I’ve never seen a Quintin Tarantino film (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, etc). According to several friends, I’m missing out on some great “art”. However, from what I can tell, these films have an adolescent fascination with death and cruelty. I’m sure some people find it amusing to watch one person place a gun in the mouth of another person, I just find it strange…hardly entertaining. I’ve also never seen a Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, or Friday the 13th. And I admit it – I’m a movie nerd.

I like movies that spark ideas or conversations. For example, I like anything that has Will Smith fighting against quasi-humanoid opponents – I, Robot, and I am Legend (come on, you’ve got to love it when that one robot winks at Will Smith). I’m a movie nerd.

Anyway, back to Tarantino. I just noticed the top three grossing films at the box office and it’s depressing. Here’s the list as of Aug 30:

1. Final Destination (28.3 million)
2. Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (20 million)
3. H2: Halloween II (17.4 million)
4. District 9 (10.7 million)
5. G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra (8 million)

Alright, the first three are movies about people being killed. This gives me the heebee–jeebees. Final Destination is about death. In Inglourious Basterds (more on the title below) Tarantino finally became politically correct – now he’s slaughtering evil Nazis. Halloween II? It’s not even October yet…

District 9 holds the number 4 slot. The film is apparently about humans vs. aliens – something that I usually like. I investigated and discovered that Will Smith is not featured in the film. Bummer.

Number 5 is G.I. Joe. I guess this film is technically violent, but it’s just not that cool – definitely not as cool as Transformers (and apparent Transformers 2 was terrible – but I haven’t seen it).

So what does this tell me? It seems that America is obsessed with death. We are confirming our identity as a culture of death and violence. I can’t imagine paying money to watch two hours of murder – even if it is murdering Nazis. Tarantino’s title Inglourious Basterds is apropos when we recall Saint Irenaeus famous quote about glory:

Murder is certainly inglorious.

This blog post is a bit different from other posts. I want to invite everyone to the comments box for your opinion. Even if you don’t usually comment, please leave a comment.

Why are slasher films ranked one, two, and three at the box office? Has this ever happened before and what does it say about our nation and culture?

Is it the economy? Do people hate themselves? Do we feel like inglorious bastards.

Godspeed,
Taylor