Roy Chacko’s article End of the affair: why it’s time to cancel Quentin Tarantino (theguardian.com, 23 July) uses such selective evidence that it merits a response. Each example he gives is more slight than the last. Reservoir Dogs, as he notes, contains literally no female characters – except “Shot Woman” and “Shocked Woman”, who are in fact depicted in a very real and troubling way as passerby victims; nothing about the violence against them is made pleasurable or glorified during their few seconds on screen.
Uma Thurman is indeed injected with adrenaline in order to save her life in Pulp Fiction, which is certainly dramatic, but how is it violent? In any case, Thurman’s extremely independent, wisecracking, charismatic character is one of the highlights of the film. Thurman, again, is attacked many times in Kill Bill, but that’s because she is its action-hero protagonist.
As for Inglourious Basterds, the women are more or less the film’s protagonists, and in any case it’s not remotely a film that focuses on violence against them, though it is a violent – and incredibly enjoyable – movie. I haven’t seen Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, but even if Chacko is correct and there is stuff to object to in it, this in no way upholds his general argument as, whatever Tarantino’s directorial vices, violence against women is not one of them – though it’s a very useful rope for people who don’t like his films anyway to hang him from.
Andrew Clifford
London
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