). In addition to intertexual referencing it links to the postmodern

theory of bricolage as Tarantino has taken from history and used it in his own work. (7,9)

Non-linear narrative structure does not solely fall to Tarantino but is seen in several other

postmodern texts, as self construction and self awareness fall into the same category through the

way in which Tarantino has constructed his film can be argued again as bricolage. To illustrate the

different storylines Tarantino begins each with title cards splitting into “Vincent Vega and Marcellus

Eleanor Wemyss

Wallace's Wife”, “The Gold Watch” and “The Bonnie Situation”, fitting into Lyotard’s theory of

micro-narratives as each character has their own motives, though Tarantino’s style eventually unites

them into a meta-narrative. (6)

Pulp Fiction uses self-reflexivity through the character of Jules as he realizes he no longer wants to

be a criminal as he believes divine intervention stopped a shooter from killing him, his character

representing faith and purity. With his links to God throughout and his act in the last scene of

sparing the robbers' lives he is a reflection of postmodernism as he believes in a higher power. (8,9)

Tarantino’s stylist innovation and ambitions make Pulp Fiction an archetype of postmodernism and

American cinema.

“Django” (Sergio Corbucci, 1966) spawned many “rip-offs” of the Western genre, including the

1973 “Charley-One-Eye” (Don Chaffey) of which Tarantino has utilised. His own “Django Unchained”

features Django’s self inherited code name “Charley One Eye”, Tarantino’s way of ‘tipping his hat’ to

other postmodern texts. (13) “Django sees Tarantino pulling apart the genre iconography and gluing

it back together as a postmodern Franken-western.” (Matt Glasby, Total Film, 2012) While Tarantino

disregards the use of literal meaning, he instead chose to focus on his characters and their meta-

narratives instead of black liberation on a whole, his protagonist concentrating on saving his wife

rather than his race.

Clip – Django Unchained (2012) - 2:29:17-2:34:53 Duration:5m36s (The 'D' is silent)

This forces the audience to justify the bloody violence and relate to the characters suffering instead

of the grand-narrative that he has just killed several people, though arguably justifiable. The

pessimistic attitude relating to the rest of the slaves in the microcosm of Django Unchained, as they

are not released and are unlikely to be without the same or similar help that Django received from

Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz). (12)

Eleanor Wemyss

As theorist Jacques Derrida observed, “There is no literal meaning under the surface of things”,

much like Django Unchained is not a poster for slave rights but rather one man’s struggle for love,

though with much more gore and violence.

Quentin Tarantino is a director, actor and writer who truly embodies the meaning of being

postmodern as his films are rife with pastiche and ‘stolen’ ideas. His ability to touch upon subjects

and genres, combining them seamlessly, is remarkable and makes him a credible and relevant film

maker. Though postmodernism is seen not just in film and books but in the waking world, in art, in

technology and in music, it is still seen as just a theory. Theorists and postmodern terms will

continue to be current and reflective in society, as we are truly in a world with few new ideas. So

the question remains, are we in a postmodern world? Will Tarantino ever be forced to parody one

of his own films? And is any writer/director safe?