Quentin Tarantino: Powerful Dialogue and How to Write it

Last night I watched Pulp Fiction, for roughly the 350th time. A key thing that stood out to me, as it does time and time again with any Tarantino film, is how well it was written. Especially the dialogue. You could see Tarantino’s mind at work with every word that’s said.

I could tell there was a process behind it. There had to be, how else could have created an endless stream of memorable scenes and quotes.

There aren’t many people as committed to their craft as Tarantino is to film. He knows movies inside and out.

His signature style of bloody violence and drawn out dialogue is so developed that he could make a film under a fake name and everybody would still know he made it.

He builds his words through dialogue. It’s not all about what is directly being said, you have to peel back the layers and look deeper to see what’s really happening underneath the seemingly unrelated chatter.

He’s able to make plain conversations fascinating. They set the scene, develop the characters, and build tension. Who else could have you at the edge of your seat whilst the characters are talking about a burger joint?

Tarantino’s characters command the story. The question is, how does he write them and what they say so well?

Using Influences

I steal from every single movie ever made. If people don’t like that, then tough tills, don’t go and see it, all right? I steal from everything. Great artists steal, they don’t do homages.

Tarantino isn’t shy about acknowledging his influences, he claims his biggest three are Elmore Leonard, David Mamet, and Richard Pryor. Elmore Leonard being the inspiration behind Tarantino’s iconic grittiness and strong dialogue.

But above all, his biggest influence is cinema in general.

Back before he was the man we know today he was taking acting classes. In them, he’d have to create scenes to then act out. Initially, he’d write out movie scripts from memory and fill in the blanks with his own ideas. This process would go on and on with his own input increasing over time. Eventually, he was more or less writing his own scenes and applying everything he was learning as an actor into his writing.

Some may say that he references other films too heavily, but I’ disagree. It’s what makes him stand out. He knows what works and why, so he uses what works and adds his own spin to it. He knows the rules and that allows him to break them.

These influences range from recreating shots from classic westerns to having the Bride wear Bruce Lee’s yellow jumpsuit from Game of Death to something as small as taking a dance move from the Aristocats.

Besides, It makes sense that he would reference films so heavily, he’s the world’s biggest film buff.

He even uses himself as an influence. Many of the conversations his characters have are the kind of conversations he’d have. They sometimes act as Tarantino does; energetic and amplified yet so specific.

Writer First. Director Second.

Novelists have always had complete freedom to pretty much tell their story any way they saw fit. And that’s what I’m trying to do.

He sees his scripts as a novel. Not a blueprint for a movie.

I always write these movies that are far too big for any paying customer to sit down and watch from beginning to end, and so I always have this big novel that I have to adapt into a movie as I go.

It’s what makes his writing so incredible. He has to make it engaging through his characters, and as such reliant on strong dialogue. It’s how despite being drawn out it still manages to pull you in and keep you fixated on the screen. He doesn’t rely on already established characters or CGI to do the work for him.

He understands it’s a Tool

I like it when somebody tells me a story, and I actually really feel that that’s becoming like a lost art

The main driving force behind all the dialogue is the story. It all has a purpose in driving the story forward whether that be foreshadowing, character development, or establishing power dynamics.

On writing the dialogue he claims to ‘invite’ the characters into a room and let them say what they want. From this stems realistic and ordinary conversation that, it makes them feel real and human. Above all, it connects us to his characters and lets us understand their motives.

Any worthwhile writer from novelist to copywriter knows the value of connecting to an audience emotionally and continually strives to do so. Emotions are powerful. This empathy however is flipped on its head when we are reminded that these characters harbour a dark side. Sometimes, the darkest of the dark. Hell, half of them are murderers.

For example, the tension in the opening scene of Inglorious Basterds where SS Officer Hans Landa interrogates the French farmer is entirely driven through layered dialogue. The seemingly friendly nature of Landa flips as he becomes increasingly sinister, and much like the farmer, we become putty in Landa’s hands. It’s unpredictable and takes us by surprise when he ultimately gets the farmer to confess that he’s hiding Jews under his floorboards.

The scene establishes Landa as a character as charming as he is evil and hitting our emotional bases whilst doing so.

Another example being the tipping scene of Reservoir Dogs, it connects us to the characters and establishes their personalities. As they discuss tipping you feel yourself taking sides like you’re part of the group. The main irony of the scene however is the group taking issue with Mr Pink not tipping and emphasising with the waitress about how she needs the tips to live yet they are about to undertake a major heist and have no problems with stealing money from the bank or murdering countless innocent civilians.

Tarantino does this time and time again. Connects you to the character and then flips that connection on its head.

What makes his writing so noteworthy is the process behind it, seeing his work as a novel that he refines over and over until it’s worthy of being transformed into a script. Made great by all the sources he is able to draw from and knowing exactly how to use them in the context of storytelling.

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