Empire Australasia - 04.2020

REVIEW

bulb turned on in my head.

Nick: Same here. Pulp Fiction

blew my mind. I had the Bruce

Willis poster up in my room

and I bought the Faber scripts

for Reservoir Dogs and Pulp

Fiction, memorised as much as

I could. I was obsessed when

I was 15, 16. Still am.

Ben: I was 12 when Kill Bill

Volume 1 came out. That and

Volume 2 were the DVDs that

got passed around. That feeling

of, this is what a fi lmmaker is,

and it opens your mind to what

an auteur is, and how they can

have a distinctive voice. I went

back and caught up on the

early stuff.

John: I had a similar thing. I was

reading Empire magazine and

remember that Kill Bill was my

introduction. Empire had always

been quite big on Tarantino.

They were early supporters in

the ’90s when a lot of critics were

put off by the violence.

Volume 2toVolume 1. Volume 1

doesn’t feel like a Quentin

Tarantino movie to me.

Whereas Volume 2 is more

refl ective and sombre and

allows you to sink into the

characters a bit more.

Terri: It humanises the Bride.

I love the end because it’s

romantic. She literally breaks his

heart. That’s how she kills him.

Chris: With the Five Point Palm

Exploding Heart Technique.

Terri: I understand it’s

quite extreme, but I fi nd

that utterly romantic.

Chris: In a very Tarantino

move, we seem to have started

in the middle. Let’s move back

to the beginning. When did we

fi rst become acquainted with

his work? I fi rst read about him

in Empire, reading about this

wunderkind of American

cinema, then going to see

Reservoir Dogs and being

blown away. It was like a light

Chris:When you absolutely,

positively have to rank every

motherfucking Quentin

Tarantino movie in the room,

accept no substitutes. Now, we

could wait for him to do his

offi cial tenth fi lm, which could

take years, or we acknowledge

that Kill Bill is two fi lms.

Terri: Which it is. I know he

insists that it’s still one fi lm, but

they were released separately.

John: Also, one of the fi lms is

better than the other one.

Terri: Only marginally. Depends

if you have a heart and soul.

Nick: I’ve fl ipped. I’ve changed

my mind on it. For ages, I always

said the second was my favourite

and then I changed my mind.

Ben: Did you think she

shouldn’t have killed Bill?

Nick: She should have killed

him, but not talked about

Superman for 20 minutes.

Chris: I am one of those

dickheads who does prefer

Quentin Tarantino

movies

THE

RANKING

Five Empire writers.

Ten movies.

Ordered

defi nitively.

OUR CRITICS

OHN NUGENT

He shot Nice Guy Eddie.

So much for Nice

Guy John.

BEN TRAVIS

Thinks Tarantino’s

Australian accent in Django

Unchained is “fair dinkum”.

TERRI WHITE

Such a big QT fan that her

favourite Mike Myers fi lm is

Inglourious Basterds.

NICK DE SEMLYEN

Once played Mr Orange in

a drama class. We need to

see any footage.

CHRIS HEWITT

Grew up on a reservoir.

Had a dog. Is thinking of

suing Tarantino.

BE

T

J

H