artist: R.M. Guera
(via vertigocomics.com)
I have not yet seen Django Unchained the movie (though rest assured when I do I will probably enjoy it, as Tarantino is a favorite). Reading this comic, which adapts the complete script regardless of what actually made it into the film, then becomes my first experience with it.
Apart from anything that can be said about the story, it suddenly occurs to me what sets Quentin Tarantino apart from other filmmakers. Plenty has been made about his influences from watching and obsessing over other movies, but the aspect I will choose to emphasize here is his writing. Actually, it may be more obvious reading him in comic book form than watching him in his movies that Tarantino approaches his storytelling very much as a storyteller. I'm not talking about the nonlinear way he presented Pulp Fiction, but simply in the way he crafts scenes in general, the way he progresses his narratives, even when you're talking about a lengthy dialogue scene like the opening act of Inglourious Basterds, when Lanza reveals how he's come to know what the French farmer refuses to admit outright, that he's hiding a family of Jews under the floorboards. (If by some chance you've never watched a Tarantino movie, much less that one, it's perhaps the best possible way to enjoy his craft.)
As I said, that becomes apparent when reading this comic. I figure I will try my best to read the rest of the mini-series adaptation, as it now seems just as relevant as seeing the movie itself.
Interestingly, by complete coincidence I was able to enjoy the first comics work from Tarantino and artist R.M. Guera (best known for his exceptional work in Jason Aaron's Scalped) when they first collaborated for some "deleted scenes" first published in Playboy (see? it really is possible to read Playboy!) from Basterds. Perhaps at some point it will be liberated from its obscurity, included in some special edition of that film or something. (Feel free to tell me if this has already happened.)
My advice, then, is to enjoy the movie and this adaptation, too, because it will be well worth your time.
Nah, I've wasted too much time on Tarantino's movies trying to figure out why people like them.
ReplyDeleteBecause they're witty.
DeleteInteresting. I didn't know he had a comic or anything out there to read that would exhibit his writing.
ReplyDeleteShannon at The Warrior Muse
This would technically be the first one. There are also script books for some of his other movies.
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