Quentin Tarantino and Coen Brothers are two different minds and different postmodern styles and techniques. They have different approaches to a film based on the characters, setting, and dialogues. The Coen Brothers make films that are categorized into crime movies due to elements of crime, murder, violence, guns, and the police ( Palmer, 2004) . They write mostly narrative scripts with a lot of drama and emotions combined with a strong character and story. At the same time, they are linear storytellers with films starting and ending directly without any flashbacks, thus creating a pure cinema style. The Coen Brothers are known to breathe life into characters in their movies where they come out real to the audience ( Palmer, 2004) . They, therefore, make more interesting movies that Tarantino. While realism is not necessary for Tarantino, the Coens want to make settings and characters feel real. The Coen brothers are also known for using historical and middle- American settings with simultaneous deployment and subversion of genre conventions. They also have a history of mixing zaniness and brutality with a variety of styles and tones in their films.
On the other hand, Quentin Tarantino likes narrating his films in a nonlinear way, where he prefers cinephile before filmmaking. He writes his characters with abnormal lives while the movie ends with a blood bath. One of Tarantino’s trademark is having too much dialogue in his films, which are often stylish with trademark twists ( Hughes, 2014) . Tarantino has a style with some good conversation, but his films lack empathy. He likes sustaining the emotions of a character until the climax when he makes them explode. He is known for using metaphors for essential scenes in round table dialogues as well as having unpredictable characters. At the same time, Tarantino is great at creating compelling visuals and sequels. He knows the rules of storytelling in the sense that he can break them frequently and maintain a compelling narrative.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Comparing Jackie Brown, Blood Simple and Fargo
Jackie Brown is the most mature film by Quentin Tarantino that incorporates his postmodern styles and technique. It uses a nonlinear storyline in the form of flashbacks with an uncompromised stance on the portrayal of graphic elements such as profanity and violence. The film is a beautifully controlled move that does everything masterfully with much quiet crime drama. Many scenes in Jackie Brown are focused on the dialogue between two people, though it is a genuine crime thriller with a story about discontent people searching for more. It, therefore, contains some emotionally nuanced moments with a sense of melancholy while boasting of Tarantino’s typical hallmarks.
Blood simple (1984) was Coen’s debut and shows mostly the chain of violence and how crime looks ridiculous when compared with the peacefulness of caricatured people. It is a brilliant narrative that keeps the thrilling tension without a little comical atmosphere found in Fargo, as shown with many close-up scenes depicting the dull characters without complication. The film focuses mainly on aspects that are involved in the crime plan following the basic rules of film noir such as guns, murders, and night.
Fargo (1996) is considered one of Coen’s best films that have received two academy awards for writing an original screenplay. The film follows the rule of crime movies on the surface, but its motif and composition allow it to be seen as an anti-crime movie in some points. It consists of a story about crime and ordinary people who are contrasted to make the right balance of the movie tone from becoming too criminally oriented. Fargo is more complicated than the other two films and leaves the viewer a different lasting impression of what is expected as a crime movie. It has many intricate scenes and incorporates various elements from real crimes despite being an excellent fictional story.
Critique
I do agree with J. Hoberman on the issue of postmodernism as a majority of the films are deconstructions of familiar generic categories without engaging with the real or with history. I also agree with Hoberman’s criticism that postmodernism is a hybridization of usual genetic classes that offer no real or substantial engagement. The genre was born as a reaction to several modernist themes, such as rejecting the elements of the enlightenment project. Its lack of objectivity makes it useless as it only focuses on subverting the modernism without offering anything substantial. It is solely focused on the destruction of hierarchies with a subjective view of the world.
Furthermore, there are many elements of modernism that re reflected in postmodernism. For example, Tarantino has a postmodern style that borrows significantly from the 60s and 70s genres that shaped him as a director. He has also attempted using direct revisionist revenge dramas in his films. Similarly, the Coen brothers have a penetrating postmodern style that has been influenced by movies in the past.
References
Hughes, S. E. (2014). Quentin vs Coen: An art show tribute to the films of Tarantino and the Coen Brothers.
Palmer, R. B. (2004). Joel and Ethan Coen . University of illinois Press.
