By Aside from the odd blockbuster or breakout indie, such as presently with “Wicked” and “Moana 2,” television has seemingly replaced film as the entertainment cultural touchstone for a lot of people.
That’s been due to a number of things – an exponential increase in TV production values and use of more cinematic techniques, the shift to streaming, the increase in quality filmmakers and actors doing TV work, and most visibly the death of the mid-budget film in cinemas leaving TV now the home of adult drama.
Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino has dabbled in TV in the past, from directing episodes of “CSI” to acting on “Alias,” but he’s primarily a cinema lover first and foremost. Appearing on The Joe Rogan Experience recently, he spoke at length about the modern relationship between television and film.
It seems he’s still a fan of films first and foremost, mostly because films have emotional payoff for him in a way TV doesn’t and thus is less memorable:
“Everybody talks about how television is now. It’s pretty good, I gotta say. It’s pretty good now. But it’s still television to me, and what’s the difference between television and a good movie? Because a lot of the TV now has the patina of a good movie. There are using cinematic language to get you caught up in it.
…At the end of the day it’s all just a soap opera. They’ve introduced you to a bunch of characters. You know their backstories and connections to everyone else… you don’t remember it five years from now. You’re only caught up in the minutia of it in the moment.
The difference is I’ll see a good Western movie, and I’ll remember it for the rest of my life. I’ll remember the story, this scene and that scene. It built to an emotional climax of some degree. The story is good. It’s not just about the interpersonal relationships. But there’s a payoff to it. There is not a payoff on TV stuff. It’s more interconnected drama. While I am watching, that is good enough. But when it’s over, I couldn’t tell you [what happened].”
Tarantino spends a good deal of the interview praising “Yellowstone” and saying it was great to watch, but he couldn’t remember much about it once it was over. He also cites the first season of “Homeland” as something that does have the emotional payoff of a movie – but the series continued for seven more years.
Tarantino’s comments hit as “Yellowstone” airs its series finale tonight, even as cast members Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser are jumping over to a new spinoff series.
The post Tarantino On Why Film Beats TV For Him appeared first on Dark Horizons.
