Reservoir Dogs
Quentin Tarantino burst onto the scene in 1992 with Reservoir Dogs
“I didn’t go out of my way to do a rip-off of The Killing, but I did think of it as my ‘Killing’,” he said.
Jim Thompson’s novels are devoid of heroes, instead full of grifters, losers, psychopaths and sociopaths. Similarly, Reservoir Dogs is bereft of any obvious good guys, even the undercover cop Detective Freddie Newandyke AKA Mr Orange (Tim Roth) is painted as a slimy, untrustworthy rat, rather than a courageous officer of the law. Similarly, in Thompson’s work, policemen were rarely depicted in a favourable light, from Pop 1280’s seemingly listless but in fact ruthlessly cunning sheriff Nick Corey, to the mentally unstable and horrifically violent sheriff Lou Ford in The Killer Inside Me – a character cut from the same dirty cloth as Michael Madsen’s blood-thirsty Mr Blonde.
Pulp Fiction
The 1994 Cannes Palmes d’Or winner is the epitome of 90s cinema and Hollywood crime. Pulp Fiction
“Leonard opened my eyes to the dramatic possibilities of everyday speech,” said Tarantino.
The pop-culture infused, rhythmic dialogue of Pulp Fiction reflects the way Leonard’s own characters talk – sharp and smooth, peppered with street slang and cultural idiosyncrasies, but never too much, never getting in the way of the story. Hitmen Jules Winfield and Vincent Vega discussing what you call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Europe, is probably the most famous example, and has been aped millions of times since, always to lesser effect.
Largely revolving around the MacGuffin of Marcellus Wallace’s golden briefcase, the three storylines of Pulp Fiction take as much from Elmore Leonard’s storytelling style as they do from his gangster patois dialogue. Leonard loved setting up familiar genre stories that readers had seen hundreds of times before – the ex-con trying to go straight, bank robbers with a list of rules, the escaped convict falling for a police-woman – then he’d subvert them, and twist them in unexpected ways, often through accidents attributed to the characters being out of time, or out of place.
Tarantino does the same in the three tales of Pulp Fiction – Butch the boxer is supposed to throw his fight but doesn’t, Vincent Vega has to take his gangster boss’ wife out and show her a good time but not too good, and Jules Winfield; the hitman who finds God. Tarantino would complicate and resolve these established genre stories in surprising and extreme ways – Butch saving the gangster he’s in debt to from a couple of inbred hicks, Vincent Vega giving an adrenaline shot to the heart of an overdosing Mia Wallace, and Jules showing mercy to the small-time crooks Pumpkin and Honey Bunny (Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer) who try to rob him in a diner. What Tarantino clearly learnt from Leonard is that it’s fine for the premise of your genre stories to be clichéed, as long as where the characters take this premise is startlingly unique.
Jackie Brown
In 1997 Tarantino adapted Elmore Leonard’s Rum Punch
“Elmore Leonard was a real mentor to me as far as writing is concerned. He helped me find my voice,” said Tarantino.
Tarantino’s a magpie when it comes to sources of inspiration, and he’s never tried to hide it. But with Elmore Leonard’s style of storytelling, he was more than just inspiration to the director, the classic crime novelist really helped shape Tarantino’s voice.
With 2013’s Django Unchained and next year’s The Hateful Eight, Quentin Tarantino’s obviously on a roll with his Westerns, the genre Elmore Leonard actually started his career in, but it would be great to see the director returning to his crime roots and subverting some of those genre stories in raw and surprising ways. Like an adrenaline shot to the heart, perhaps crime on the big screen could do with a jolt.
Have a look at our top 20 classic crime movies here.