My top ten movies of all time #5

Rating: 9/10 (11 August 2004)

This is Quentin Tarantino's (referred from now on as QT) first movie ever and it, like many other debuts of great directors (like Terry Gilliam, Peter Jackson, John Carpenter or Sergio Leone) has been made with considerably small budget. This is only good because it has forced QT to focus on the story and the relationships and not to some gimmicks like the three separate stories in Pulp Fiction or the huge battle scenes in Kill Bill vol. 1 (not to say of course that these movies aren't great too). Small cast and a simple setting in an abandoned warehouse bring the best up. Keitel and Roth are great and Madsen and Buscemi have the best roles in their whole career. And even the smallest roles are noteworthy; Stephen Wright as the bored DJ of K-BILLY always makes me smile.
It has been said that this movie is not an important one because everything in it has been taken from another movie. You know, the color codes from Taking of Pelham 1-2-3, the set up from the Killing etc. But I disagree. If not else, this movie introduced the world what the new generation of movie-makers was capable of. The one, who has grown up watching old movies from TV. And of course every movie maker in the world can learn how QT makes the characters more human by making them have normal discussions about Pam Grier or Madonna's songs or tipping or anything like that, what we discuss every day or his choice of music. Normally music is suited to the movie to depict the emotions or to strenghen the scene or to earn more money with soundtrack albums that have new songs by hit artists like Jerry Bruckheimer does. On QT's soundtrack there is some old music from the 70's which was so out of fashion in 1992 as possible. But it works. The music choices are of course great and they also succeed in bringing up an eerie feeling when they are used in an improper scene. Like "Stuck in the Middle with You" in the ear-slicing scene. All in all, no matter what everyone else says, this movie deserves to be one of the best movies in the 90's and the fifth in my top ten list of best movies of all time. The only downside is that the movie is perhaps a little too short. I would've liked to know Mr. Pink's story for instance.
9/10
The best part: The Psychopathic Mr. Blonde dances to "Stuck in the Middle with You" with a razor blade in front of a tied-up cop, the camera tilts to the left and comes back and Mr. Blonde has the cop's ear in his hand. Then he shouts to the ear; "Hey, what's going' on?"