Quentin Tarantino has been hailed as one of the greatest dialogue writers working in Hollywood, but there’s a different dialogue writer that Tarantino himself looks up to. Ever since he broke out with his very first feature, Reservoir Dogs, a heist thriller that dedicates as much time to mundane human interactions as it does to shootouts and fistfights, Tarantino has been renowned for his distinctive, idiosyncratic dialogue. Early in his career, Tarantino was brought in as a script doctor to polish up the dialogue in movies ranging from Crimson Tide to Past Midnight to the notorious SNL movie It’s Pat.
From Reservoir Dogs’ lecture about the hidden meaning of “Like a Virgin” to Pulp Fiction’s discussion of the differences between American McDonald’s and European McDonald’s, Tarantino is responsible for some of the most iconic movie dialogue ever written. Tarantino has written pop culture debates that are just as captivating as any of his more action-packed sequences. The case could be made that Tarantino is the best dialogue writer working today. But Tarantino himself has named one of his similarly acclaimed peers as the “best dialogue writer in the business,” and it’s hard to argue with his choice.
Quentin Tarantino Loved The Newsroom And Watched Every Episode 3 Times
Tarantino Was Obsessed With The Show’s Dialogue
In a 2015 interview with Vulture to promote The Hateful Eight, Tarantino was asked if he’d seen the first season of True Detective, which had recently premiered to universal acclaim at the time. Surprisingly, Tarantino said that he couldn’t get through a single episode of the Southern Gothic murder mystery, because he found it “really boring.” He countered that, while he strongly disliked True Detective, there was one HBO show he couldn’t get enough of: Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom. The Newsroom takes place behind the scenes of a cable news show and stars Jeff Daniels as the anchor, Will McAvoy.
Tarantino directed CSI‘s season 5 finale “Grave Danger.”
Tarantino didn’t just enjoy The Newsroom; he watched it religiously. When the series was on, he watched each new episode three times. He would watch an episode on its initial airing at seven o’clock on Sunday. Then, as soon as it ended, he would start from the beginning and watch it all over again. Then, sometime throughout the week as he waited for the next one, he would often end up watching it one more time, “just so I could listen to the dialogue one more time.”
Tarantino Had Nothing But Praise For Aaron Sorkin Despite The Newsroom’s Mixed Reception
The Newsroom Has A “Rotten” 48% Score On Rotten Tomatoes
When Tarantino brought up The Newsroom, his interviewer pointed out that some readers might be surprised to hear him praise the show so much, since it received very mixed reviews from critics. The first season garnered a “rotten” 48% score on Rotten Tomatoes, indicating an almost 50/50 split between positive reviews like Tarantino’s and negative reviews. The interviewer mentioned that, after the mixed response to the series, Sorkin even publicly apologized for some parts of it.
Tarantino had a blunt response: “Who the f**k reads TV reviews? Jesus f**king Christ.”
Tarantino had a blunt response: “Who the f**k reads TV reviews? Jesus f**king Christ.” In response to being told that his praise for The Newsroom might be surprising to some people, Tarantino asked, “Why would it be surprising that I like the best dialogue writer in the business?”The Newsroom’s positive reviews agreed with Tarantino that the dialogue was brilliantly written, and also noted the performances of the talented cast. But the negative reviews pointed out that the series’ political discussions felt preachy and self-satisfied, as though Sorkin was writing an endless string of pretentious arguments for himself to win.
After a shaky first season, the critical reception to the second and third seasons of The Newsroom would be much more positive. Sorkin’s indulgences would still receive the occasional complaint, but for the most part, the series fixed a lot of the problems from season 1. It found its footing and focused its storytelling in season 2. Of course, as far as Quentin Tarantino is concerned, season 1 had no problems to fix in the first place. He had nothing but good things to say about the show.
Source: Vulture
6/10
- Release Date
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2012 – 2014-00-00
- Network
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HBO Max
- Directors
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Alan Poul, Greg Mottola, Anthony Hemingway, Lesli Linka Glatter, Jeremy Podeswa
