The Reader: Tarantino’s talents far outnumber his flaws

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Genius: Quentin Tarantino and Margot Robbie
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29 May 2019
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I DISAGREE with David Sexton’s article on Quentin Tarantino, which I thought was a hatchet job [“Tarantino unchained: exploring the film-maker’s complicated relationship with violence”, May 24].

Sexton seems only too keen to lump himself in with the PC brigade on the issue of violence and the representation of women in Tarantino’s movies, while earnestly keeping score of the times Tarantino has been “rude” to journalists.

Indeed, so busy is Sexton boxing Tarantino’s ears for his apparent crimes and misdemeanours that he omits to note that Tarantino is a great storyteller; that he has written brilliant and engaging dialogue; that the violence is measured and comes after long periods of suspense and discourse and that he has put women at the centre of his films — yes they have behaved badly but these remarkable women have also been vivid creations. Tarantino has memorably captured flawed humanity acting in the most bizarre ways at moments of extreme crisis.
Paul Richards

EDITOR'S REPLY

Dear Paul

Thank you for your reply, although I hope my article was itself nothing quite so violent as a hatchet job. Or even ear-boxing! I admire and enjoy Quentin Tarantino’s movie-making — and rated his new film, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, as worth five stars at Cannes Film Festival last week. However, I do recoil from the grotesque violence in his films, and the way he not only denies that it has any relation to real life but invariably sets it up as being justified by the extreme injustices that his characters have previously suffered, so that he and his fans can revel in it while feeling nothing but virtuous. This strikes me as more of a self-exculpatory dodge than offbeat compassion.

It has been calculated that 560 people die on-screen in Tarantino’s first eight films. In Kill Bill, the Bride (Uma Thurman) carves up a hundred or so enemies in the first instalment alone — a strong woman, for sure, but perhaps not a great role model?

David Sexton, Film Critic

A battle between trees and buildings

I would like to know how Dan Raven-Ellison [“Let’s plant a million trees and make London a true urban forest”, May 24] might respond to the peremptory order I have had to “remove” an old bay tree which has been in my back garden for many decades. It has been accused of undermining part of a neighbouring bay window (some 12 to 15 metres away) as its roots sought moisture during last summer’s hot, dry weather. Will it come to “trees versus buildings” in the future?
Marcia Bennie

Dan Raven-Ellison is 100 per cent right and a simple method must be applied now to the streets of our towns and cities. Recently I have had occasion to be driven around many streets in north London and I have been amazed at the warmth and pleasure to be gained from seeing old and young trees in those streets.

Individuals should create local groups which will speedily lead to more trees in our streets. The cost is relatively small and the mental and physical health benefits huge.
John Woolf

Start a ‘national chat’ on Brexit

Theresa May has understandably been praised for the persistence with which she pursued her project of trying to carry out, as she saw it, the instructions of the British people on Brexit. Sadly, however, because the whole referendum project was flawed from the outset she was drinking from a poisoned chalice.

There is a clear need to start again and — given that people will expect to be directly involved in this issue — the best approach has to be for a national conversation on the lines of that held in Scotland in the period leading up to devolution. In the light of that discussion Parliament could then legitimately take a final decision on what has to happen.
Andrew McLuskey

Leavers stayed at home on poll day

I THINK Remainers look desperate when they tell us that the desire for a second referendum won the day in the EU elections here in Britain. They claim that all the Remain parties’ votes, if added together, outnumber those of Brexit/Ukip.

What they fail to understand is this: lots of 2016 Brexit voters were so disgusted at having to go through this wasteful charade of sending 73 people off to do nothing in Brussels, that they refused to vote. I know several former Brexit voters who said “enough is enough” this time.
Dai Woosnam

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