Tuesday, July 30, 2019

It's time for Tarantino to go away

By s. Tuesday, July 30, 2019 ,
After suffering through Tarantino's new movie, Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood, an excruciatingly boring trainwreck with editing from hell, I wasn't going to write a review  (and neither is that post one, I only scribbled few words on letterboxd). Tarantino has some of the most rabid, misogynistic fanboys out there and the last thing I want is to have a bunch of incels in my comments section. So on that note - if you wanna call me a cunt, that isn't going to get published here, honey. Maybe it won't happen as they are currently busy harassing Shannon Lee, who was uncomfortable with the portrayal of her father. Apparently that "bitch" "didn't get it".

But in the days that followed I noticed something disturbing - not only are people not embarrassed to still say they enjoy Tarantino work and are celebrating OUATIH's box office, but they are actually trying to shame those who openly talk about how misogynistic Tarantino's films have been in the last decade (who can forget those amazing, strong, inspiring heroines in Django and Hateful Eight? Oh, wait...) and those who say we shouldn't be holding him in such a high regard anymore because of what he has done (the rape comments, he knew about Weinstein, Uma Thurman accident). There is even mansplaining (in shocking twist it seems the majority of people who disliked Tarantino's latest are women) how OUATIH is a feminist movie.

You've gotta be fucking kidding me.

I'm not gonna sit here and lie that I didn't laugh when DiCaprio shouted 'what the fuck?' in the pool or that I didn't love Pitt's performance, which was the only thing that made this movie watchable. I'm not saying you can't enjoy this film. I'm not saying that you should stop watching his movies and paying for them. But to have so little shame that some actually try to turn this around? For people to claim that we should just give Tarantino a pass and those who don't ARE IN THE WRONG? That is profoundly repugnant.

Every single person who says nonsense like "let's separate art from the artist" is saying this and this alone: I like his movies and I don't care that some women were raped and he did nothing to help them. This is how these people sound. There's no room for nuance there because "let's separate art from the artist" is such a profoundly daft thing to say.

Those who rabidly defend Tarantino also go "what should he have done? Tell on Weinstein?" (Yes) and "Uma Thurman forgave him" (as if him creating reckless working environment is somehow erased because of that). I just cannot understand such level of shamelessness. These people are defending someone who stood idly by and did nothing while women were raped. Sure, he actually admitted it. So you think it's all right for him to still have money, opportunities and audience's ferocious defense none of the women who were raped get?

They are defending an individual who said this. As a grown up man. He said those things, believed those things.

And I am convinced even had Thurman died in that accident this thing would still open to 40 million and he would be given a pass.

Yes, there are lots of men in Hollywood that fit the above description. But let me tell you why even if Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood was a good movie you should feel ashamed or at least icky about praising it. Because the man who did the things described above is the only one in Hollywood who after #MeToo started released a movie where:

1.  for the second time in the row in his career the climax inspires hordes of men in the audience to bust a gut and cheer as a woman is brutally murdered. This time it's two women. He could have had Manson there. But why, when we can brutally slaughter two women? If you are comfortable with Brad Pitt brutally smashing a woman's face, regardless of who that woman is and what she has done, then you are a disturbed individual. I'm not gonna beat around the bush here - you are. Is it responsible for filmmaker, in this day and age, to show something like this in a mainstream movie, tons of young males, his lead fanbase, will watch? Is this something that *should* be happening? Is this the best use for his platform when he has the attention of so many? You know the answers. After #MeToo, after No Man's Land, after everything, how out of touch you have to be to have one of the men women actually like bash a woman's face in?

2. Sharon Tate is used for nothing more than bringing attention and hype to the film. I see those preposterous takes saying this is a 'love letter" to her. Why, because she exists on screen? Because she is young and beautiful and glowing? Because Margot Robbie plays her as some lobotomized little angel? Tarantino uses Tate's pregnancy to build the suspense - we know what happened in real life and he has those moments that focus on her state to build the dread in us. Oh, in the end it's all OK so I guess it's all right to use the real life murder of a pregnant woman for the audience to go 'aw' and forget about it after 5 minutes. Hilarious thing here is that Tarantino doesn’t realize that his young, male fanbase has no idea who Sharon Tate was (just look around reddit, they have no clue) so they are still praising this mess even though when you don't know what happened, Tate's presence in this movie is even more superfluous.

3. Natalie Wood's death (a rumored murder) is used as comedy material. A woman was killed by her husband on boat. Hilarious. Let's make her in ito a nag so that everyone thinks it's OK.

 4. Lena Dunham, extra points for hiring someone who molested their own sister, Quentin,  says "we love Pussy". Again, wonderful use of platform.

5. The amount of bare female feet. Tarantino doesn't even hide his fetish. But when there's more fetish in a movie than interesting female characters that is a problem

6. He actually went ahead and hired Emilie Hirsch. He actually did that.

You would think that after all the off screen outrage Tarantino would use this film to appeal to women. To show his male fans how to be mature. To atone for doing nothing when in real life women endured unimaginable pain.

But why, when we can barbecue a woman?

Tarantino continues not to care. It was dreadful watching him rudely shut down a reporter at Cannes who simply wondered why Margot Robbie had so few lines (apparently the theatrical version has more lines than the one screened in Cannes, so that makes that reporter even more right. But why should he care? No matter what he does, what he says and how hollow, bad and putrid his films, there will still be those not only defending him but actually trying to spin the narrative, portray him as some feminist hero and those who disagree as lunatics.

What would I have done if I actually liked that movie? Well for starters if someone pointed out that Tarantino is trash I would feel bad for liking it. I certainly wouldn’t go online and try to rewrite history. You wanna like this film, fine. You wanna stan this man, fine. Just don't mansplain to women what a feminist movie this is. Just be silent in the shame you should feel.

I'm looking forward to his 10th movie. Maybe he goes with horror this time and he tells us those pesky women during witch hunts were actually possessed. and wanted to end the world. He could burn hundreds in finale. And the audience would show up and  be delighted because he would get DeNiro and Cruise to torch them while "No woman no cry" plays in the background.

But what do I know. After all I only have facts, a conscience and a vagina.

18 comments:

  1. Honestly, I'm almost tempted to miss this movie completely. I've heard good things about Pitt's performance and if anything I would see it for that, but it's just not appealing at all - let alone all the crap that Tarantino's done!

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    1. Seriously miss it. Just rent when it's available and watch Pitt's scenes.

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  2. thank you for pointing all of this out! I have never seen a QT movie. he's always rubbed me the wrong way, and frankly I'm not big on violence. I really did consider going to see this because I love Pitt and have always been intrigued by the manson murders. Instead I just read a synopsis and was.... unimpressed... and thankful I didn't spend my money on it.

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    1. To be fair and give the credit where it is due Jackie brown is so lovely it's kinda amazing he made that. It's a very good movie, so is Pulp Ficiton and Inglorious Bastards. But those films were over a decade ago so people using the examples of female characters from that to defend his recent work, especially in light of his off screen antics and how he casts his movies with so many degenerates, is just ridiculous

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    2. My husband keeps trying to get me to watch Pulp Fiction but I've seen bits and pieces of it and I wasn't a fan (maybe my tastes have changed now?). I do want to watch Jackie Brown though, and I'm pretty sure we own it!

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    3. I hope you'll like Jackie Brown!

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  3. I was more interested in this movie than some of his recent stuff mainly because of the Hollywood subject matter and then I saw his fans arguing that he had given Sharon Tate back her agency and thought nope can't deal with it. Not to mention the Bruce Lee/Shannon Lee stuff. Her comments were measured and respectful and apparently she just doesn't get it she should be honored.

    The odd thing is I do believe if it was any other film maker there'd be more holding him to account. I don't know what hold QT has on people. Anyway great write-up. I hope you don't get any crap from people!

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    1. "Men" now mensplaining to her why she is wrong and Tarantino is paying homage and she should be glad or whatever is seriously cringe-worthy. His fans are so goddamn embarrassing

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  4. Great piece. I sometime struggle with "separating art from artist" because more than one person helps make a film but the way his last three films have written women has been troublesome and it's kind of frustrating explaining why parts of this movie bothered me only to get dismissed by the men I'm sharing those opinions with. Even my husband didn't see it from my side.

    Ugh.

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    1. Yeah but those people went to work for that person. No one forced them. Robbie lost so much of my respect when she signed up for this.

      This film seems to be bringing out the worst in dudes, all those defense pieces where they explain to women how it is not misogynistic are infuriating

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  5. it's important to stand up for other people and call others out! thank you for your passion, sati.

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    1. Isn't it curious how only women comment on this post? :D God, this movie really brings out the worst in dudes.

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    2. definitely a discussion which had to happen!

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  6. I love how passionate your are Sati. Could really feel it in this article. TBH, I’m not sure about seeing this film myself.

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    1. Yes that is what I am :) Also pissed off :P

      I think you should wait for rental, it's not even impressively shot

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  7. I don't know what to say. I haven't seen the movie so I have no visual context to these things. But this sounds like a mess and a really showcases the toxic message Hollywood is still willing to put out there. Horrible.

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    1. That Hollywood is fucked up is just how things are but the fact that the audiences support it and some even actively defend it is seriously saddening :/

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  8. Tarantino is one of the filmmakers who made me fall in love with movies so I’d really love to separate art from the artist when it comes to him. However, all the shit that has come up recently about him and the poorly way he’s been treating female characters in his recent films don’t allow me to do that. I still can’t believe I wasted my time to watch this trash some “men” dare call a feminist film. And the way he used Robbie and Tate, it pissed me off so much. The first is such a great actor and definitely deserves more than this, whatever it was, and the latter surely didn’t deserve to be portrayed as some dumb blond actress. Great post!

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