Print the Legend: How Tarantino Saved Us from the 1980s

I’ve been driving a lot recently, which means I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts. Back episodes, mostly. Weird Studies, Slothcast, Tales from the Mall, and Bad Books for Bad People were all on heavy rotation for a while. Then I got on a Quentin Tarantino kick. He has two ridiculously long appearances on The Joe Rogan Experience and on The Empire Film podcast. They’re both good. I’m probably the last person who’s listened to them. During both interviews, Tarantino pitches the 1980s as a time of cultural stagnation and self censorship. “They won’t let you do that,” was the rule of the day. “They” being the studios (and the viewing public said studios supposedly represent) and “that” being anything overtly violent or sexual. That is, until he came out with Reservoir Dogs in 1992 and single handedly changed the landscape of American cinema. Without Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino argues, we wouldn’t have gotten Se7en or American Beauty. We also wouldn’t have gotten The Boondock Saints either, but whatever. You win some, you lose some.

Tarantino and Keitel on the set of Reservoir Dogs

It’d be good for Tarantino’s mythology if this were true. I’m not so sure it is. The mainstream may have been dominated by sterile action and dumb comedies, but this is also the decade that gave us The Hunger, The Thing, Re-Animator, Extreme Prejudice and Blow Out. To his credit, he does acknowledge that, yes, some good movies did come out during the 80s. Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark, for instance. Manhunter. Hellraiser. But, on the whole, he views the decade with disdain. Unfairly, in my estimation. At least there was a Tony Scott movie for every saccharine romcom and that’s more than I can say for the 2020s.

Kill me, please

Obviously, Tarantino would like to think he saved us from the 80s. And in some respects, he did. It’s undeniable that the one-two punch of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction set the tone for the 1990s. But he didn’t do it alone. Then again, who cares? He’s one of the only guys who made it out alive. Maybe it really did go down like he said it did, but even if it didn’t it still makes for a good story. Like the man said, “Print the legend.”

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