hile Jeff Bezos and Elon
Musk are frantically plotting
ways to colonise the moon,
it looks like the moon is busy colo-
nising our pop culture. The internet
exploded with moon memes and trivia
on the 50th anniversary of the first
moon landing on July 20, 1969. NASA
streamed footage of the launch on-
line. Images of Buzz Aldrin’s handwrit-
ten note quoting the scriptures which
was taken to the moon was doing the
rounds on social media. So was Neil
Armstrong’s EKG from the moon.
Scientists at a recent conference
speculated on what kind of giant
leap mankind is going to take in the
moon in future. “In 50 years, there
will be more tourists on the moon,
which would be just like a resort, withT R E N D S P O T T E R
Moon-gazing
W
a backyard for grilling meat or
whatever else,” said Anatoli Petru-
kovich, director, Space Research
Institute, Russian Academy of
Sciences.
India, too, had its moment under
the moon when we launched
Chandrayaan-2 on July 22. Once it
lands on the moon on September
7, it will be looking for anything
that seems interesting, like water,
caves and minerals. And if we
can’t find them on the moon, we
are going to transfer our billion
dreams to the capable shoulders
of Akshay Kumar, who will be
taking us to Mars in his upcoming
science fiction thriller Mission
Mangal, about the ISRO scientists
behind the Mars Orbiter Mission.AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 67tion) quotes the Bible before killing a college kid.
Even the moral compass of Reservoir Dogs, Mr. Or-
ange, is not averse to violence. Yet you tend to buy
them, because in the Tarantino universe, they are
the regular folk who smoke Red Apple cigarettes and
eat at Big Kahuna Burger. Yet, unreal as they may be,
their conversations are full of details. The anecdotes
they recount are vivid and colourful, like the German
myth that Dr. Schultz narrates in Django Unchained.
Tarantino does not seem particular about where
his plot and characters go. The stick-up artists of
Reservoir Dogs are clueless about their next move,
accidents dominate the plot of Pulp Fiction and the
hateful eight are trigger-happy at the slightest prov-
ocation. But there is a certain allure to this mayhem,
this absence of plan, this sheer recklessness in de-
fining the intentions of characters. The director had
come up with an explanation. “Quentin is not doing
the writing. Quentin starts it off. Then the characters
take over and Quentin has no control over what they
might or might not do,” he had said.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is touted to be a
tribute to the golden age of Hollywood. The movie is
garnering great reviews and is likely to be the biggest
hit among Tarantino fanboys.
If he is hanging up his boots soon, it is certainly
on a high note!because he has a compelling story
or an original idea, but because he
loves cinema, unconditionally and
unabashedly. He is enamoured by
the magic of it and his works reflect
the movies he loves. “If you just truly
love cinema with enough passion, and
you really love it, then you cannot help
but make a good movie,” he had said.
A nudge here, a wink there, an una-
bashed replication elsewhere—the
opening scene of Jackie Brown bears
uncanny resemblance to the opening
scene of The Graduate. Death Proof is
his homage to the car chase flicks of
the 1970s. He did not make a movie
that was set in the 1970s, but one that
looked like it was made in the 70s, with
missing frames and mismatched cuts.
His characters are often detestable
and bereft of saving grace. Jackie Brown
does a whole lot of double-crossing,
Hans Landa (Inglourious Basterds)
sells his soul and the Fuhrer for the
deal of a lifetime, and Jules (Pulp Fic-
Reservoir
Dogs
1992Once Upon
a Time In
Hollywood
2019