Quentin Tarantino: Man and His Movies, The (Paperback)

~ (Author) "On the night of September 23, 1994, Pulp Fiction opened the 32nd New York Film Festival..." (more)
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Editorial Reviews

Review

A premature biography, shallow and uninspired. Quentin Tarantino might be a talented filmmaker. He has written a few well-received scripts and directed two clever though overhyped films - Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction - but he has nothing approaching an oeuvre to his name. His career is still inchoate, even fetal, and the history of Hollywood is heavy with talents that quickly crashed and burned, sometimes justly, sometimes not. Bernard may be a movie critic for New York's Daily News, but she writes like an amateur gossip columnist. Despite a palsy-walsy "Quentin" tone, she wallows in trivial scandal, chronicling Tarantino's every spat and unkindness as he climbed the greasy pole of success from video-store clerk to film director. In Bernard's portrait he emerges as an ego-driven ingrate, breaking promises, betraying friends, all of which, of course, have almost nothing to do with his talent. More usefully, Bernard illuminates Tarantino's substantial "borrowings." In a manner that transcends mere postmodern art-about-art, Tarantino's work is fundamentally rooted in and derived from other films. Sometimes it is just a gesture here, a line there. And then there is Reservoir Dogs, for example, a great deal of which is "inspired" by a Hong Kong action movie, City on Fire. As T.S. Eliot once wrote, "Minor poets borrow. Great poets steal." Where Tarantino fits in this formulation is far from certain yet. Patience is its own reward. Perhaps Tarantino will one day merit a biography; it certainly won't be this one. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

Worshiped like a film star by fans of his ultrahip and violent movies, reviled and condemned by the self-appointed guardians of mortality, Quentin Tarantino has become the cult hero of the nineties.

Using exclusive material from her interviews with Tarantino and those close to him, Jami Bernard traces his fascinating rise from high school dropout and B-movie junkie to the darling Hollywood, exploring the philosophy and mythology of the writer and director who has, with just a few explosive films, turned the movie world on its head.

With the furor over Reservior Dogs, the triumph of Pulp Fiction, and the bitter conflict over Natural Born Killers, Tarantino's meteoric rise has been perspective of those who have worked, played, and done battle with him, Jami Bernard looks beyond the media icon and reveals the man--and his message.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; First Edition. first thus edition (December 6, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060951613
• ISBN-13: 978-0060951610
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #286,221 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The single best book about Tarantino, March 27, 2003

By	Sebastian Haselbeck "SebH" (Germany) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is a must-read for every true Tarantino fan.

Jamie Bernard's book is simply amazing. It covers Tarantino's life from childhood till about 1996. The book is well-written, and goes deep into detail and uncovers Tarantino's life as hyperactive kid, movie theater regular, fatherless child and genius moviemaker. This is the single best book ever written about Quentin Tarantino. No other book delivers such great information, biographical facts and stories about the making of his early movies and involvements in projects. If you want to read a good book about Tarantino, get this one first. It's the best!

trust me on this...

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great scoop on Tarantino's beginnings, January 10, 1999

By A Customer

I just finished reading this book, and it is a fine work of reporting. It interviews people from both sides of the Tarantino debate (those who love him and those who hate him), and allows you to draw your own conclusions from all the statements. It covers Tarantino's life from his birth up to the moment when he made Four Rooms.

Too bad this book is out of print. I hope there will be a reissue in the future, probably covering the latest works of Tarantino.

5.0 out of 5 stars Well researched, well written, December 17, 2007

By	Glenn Nippert "musicologist" (Alpharetta, Georgia United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When Tarantino blew up in the early 90's, there were slews of quickie books written to cash in on his enormous popularity. This is not one of them. Jami Bernard has done one of the most thorough and detailed biographies ever done on a celebrity. She misses nothing. The only problem this book has is the same problem almost all Q.T books have- they were all written 2 to 3 years into his career, so there is no recent information. This is one book I'd love to see updated and re-released.It is a richly detailed and fair account of Tarantino's life and career up until 1995.