Foolish Cat March 27th, 2008

Today is the 45th birthday of Quentin Tarantino, who, in my opinion, wrote the greatest screenplay of all time when he wrote Pulp Fiction.

I know the movie isn’t for everyone - there’s too much violence or talking, and the non-linear storyline can be distracting - that’s understandable; people have different tastes. But I’ve seen the movie at least a dozen times, and I think the true genius of the script is that it is completely lacking cliché. Every character, scene, song, and line spoken seems to come from nowhere and reminds us of nothing we’ve seen before. In Hollywood, that is rare.

Literary novelists know the evil of cliché, and in a good novel they’re hard to find. Most Hollywood scripts, however - comedy scripts in particular - Jesus Christ!

If I see a comedy trailer of a guy getting hit in the groin, I absolutely will not watch that movie. I don’t care if it stars Robert DeNiro and Meryl Streep, is directed by Martin Scorsese, is written by Steven Spielberg and produced by George Lucas. I won’t see that movie! How can writers think that is still funny? Seriously? Who laughs at that? It doesn’t matter if it’s Will Ferrell or Chris Rock or Jim Carrey, the groin shot is just not funny anymore.

And guys in drag? I mean you can’t be serious. Who in his right mind would 1) write a script with a man in drag, or 2) buy a script that has a scene with a man in drag? Some Like It Hot I’ve never seen but is supposedly funny, Tootsie was good at the time but probably is unwatchable today, “Bosom Buddies” is definitely unwatchable today, and anything else is ridiculous to even discuss.

These, of course, are just two of the more egregious physical examples, most of the offenses are in dialogue and are too numerous to really explore. “I don’t know who you are anymore”, “I’m too old for this shit”, “you have to let it go”, etc., etc., etc. It may even seem cliché to call these clichés, but just when you think they’re gone, they pop up in some movie starring Kate Hudson or Martin Lawrence or whoever. If you are a screenwriter and you write one of these lines, or something of similar banality, here’s the fact: you are not trying! You should be ashamed.

And let’s just forget discussion about song choices for soundtracks, but just for the record, as movie songs are concerned, “U Can’t Touch This” and “Super Freak” aren’t funny anymore, and I’m pretty sure they never were.

So here’s the point: the only way to really take your life up a notch is by creating something new for yourself, whether that be a new level of skill, a new experience, a new passion, or just a new way of thinking. Creating and striving to improve are the actions that make us grow. Clichés are the opposite of that. Clichés are the regurgitation of someone else’s creativity. Tarantino knew this and created a masterpiece. We can all learn from this in everyday life.

Even if we have to conform to certain norms to get through the day - “Have a nice day”, “It was a pleasure meeting you”, etc., most of the time we can switch it up. Sure, it’s easy to say “think for yourself”, but when you are bombarded daily by every form of media and all of your friends’ and co-workers’ opinions, it’s not so easy to do. Making a conscious effort to eliminate clichés from our daily dialect, however, is a good start to original thought. So even if you feel compelled to go along with popular opinion in spite of your best instincts, say it in a new, fresh way, and maybe, eventually, your actions will follow.

Blunder forth.

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