Think of blood and gore alongside Hollywood and that geeky hipster and motor-mouthed Quentin Tarantino comes into mind. An edgy film director, actor, Oscar-winning screen writer, Tarantino became a household name in the mid-1990s with his nontraditional storylines, campy-ish but edgy dialogues, and stylized violence. His films such as "Pulp Fiction", "Jackie Brown", and "Kill Bill" (Vols. 1 & 2) brought new life to all-familiar American film prototypes.

Early life

Tarantino was born on March 27, 1963 on Knoxville, Tennessee to Italian-American Tony Tarantino and half-Cherokee Native and half-Irish Connie McHugh. At 14, he wrote his first screenplay entitled, "Captain Peachfuzz and the Anchovy Bandit". He then attended Narbonne High School in Harbor City, California but soon dropped out and took acting lessons at the James Best Theatre Company.

In 1984, he worked at the now defunct Video Archives, a noted video store in Manhattan Beach. He became a friend to fellow employee and film buff Roger Avary, spending all day recommending and discussing films to customers. Tarantino would later collaborate with Avary in "My Best Friend's Birthday", "Reservoir Dogs", and "Pulp Fiction". He further studied acting at Allen Garfield's Actors' Shelter, but concentrated mainly on writing screenplay.

Film career

Tarantino is associated with some of the coolest films in the history of Hollywood. "Reservoir Dogs", a dialogue-driven movie about a botched jewel heist, incorporates many aesthetics and themes that have become the trademark of his later films: pop culture references, nonlinear storyline, and unforgettable with extreme profanity.

His next film, "Pulp Fiction", won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and the coveted Palme d'Or at the Cannes film festival. He then directed the "The Man from Hollywood" episode of "Four Rooms" which garnered mixed reviews from critics. He rebounded with "Jackie Brown", his homage to blaxploitation movies.

Tarantino's most popular film to date is "Kill Bill" (Vols 1 & 2), a highly stylized flick with the tag line, "A Roaring Rampage of Revenge". The film is a wonderful concoction of the cinematic traditions of Japanese samurai, Wuxia (a Chinese martial arts), giallo (Italian horror), and Spaghetti Westerns. "Kill Bill" was based on a plot and character (The Bride) that he and Uma Thurman had conceptualized during the filming of "Pulp Fiction". Tarantino also wrote the script for "Natural Born Killers" (which he eventually disowned when Oliver Stone changed much of it) and "From Dusk Till Dawn" starring George Clooney.

Uniquely Tarantino

Tarantino's talent is seen in his style. For one, he is great at dialogue. Here are a sampling of some of the most popular lines in Tarantino's films. From "Pulp Fiction" (pardon the expletives): "Motherfucker do that shit to me, he better paralyze my ass because I'd kill the motherfucker, know what I'm saying?" From "Jackie Brown": "I hate to be the kinda nigga that do a nigga a favour and then BAM hit the nigga up for a favour in return but I gots to be that nigga." From

"Kill Bill" (Vol. 1): "Thought that was pretty fucking funny, didn't you? Word of advice, shithead: don't you ever wake up." From "Kill Bill" (Vol. 2): "When I woke up, I went on what the movie advertisements referred to as a roaring rampage of revenge. I roared and I rampaged and I got bloody satisfaction. I've killed a hell of a lot of people to get to this point. But I have only one more. The last one, the one I'm driving to right now. The only one left. And when I arrive at my destination, I am gonna kill Bill."

In addition, Tarantino often features and makes references to music from cult TV and movies and uses nontraditional storytelling device like flashbacks, retrospective, nonlinear and time-twisting. His camera is uniquely amazing. Tarantino often frames his characters with doorways, showing them opening and closing the doors, and often films characters from the back. Tarantino gives the viewers levels like no other director.