In an effort to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino's breakout hit, several of the folks at Grantland are highlighting their favorite Tarantino Knockoffs.*
Chris Ryan, in choosing The Way of the Gun, wins the argument. It is the best of these films, hands down. Christopher McQuarrie's script crackles with life. It is, probably, best remembered (and most loved) for its legendary opening scene (NSFW for reasons of awesome language):
Never before, and never since, have I loved a symphony of vulgarity as much as I love this one. And then there's the taboo-shattering moment of violence that sparks the brawl that closes the scene. No one ever sees that coming. It's extremely Tarantinoesque, the film's "Gimp Moment."**
Anyway: Great flick. Contains James Caan's best performance since Thief. Drags a bit in the second act. But closes with the best shootout this side of a Michael Mann flick. I guess it's not a mystery why Christopher McQuarrie didn't get to direct another film for 12 years (Way of the Gun did minuscule box office numbers), but it's a damn shame, regardless.
So Way of the Gun is the winner and it's not particularly close. But I want to throw a little love in the direction of Suicide Kings.
Released in 1997, Suicide Kings doesn't get a ton of mentions today. And that's too bad, because everything about it is great. What's not to love? You've got Christopher Walken playing a mind-fking gangster held hostage by a band of wannabe tough guy rich kids headed by Jay Mohr and Sean Patrick Flannery. On top of that, you've got Denis Leary traveling around New York trying to find his boss (Walken) and, in the process, uncovering the reasons why the head goombah inspires so much loyalty. And on top of that you've got a legitimately great noir, a twisty thriller that pulls no punches.
I guess the biggest problem with Suicide Kings is that it lacks that scene. That jaw-dropping moment. It's got a lot of great little moments. But it definitely lacks a "Gimp Moment." I do love me some Denis Leary, though:
Yeah, so, anyway: If you're going to watch one Tarantino Knockoff, make it The Way of the Gun. But if you're going to watch two, consider Suicide Kings as the second half of your double feature. It's pretty great.
*It was something of a mini-genre in the late-1990s, early-00s: talky and ultraviolent, twisty and, frequently, non-linear, these films capitalized on Tarantino's success without quite capturing his charm (or chops).
**I once read, or possibly heard, the unveiling of the leather-clad man kept sexual prisoner in the box of the basement of the pawnshop described as the "Gimp Moment." It was, this person wrote or said, the moment when you officially gave up and accepted that literally anything could happen in this, or any other, Tarantino flick. Sarah Silverman getting slugged in the face is Way of the Gun's "Gimp Moment" because it's right there that you realize McQuarrie and Co are playing by a different set of rules. A dishonorable set of rules, perhaps. A perverse one, certainly. But a set of rules you've definitely never seen before.