The Women of the Films of Quentin Tarantino
January 6, 2010 at 4:00 pm by jrharper - Leave a Comment
Tarantino movies usually get a lot of attention for being stylistically enchanting thrill rides, but one thing we don’t think gets enough attention are the women of his films. This is understandable. Hell, Reservoir Dogs doesn’t have a single line spoken by a woman. But since that male dominated affair, we’ve been privy to some bad, ass-kicking hot-as-Hades women. Below are some of our favorites, and the scenes we feel exemplify their roles.
Reservoir Dogs
Sorry, there aren’t any!
Mia Wallace (Pulp Fiction)
Played by Uma Thurman (known as Quentin Tarantino’s “muse”). Thurman also starred in his Kill Bill franchise. She’s still doing a-ok in our book.
Famous Tarantino Scene: Mia Wallace and Vincent Vega (John Travolta) dancing to Chuck Berry like it ain’t no thing. They can pretend all they want that they don’t know how to cut a rug, but we’ve all seen your movies, buddy. Yes, even Staying Alive.
Jackie Brown (uh, Jackie Brown)
Blaxploitation queen Pam Grier got exposure to the big time as the title character in Jackie Brown, wherein she played a crooked airline stewardess opposite Robert Forster, another former 70s star.
Famous Tarantino Scene: Brown walking through a mall with a bag of surreptitious cash. Would be a pretty pedestrian (no pun intended) scene; that is, if it wasn’t set to Randy Crawford’s anthem “Street Life.” From this scene, you get the idea that that tune is what plays in Pam Grier’s head whenever she’s walking anywhere. You should pick a song to walk to as well, if you want to own your strut. Me? “I Can’t Go For That” by Hall and Oates. But I’m also a nerdy white guy.
O-Ren Ishii (Kill Bill, Volume I)
Liu strayed a bit out of her normal character stock in Kill Bill, playing the head of a violent Japanese mafia organization.
Famous Tarantino Scene: We all knew Liu as the ballbuster on Ally McBeal, but she really took it to the next level as the Chinese-Japanese O-Ren Ishii. She establishes her no-b.s. attitude by beheading a man who questions her mixed heritage.
Vernita Green (Kill Bill, Volume I)
Vivica A. Fox stole the show as the first person “The Bride” fights in Kill Bill, Volume I. Her screen time is short, but indelible.
Famous Tarantino Scene: Uma Thurman’s character The Bride and Fox get into a nasty knife fight in Fox’s Pasadena home, only to stop and play nice when Fox’s toddler walks in. Then they resume kicking ass. Kapow!
“California Mountain Snake” (Kill Bill, Volume II)
Daryl Hannah once ruled the 80s, then disappeared. As a Tarantino is want to do, he brought her back in full glory as the one-eyed assassin California Mountain Snake.
Famous Tarantino Scene: If you’ve seen Volume II, you know what part of the last fight scene I’m going to say. I certainly didn’t see this one coming.
Rose McGowan (Grindhouse)
Rose McGowan took a break from Charmed to star in Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror and have a minor role in Tarantino’s Death Proof, which together made the double-bill Grindhouse.
Famous Tarantino Scene: When speaking to Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell), Macgowan gives a pitch-perfect “bitch” line reading in reference to a girl she doesn’t like: “Sorry, but I’m built like a girl and not a black man.”
Briget von Hammersmark (Inglourious Basterds)
German actress/model Diane Kruger’s breakout was in Tarantino’s latest opus, Inglourious Basterds. In case Kruger was curious, Tarantino has a way with launching or relaunching careers (see: Buscemi, Steve; Carradine, David; Travolta, John.)
Famous Tarantio Scene: Kruger chastises Brad Pitt’s character for the Basterd’s bad cover, then reveals how the two disparate parts of the movie will join together (mild spoiler):
