Quentin Tarantino - The Man, The Myths and the Movies. Wensley Clarkson
parents of young children.
Nevertheless the Video Archives staff continued their system of having a separate shelf to place at least half a dozen movies centred on specific subjects. These topics, however, became increasingly esoteric, as Jerry Martinez’s brother Chris explains.
‘One time we ran a theme week that revolved around movies connected to water. They included The Poseidon Adventure, Water with Billy Connolly and Michael Caine, and Raise the Titanic.’
But on other occasions the subjects were far more intriguing. For instance, the staff once managed to get away with filling the shelf with films that only featured women beating men. ‘They went down very well with local neglected housewives,’ adds Martinez.
Sometimes customers would come in and suggest other movies that might qualify for that week’s particular theme. It all added to the unique atmosphere inside the store. The owners never really enforced any restrictions on their staff because they were rarely there, although Lance Lawson did manage to rival Quentin in his knowledge of certain types of movies. Lawson believed that as long as his staff were enthusiastic and interested in movies then anything went, within reason.
However, customers were up in arms when one staff member devised a Charles Manson section to coincide with the anniversary of the death of Sharon Tate. The films featured included Helter Skelter and a selection of cheesy Sharon Tate films. A number of regulars got upset and told Video Archives staff.
Lawson did get a bit peeved on that occasion, but both Quentin and Martinez insisted that the idea was so interesting that this outweighed the fact it might offend some customers.
Lawson was secretly very impressed by Quentin because ‘he could tell you who the DP [director of photography] was, who wrote the screenplay and probably do a couple of scenes including verbatim dialogue’.
Quentin was also responsible for tripling the number of ‘women in prison’ movies that were rented. One customer he made a convert out of was Gene Moore, whom he introduced to the likes of Caged Heat and The Big Bird Cage. Moore even got into a discussion one evening with Quentin about tipping in restaurants, which Quentin eventually used in the opening scene of Reservoir Dogs.
Quentin and his pals at Archives genuinely believed that their customers wanted to be told what was good. It was very much like an extension of the Hollywood executive’s traditional stance on new scripts. They wanted reassurance from others before they would consider watching or reading something new.
Quentin was a talented observer of other people and he grew to love and hate certain customers at Video Archives. One of his biggest irritations was listening to parents getting mad with their children because they wanted to watch a movie they had already seen before. Quentin sometimes took on the psychology of the child at this point because he appreciated that what they were thinking was, ‘Why should I try something that I might not like? I know I’m gonna like that.’ It actually made him wish he could be a child again because then he could watch the same movie on at least a dozen occasions and still laugh through it every time.
Video Archives was undoubtedly the single most important influence on Quentin’s eventual success because it was one of the few places where he could be a regular guy and get a regular job and still do what he enjoyed most. But, despite his outer contentment, there was still a killer lurking within. He wanted to get out there and prove he could do it. But first he needed to write something that would make people sit up and take notice.
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