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It's no secret that Quentin Tarantino has a passion for movies, and as a lover of all movies from spaghetti westerns to campy b-list horror movies, he often infuses elements of his favorite films into his own stories. However, some of these "homages" have sparked a debate among the filmmaking community for their incredible similarities to other works, so much that critics of Tarantino are accusing him of plagiarism.
Tarantino's first movie, cult classic "Reservoir Dogs" has been the center of most of these criticisms, borrowing multiple elements from Ringo Lam's 1987 Hong Kong crime drama "City of Fire." Both feature the same basic premise--a botched diamond heist--and the same ending in which one of them is revealed to be an undercover cop. Characters are similar, scenes are easily comparable, and both films share the same climax. There are even multiple instances of images from "City of Fire" being re-shot identically by Tarantino and pasted into "Reservoir Dogs."
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| The poster for Ringo Lam's "City on Fire." |
When asked about the similarities between his movie and Lam's "City of Fire," Tarantino says, "It's a really cool movie. It influenced me a lot. I got some stuff from it."
While never openly admitting to plagiarism, Tarantino acknowledges that the movie was a significant influence on "Reservoir Dogs." So, the question is, where do we draw the line between homage and plagiarism? When does something stop being influenced by another film and instead becomes a ripoff?
Here's an example of two similar scenes from the movies. The video does feature a lot of language, so watch at your own discretion.
What do you guys think? Is Tarantino simply allowing influences to remain prevalent in his work, or does he shamelessly steal from other directors and try to pass the work off as his own?
I'll end this post on a quote by Quentin Tarantino on the subject of homages in films.
"I steal from every single
movie ever made. If people don't like that, then tough tills, don't go and see
it, all right? I steal from everything. Great artists steal, they don't do
homages." -Quentin Tarantino
I think that many directors have those certain movies that they always pull from as an influence of theirs. I read somewhere that Steven Spielberg watched the movie "Good Evening, Mr. Wallengerg" six times before shooting "Schindler's List". That film is also about someone who helps rescue Jews in WWII. It would be safe to say that Spielberg was trying to get some direction, more information, or trying to find the tone of his own movie by watching "Good Evening."
ReplyDeleteEverything that is created is not creative. It was probably influenced some way or another by someone else. Michael Jackson was influenced by James Brown and Diana Ross; and Michael influenced many artists of today like Bruno Mars, Maroon 5, and Justin Timberlake. Just how Tarantino was influenced by the film "City of Fire," other filmmakers will probably see him as a creative influence.
There's a great quote: "Good artists borrow, great artists steal" which I always found funny but true. Artists re-do many famous stories like the creation story, the battle between good and evil, brother/sister rivalry, and so on. These universal stories are used to tell us more about ourselves but perhaps in a way that we can better understand it.
Granted, both scenes are very similar. Reservoir Dogs is definitely not the only film to have used this type of a scene. Artists use each other's ideas all the time. We are all influenced by the things we see and hear. Filmmakers, and artists in general, are inspired by someone else's work at some point in their lives. If you are inspired by something, it makes since that you would want to pay tribute to it in some way. "The Mexican Standoff" is a cool scene, so why wouldn't Tarantino want to do something with the same concept?
ReplyDeleteI give you credit on the topic, and I agree that both are similar. But, as the others have stated, I wouldn't call it plagiarism. Tarantino isn't the first to use ideas from another movie, and he won't be the last. I do think, however, that Tarantino's reuse of ideas aren't as...subtle as some other directors. But hey, Michael Bay's been caught doing the same thing, except he was reusing his own scenes from his older movies. Which I guess could explain why he has the same style of movie, every time.
ReplyDeleteI give you credit on the topic, and I agree that both are similar. But, as the others have stated, I wouldn't call it plagiarism. Tarantino isn't the first to use ideas from another movie, and he won't be the last. I do think, however, that Tarantino's reuse of ideas aren't as...subtle as some other directors. But hey, Michael Bay's been caught doing the same thing, except he was reusing his own scenes from his older movies. Which I guess could explain why he has the same style of movie, every time.
ReplyDelete