One artist who inspires me is Quentin Tarantino. I am sucker a for rags to riches stories and Tarantino's success encourages me to diligently pursue my goals. Aside from inspiring me to be a hard worker, Tarantino is also my favorite filmmaker. I especially admire his ability to create realistic dialogue and his outstanding use of subjective symbolism.
My favorite example of Quentin Tarantino's use of subjective symbolism is from my favorite movie, Pulp Fiction. At the beginning of the film, two gangsters named Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta) are sent by their boss to retrieve a briefcase from the apartment of someone who failed to uphold their end of a business deal. The case belongs to the leader of their gang, Marcellus Wallace. It is also important to note that the combination to open the case is 666, the sign of the devil. During the film, the briefcase is opened twice; however, its contents are never revealed. Both times the case is opened, a yellow light comes from the case and the person looking at it is in awe. In the final scene, one character looks inside and says, “Is that what I think it is? It's beautiful.” Tarantino leaves it up to the viewer to decide what is inside the case. This subjective symbolism allows the viewer to use their imagination and guess what is inside the case. It also forces the viewer to really think about the symbolism throughout the movie and how it relates to the case.
Another one of Tarantino's qualities I admire is his use of active themes. In Pulp Fiction, there is never a point of the movie that explains exactly what the theme is. He leaves it up to the viewer to find their own theme from the film. I really enjoy when authors and filmmakers use active themes because it forces the reader to think. To me, as well as the majority of critics, the film is about redemption. The movie is composed of three smaller stories that all have the same characters. Each of these smaller stories focuses on one character who, in the end, finds redemption. For example, the final story focuses on the character Jules. After he and Vincent are unharmed when a man unloads six bullets on them at point blank and misses, his character begins a transformation. Jules believes that the fact that they were not hit by a single bullet is an act of divine intervention. In the final scene, he discusses the miracle with Vincent and reveals that he is going to retire from his life of crime.
I also admire Tarantino's use of subtext. The opening scene of Pulp Fiction contains subtext that helps us understand the moral beliefs of Jules and Vincent. While walking to the apartment of one of their victims, the two gangsters discuss a recent attack on a man they know named Anton. Jules tells Vincent that he heard a rumor that their boss, Marsellus Wallace, threw Anton out of a window for giving his wife a foot massage. Both men agree that Marsellus overreacted and that it was wrong for him to throw Anton out of a window for touching his wife's feet. Later in the film, Vincent tells his drug dealer that someone keyed his Malibu. He says, “Boy, I wish I could have caught him doin' it. I'd have given anything to catch that asshole doin' it. It would've been worth him doin' it just so I could've caught him.” These lines indicate that Vincent would have most likely brutally beaten and possibly killed the person who keyed his car. The subtext of these two conversations indicates that Vincent has his own twisted set of morals.
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