Xixax Film Forum

Now, with all the "Kill Bill"-hype my old love for QT begins once more. I was a fan of him back in 1999, when I saw "Pulp Fiction" for the first time at the age of 11. In 2001 I've seen all of his films and became a huge fan of his. But nothing new was coming, so I lost interest and now my at the age of 15 my old Tarantinomania comes back.
So, my question: How old were you when you saw your first QT-movie and what experience did you have?

Rented Reservoir Dogs with two friends who heard about the ear scene, when I was about 12- 13. Watched it twice more the next day, and it became my favorite movie. Rented it the next week to watch it 4 more times. Decided I wanted to be a director.

I know everyone will hate me after this post for not knowing about him much earlier...but I didn't start watching his films into they came out on the two disc DVDs. I knew about Pulp Fiction for a long time, but never saw it knowing that I needed too. Bought Pulp Fiction the first day it came out, thought it was one of the best movies ever and bought Jackie Brown and then Reservoir Dogs. All of them great!

Saw Pulp Fiction one night on TV, because a) Lots of people talked about how great it was and b) it had portuguese actress Maria de Medeiros (whom I see a lot of times in the street and all) when I was 14 years old. Now, I've loved movies ever since I was about 5 or 6... you know, Disney, Tim Burton, everything... But it wasn't until that night that I realized that movies are actually MADE by someone. I guess it was because of the "written and directed by Quentin Tarantino" in the end. It was then that I realized that there's someone behind the films and was the ultimate step towards beeing a film buff. It blew me away. So I'll have to thank Quentin for that...so... uh... thanks Quentin!

I remember one of my friends describing the last scene to me while riding the school bus one day. It had just come out on video at the time, so it must've been early '95. He wasn't very articulate and mostly just said things like: "and then the gerry curl guy goes "tell that fucking bitch to chill!" He seemed to be really into it, but I wasn't interested in movies that much at the time (I was 14, and obsessed with basketball, girls, and rap).

Later that year he forced me to watch the scene where Jules and Vince  discuss the foot massage. I remember thinking it was strange to see a scene in a movie where people were talking the way they do in real life.

I became a full fleged movie buff around the end of '97 and saw Jackie Brown at the theatre without having seen Pulp Fiction. I remeber comming out of the movie, checking my watch, and thinking "there's no way I was in there for two and a half hours." I rented Pulp the next day, creamed my pants, then went around begging people to watch it with me. I think I watched it four or five times in two days. Rented Reservoir Dogs, did the same thing. Same thing with True Romance. Never looked back.

This timeline takes place over about 3 years:

First QT flick I saw was 'True Romance' on TV, liked it until the Arquette beating scene and realised that the film was too hardcore for me.
Saw 'Pulp Fiction' on TV, it immediately became my favourite film (and probably still is to this day).
Saw 'Jackie Brown' on video, severly dissapointed, liked bits but overall bored shitless.
Saw 'True Romance' again on video, loved it.
Saw 'Reservoir Dogs' on video, too horrible, felt actually offended when the film ended by all the violence.
Saw 'Jackie Brown' again, loved it. Realised that I just wasn't paying attention to it the first time. Second favourite QT flick.
Saw 'Reservoir Dogs' again, realised its genius & loved it.

Its like I 'evolved' into a fan. Can't freakin' wait for 'Kill Bill'.

saw jackie brown in the thaeter
rented reservoir dogs 2 weeks later
rented pulp fiction a few months later (parents didnt want me to see it for some reason)

My dad didn't want me to see Pulp Fiction when he rented it back in '95.  Odd, 'cause I was 15, and now, really, he doesn't care, and it didn't seem like he would back then.

So anyway, it was last year (October-ish) before I first got to see Pulp Fiction.  I checked it out from the library because I heard great things.  Good deal.  I was blown away, on the edge of my seat, especially during the needle-stab scene.  Over Christmas break, I blind-bought the 10th anniversary Dogs DVD, along with Pulp Fiction SE.  Dogs was great.  Checked out Jackie Brown from the library later.  It was like fine wine.  Bought that on Amazon.com as soon as the DVD was out, just because I loved hearing Tarantino talk, and I loved watching Ebert and Siskel talk about him in their Pulp Fiction episode.  So there you have it.

Yeah, kudos to Ebert for praising Jackie Brown as highly as he did, when a lot of the other lazy-ass critics wrote it off as a post-Pulp letdown.

is it just me, or is it any QT fan, when they rented pulp fiction (seeing it for the first time through that rental), did they watch it like ten fuckin times that day?

RD i saw on video, loved it, then i bought the widscreen vhs

I saw PF in the theater opening night which was sold out, the review in the paper gave it an A+, i thought that film was so fuckin cool, i was 12(came out in 94 right?) and i was quoting lines all the time, then i bought it when it came out on vhs widescreen, still dont have the 2 disc dvd yet.

Saw JB in the theater on opening night also. great film, sucks that people had high expectations thinking this was going to be a PF 2, losers.

KB i saw on wed. morning, full theater, will see it again and again and eventually buy the dvds.

i just feel like mentioning the ones he wrote and directed. i just realized that all his films he wrote and directed are two words.

I was 15 or 16 and me and my best friend decided to get into see Reservoir Dogs in the cinema. We'd read about it in some film magazines, but this was before Tarantinomania really hit.
In Britain, where I'm from, you had to be 18 to see it so we had to show the ticket seller a fake ID to get in. We were both speechless by the end of the film.

The fact that Reservoir Dogs was the first 18-rated film I'd ever sneaked into and was such a kick-in-the-skull of a movie made the whole event the singlemost exciting cinema-going experience I've ever had.

For the next month we raved to everyone who would listen about the film. "Quentin who?" they'd reply.

Then True Romance came out and we did the same again (except this time we didn't need to show ID) and it solidified the fact that Dogs wasn't a fluke.

On the day Pulp Fiction came out we skipped school so we could make it to the first afternoon showing. Again, utterly blown away.

Jackie Brown I saw on DVD and loved it, although my mate who saw the others with me wasn't so impressed. He liked bits of it but didn't dig the pacing.

I'm seeing Kill Bill on Tuesday so I'm hoping it will live up to my other Tarantino experiences.

AFTERTHOUGHT: My best friend who saw the films with me has just moved to LA and about two weeks ago he was drunkenly walking along Hollywood Boulevard at about 2am. And guess who he saw about 15 metres ahead of him?

"Quentin!!! You RUUUULE!" he yelled.

"Thanks man, I appreciate it" replied the man himself.

I've soooo got to get my ass to LA.....

Good thread, by the way. Love hearing all the QT stories.

Quote from: SoNowThenRented Reservoir Dogs with two friends who heard about the ear scene,

so am I...i already heard about PF (but still didn't get into it) when a movie magazine started a promotion giving VHS w/ the issues...this way i got Resevoir Dogs and I completely freaked out with the ear scene...i used to rewind at least three times the entire scene- I love stuck in the middle with you SO BADLY!- before i continue with the movie.

I think I was 15 and I think Pulp Fiction was the first. Crappy pan&scan VHS but it was the best at the time. Now that I have the DVD I still always think the camera's gonna move when Sam Jackson shoots the guy on the couch.

Quote from: Derek237I still always think the camera's gonna move when Sam Jackson shoots the guy on the couch.

me too. i always liked that in the p&s version, before i knew about widescreen and all

QuoteDerek237 wrote:
I still always think the camera's gonna move when Sam Jackson shoots the guy on the couch.


me too. i always liked that in the p&s version, before i knew about widescreen and all

I hated the pan&scan version of Pulp Fiction and that scene is the perfect example of how much balls P&S sucks. I always felt that camera movement was weird and it was only untill I saw the widescreen version of it that I realized why I felt that. Damn Pan & Scan!!!!

pan and scan licks my balls.

Well I'm now 15, so I hopped onto the Tarantino wagon much later on. I was maybe 12 when I first saw it, on some movie channel. I fucking loved the shit out of it. About a year ago i decided to buy the SE and the Anniversary edition of RD (which I had not seen previously. I had heard of it many a time, so i figured it was worth the risk). Loved both yet again. I saw Kill Bill opening weekend and equally loved it. I think this weekend I'll buy Jackie Brown, which I still have yet to see.

oooh, you are in for a treat my friend

In '92, I kept hearing all this hype about the "new Scorsese."  I was highly skeptical when I sat down in a Seattle theater to see Reservoir Dogs in fall of 1992.  I was won over immediately when Steve Buscemi mentioned "Heartbeat, It's a Lovebeat."  I hadn't thought about that song in 20 years.  I was blown away by the sheer audacity of the film.  Remember, during the early 90's, polticial correctness was spreading like a virus, and here was a film that flouted every rule that mainstream Hollywood held dear.  During the ear-cutting scene, a few people in the theater walked out.  I saw it a second time, and people walked out again during the same scene.

In '93, I hung out with a friend in the Bay Area, and we kept talking about how great Reservoir Dogs is.  We kept reciting great lines of dialogue, until we had virtually replayed the entire film.  So then we went to a video store and rented it.

Fall '93, I saw True Romance.  I wasn't a fan of Tony Scott, and even though Tarantino wrote it, I figured it would be ruined by Hollywood.  Wrong.  True Romance was just as audacious as Reservoir Dogs, in its own way.  I rented it a zillion times in 94, watched it over and over.

QT was batting two for two.

In '94, I was somewhat disappointed by Natural Born Killers, but I figured Oliver Stone completely revised QT's script.  But over time, I have come to prize this film almost as much as the others.

Later in '94, I saw Pulp Fiction.  Once again, expectations were high, what with the top prize in Cannes and all.  During the o.d. scene, when Travolta jabs the adrenaline needle into Thurman's heart, I expected folks to walk out in droves, just like the ear scene in Reservoir Dogs.  But then the unexpected happened -- people laughed.  The whole audience roared with laughter.  In that moment, I realized that cinema and popular culture had changed overnight.  What was fringe and cult in 1992 now became mainstream in 1994.  Like Easy Rider in its time, Pulp Fiction changed the world.

If QT had retired right then, his place in history would be assured.

Quote from: soixanteIf QT had retired right then, his place in history would be assured.

did you not like jackie brown and/or kill bill?

Quote from: eward

Quote from: soixanteIf QT had retired right then, his place in history would be assured.

did you not like jackie brown and/or kill bill?

No, I think what he means his that, as he said, Pulp Fiction left its mark on the world whereas his next two films, JB and KB didn't create the same boom that PF did. Still great movies but on the grander scale as his legacy goes, more people seem to think he went downhill after PF. Anyway, that's how I took what soixante said.

I felt Jackie Brown was a let-down, compared to Pulp Fiction.  I enjoyed the acting (especially Samuel L. Jackson), and I appreciated that QT was trying to do something different, but...the plot, featuring double-and-triple crossing, was simply not that interesting to me.  All the stuff with Bridget Fonda lounging around, the stuff in the shopping mall, the argument between Jackson and De Niro before De Niro gets shot -- it simply didn't play for me.  The best thing about it was the relationship between Robert Forster and Pam Grier, the feeling that they should have gotten together but didn't.  I saw it once when it came out, and once more on DVD, and it's never clicked for me -- I don't dislike it, it's probably better than a lot of Hollywood films, but it's not as great as Pulp Fiction, which is a masterpiece.  Also, I have a theory, that if you cast Bridget Fonda, your film will suck -- Godfather 3, City Hall, etc.

I enjoyed Kill Bill a lot more than Jackie Brown.  I need to see Vol. 2 before I make up my mind so I can see how both parts fit together.

Quote from: soixanteAlso, I have a theory, that if you cast Bridget Fonda, your film will suck -- Godfather 3, City Hall, etc.

A Simple Plan was awesome.

so was Army of Darkness.  so maybe if Sam Raimi uses her, its an exception to the rule?

Quote from: P

Quote from: soixanteAlso, I have a theory, that if you cast Bridget Fonda, your film will suck -- Godfather 3, City Hall, etc.

A Simple Plan was awesome.

So was Jackie Brown...

Quote from: Cinephile

Quote from: P

Quote from: soixanteAlso, I have a theory, that if you cast Bridget Fonda, your film will suck -- Godfather 3, City Hall, etc.

A Simple Plan was awesome.

So was Jackie Brown...

So was "Doc Hollywood".

Quote from: MacGuffin

Quote from: Cinephile

Quote from: P

Quote from: soixanteAlso, I have a theory, that if you cast Bridget Fonda, your film will suck -- Godfather 3, City Hall, etc.

A Simple Plan was awesome.

So was Jackie Brown...

So was "Doc Hollywood".

so was singles.

The Bridget Fonda Rule still holds for me.  Simple Plan had a great Billy Bob performance, but was not noteable otherwise.  Doc Hollywood was by-the-numbers mainstream Hollywood fluff.  Singles was nothing special.  Army of Darkness I walked out of, something I do very rarely.

ahh my first time... he was a gentle and caring lover.... oh yes quentin, yes... oh, its okay, really, it happens to everyone....