Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino have left a mark on the modern age cinemagoers and it’s their passion towards the craft that makes them great.
When we think of the greatest modern directors, Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese are the first names to pop up in our heads. When the two sat down for the DGA quarterly issue of Director’s Guild of America to have a chit chat, it was no surprise that their passion for cinema was oozing all over the place. But there was one thing we can’t ignore.
The two have quite a few similarities between them. And we feel it is something you should know as a fan. So here we are with their love for cinema and other things common between Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino.
Scorsese And Tarantino – Taken To School
No, we don’t mean actual school. What we are referring to is their choice of mentors in the field. As it is clear from the conversation they had at the DGA. Both Scorsese and Tarantino, though born and brought up in different families, found their love for cinema through the same kind of films. Martin Scorsese, because of his asthma, didn’t play any sports or was not into any other physical activity as a kid.
So his parents would take him to the movies. It was then that he found himself getting inclined towards the art form. Quentin Tarantino was born in Tennessee and later moved to LA with his mother. During his adulthood he did a lot of jobs, his final one being at a movie rental store. His impeccable knowledge for movies helped his customers pick up only the best films to binge on.
Akira Kurosawa and Fredrico Fellini are among their idol filmmakers. The two also share a great admiration for Sergio Leone. The final installment of his famous Dollar Trilogy, The Good The Bad And The Ugly, has been claimed as the greatest Western ever made by Tarantino.
Scorsese, on the other hand, had famously helped to preserve the only original, uncut copy of Leone’s last film, Once Upon A Time In America. Neither of the two has been to film school but rather have watched the greatest of the greats and learned from their work.
Scorsese And Tarantino – A Violent Streak
Both Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese have a certain flair for showing violence on screen. Ever since Reservoir Dogs, Quentin has been accused of glorifying violence in his films. Remember how Tim Roth’s Mr. Orange was bleeding profusely throughout the film’s runtime and how with every passing minute the pool of blood around him grows even bigger?
Well, Tarantino actually had a medical expert on the set to monitor how much blood would a gunshot victim lose eventually. Artwork? Well, not as everyone thinks. Plus when he showed a goon accidentally shooting someone in the face in Pulp Fiction, the whole scene was written and shot as a dark comedy. Not everyone was laughing.
And then he did the unthinkable! The final showdown between The Bride and The Crazy 88 was one of the bloodiest action scenes ever in a Hollywood movie. That title is subsequently taken away from Kill Bill. Any guesses by which film? Django Unchained! Yup, apparently Tarantino is his own competition when it comes to violent scenes, but Scorsese also has his fair share of blood spill.
Personally, my first introduction with Scorsese was Goodfellas (call it ignorance, or hibernation!) And the scene where Ray Liotta marches up to a bunch of guys who eve teased his girlfriend. Then he starts banging the butt of his handgun to a guy’s head. The scene is uncut as the guy’s forehead crack open and blood is pouring out like a fountain, cinematically the scene was beautiful.
Though he never ceased to shock me, and possibly others, in the blood department with his subsequent films either. The famous scene in Casino when the brother of Joe Pesci’s character is beaten to death by mobsters right in front of his eyes followed by his own beating still brings shivers down our spines.
Not to mention when Joe was buried alive with his dead brother, we were both sad and amazed at the scene. Showing realistic violence is the forte of both these filmmakers. Criticize all you want, but true cinematic pieces are the ones that are closest to reality.
Scorsese And Tarantino – A Thematic Viewpoint
One more thing which is similar between Scorsese and Tarantino is the basic theme of their films. Although if we begin to break down each of their films, this article would have to have several sequels (not that I don’t want it to!). Both Scorsese and Tarantino love to show the dark, wild, unhinged, filthy, greedy side of humans. There’s rarely a lead character in any of Tarantino’s films which is not flawed.
Whether it is Vincent Vega, Mr. Orange, the whole team of The Inglorious Basterds, The Bride, or even Django. None of these is a self-righteous person who would certainly go to heaven. Rather these are individuals with their own inefficiencies and incompleteness, all needing some kind of redemption.
Scorsese too deals with such flawed characters, as most of the characters in his films are mobsters. But even if we take real-life people he shows on the big screen like Jake Lamotta, a short-tempered professional boxer on the way to self-destruction, the basic themes of the dark side of humanity and redemption are quite visible.
Our Final Word on Scorsese And Tarantino
Though both Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese have a different style of filmmaking, it is not hard to comprehend that both these directors have a lot in common.
Both Scorsese and Tarantino have a unique way of filming violence and portraying characters so much close to reality. Their love for movies is what pulls them towards art. Today both of them are two distinguish film institutions in themselves.
