Cinema Speculation

Cinema Speculation by Quentin Tarantino (2022) It’s like a conversation with a friend who goes on and on about movies—I say conversation because I found myself talking back, at points. He didn’t listen to me, but that’s the way it usually goes. Even if I often don’t agree, it’s worth my time because he’s more enthusiastic than I am, knows more, and has actually talked to some of the people in question here. It’s primarily centered around 1970’s cinema from the U.S.—which is my favorite era of film, so a lot of this book felt like me reliving my own memoires. We’re roughly the same age (he’s the age of my younger brother), and I especially liked the chapter about seeing films as a kid—we share the experience of seeing a lot of these Seventies movies at the theater—at what is probably considered too young an age. My parents took me to everything, regardless of the potentially disturbing content—and we’d talk about what I didn’t understand. Tarantino seems to have remembered every film he’s ever seen, where he saw it, and what else was on the bill. The chapter I most liked was the one on Bullitt (1968), as that’s a movie that I’ve always had an odd attraction for (its unusual flatness) which increases with each viewing. He articulates this very well. Also, it was fun to relive my experience seeing Deliverance (1972) at the theater—through his breaking that one down. His history of seeing Blaxploitation films, and that influence on his filmmaking, is illuminating. The chapter that surprised me the most was his lengthy appreciation for L.A. film critic Keven Thomas—which is really kind of touching. As is the final chapter, a tribute to a man, Floyd Ray Wilson, who dated his mom’s friend—who he befriended as a kid, and who first inspired him to try to write screenplays. And there’s lots, lots more. With each of his subjects, he extensively covers the background of the film’s inception, sometimes comparing original scripts to final movies, and speculating on alternative actors, filmmakers, and decisions that could have and would have changed film history. I’m not usually a fan of this kind of geek-level stuff, but in this case I found it a lot of fun—fascinating—and that includes the examinations of the cultural and critical perception of a lot of the films in question. I’m guessing he could do a “part 2” to this book—probably will.

8.1.23