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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pezagent" data-source="post: 1272388" data-attributes="member: 15568">John Hughes vs. Quentin TarantinoFrom Sixteen Candles:GEEK: How’s it going? SAM: How’s what going? GEEK: You know, things, life, whatnot. SAM: Life is not whatnot, and it’s none of your business. GEEK: So you going to the dance tonight? SAM: That’s also none of your business. GEEK: (laughs) Are you inhibited about dancing in public? You don’t have to dance. You could just stand there with me and my dudes, and just be you. SAM: Sounds major. GEEK: So what’s the story, you got a guy or what? SAM: Yes, three big ones and they lust wimp blood, so quit bugging me or I’ll sick them all over your weenie ass. GEEK: You know I’m getting input here that I’m reading is relatively hostile. I mean I just…SAM: Go to hell. GEEK: Very hostile. Come on, what’s the problem here, I’m a boy, you’re a girl…is there something wrong with my trying to put together some kind of relationship between us. The bus begins to slow down and Sam gets her stuff together to get off but he won’t let her.GEEK: Okay look, I know you have to go, just answer me one question. SAM: Yes, you’re a total fag. GEEK: (laughs) That wasn’t the question. (pause) Am I turning you on? Sam rolls her eyes and gets up and off the bus. The Geek leans back and talks to the girl in the neck brace. GEEK: It’s encouraging, very encouraging. GIRL: Uh-huh. GEEK: You know a girl with a hat is just…whoa…vogue. GIRL: Uh…yeah. From Pulp-Fiction:Buddy comes back with the drinks.  Mia wraps her lips around the straw of her shake.MIA: Yummy!VINCENT: Can I have a sip of that?  I'd like to know what a five-dollar shake tastes like.MIA: Be my guest. She slides the shake over to him.MIA: You can use my straw, I don't have kooties.Vincent smiles.VINCENT: Yeah, but maybe I do.MIA:Kooties I can handle.He takes a sip.VINCENT: Goddamn!  That's a pretty f6ckin' good milk shake.MIA: Told ya.VINCENT: I don't know if it's worth five dollars, but it's pretty f6ckin' good.He slides the shake back. Then the first of an uncomfortable silence happens.MIA: Don't you hate that?VINCENT: What?MIA: Uncomfortable silences.  Why do we feel it's necessary to yak about bullsh6t in order to be comfortable?VINCENT: I don't know.MIA: That's when you know you found somebody special.  When you can just shut the f6ck up for a minute, and comfortably share silence.VINCENT: I don't think we're there yet.  But don't feel bad, we just met each other.MIA: Well I'll tell you what, I'll go to the bathroom and powder my nose, while you sit here and think of something to say.VINCENT: I'll do that.--------Maybe if the characters in Pulp Fiction were actually doing something (as Aristotle said, action is character) then all this dialog treatment would be great. But for me it's always like watching people read scripts from a scenewriting class. Pulp Fiction is like a bad play--and that's why I suggested perhaps reading some good plays if one found this sort of dialog treatment interesting. I suggested John Guare's House of Blue Leaves as it treats contemporary dialog with wit and charm. It doesn't butcher it or paint it over the character's face. It subtly reveals the character inside--even though it is all rather absurd, rather than hiding the characters behind paper-mache masks as Tarantino's work does. His characters are pre-teens smoking because they think it makes them look cool. Hughes characters are teenagers trying to look cool. There's the only difference.Tarantino's crap could be just as interesting if the lead roles were replaced by parrots or even better--sock puppets. (The only scene worth watching in PF is the one with Christopher Walken) Pulp Fiction will never be added to my collection of DVDs--his movies are very empty. One could usually find the same conversations in the mens room at the now defunct Twilo of New York or any trendy restaurant with Eurotrash present. The only movie I actually enjoyed of his was True Romance and that's because it had Patricia Arquette in it and it was directed by Tony Scott./johnny <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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