"I can't write poetry on a computer, man."
- Quentin Tarantino, LA Times, Feb 2013
Upon receiving his second supporting-actor Oscar, this time for his role in Tarantino's Django Unchained, Christoph Waltz highlighted the writer behind the words he brought to life:
"Quentin writes poetry, and I like poetry."
While Quentin Tarantino's track record as a published poet is essentially nonexistent, it's clear that he possesses many of the qualities most admired in poets. For starters, he handles dialogue beautifully. While his camera angles, over-the-top blood spurts and musical selections are most often associated with his style, the dialogue alone can also reveal that a work was created by Tarantino. He has a unique ability to blend deep philosophy with the mundane moments of life and the result is often a searing realism that keeps us interested.
In addition to this, his scripts show an immense talent with the capability to turn phrases and truly take a microscopic look at the minutiae of life that are magical once we're forced to pay attention.
Poetry in the 21st-century still marches on in paper ways. But artists such as Tarantino who can capture our attention in film and otherwise through sheer textual quality are throwbacks to poetry's ancient oral traditions. Such artists are poets, too.
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