Cinema Speculation
Published by HarperCollins, 2022. 392 pages.
By Quentin Tarantino

This is sort of a first here at the Krypt, because this book isn’t really about the horror genre. While there is a chapter on Tobe Hooper’s The Funhouse (1981), it covers a bunch of other films, mainly in the action genre. So why am I covering it here? Simple. Because I can’t remember the last time I read a book where the writer’s passion for cinema was felt in every single word.

The title alone, Cinema Speculation, shows that this isn’t Tarantino making a statement that the titles covered are the best in the history of cinema, but he writes why they are to him. It is his “speculation”. And he goes into great detail as to why, all coming from his deep-rooted passion for them. Everyone knows anything about Taratino knows how much he knows about cinema. You can’t see an interview with him where he’s usually name dropping some obscure film that he loves. There are reasons for that.

Most of the chapters in this book cover a single film and why it means so much to him. I can almost guarantee you that after reading a chapter on a certain title, like The Outfit (1973) or Rolling Thunder (1977) that you will want to see it, even if you’ve seen it before. Because after his enthusiastic take on the movie, you’re going to see it in a different way. That is the beauty of real film discussion. Not criticism, but a passionate discussion about a particular production.

Taratino takes the time to point out things in a film that most critics would maybe just give a mention of, such as in Dirty Harry (1971), mainly commenting on Eastwood or director Siegel. But he spends times really giving credit to Andrew Robinson who plays the mad killer, Scorpio. When discussing the likes of Siegel, or even Sam Peckinpah, Taratino writes “As students of genre cinema, we make genre films because we love genre films. They (Sam Peckinpah & Don Siegel) made genre films because they were good at it and that’s what the studios would hire them to do.” It’s a shame that doesn’t happen more in today’s Hollywood.

There is one chapter where he talks about film critics and the fact that they basically didn’t get it. He writes “They looked down on films that gave pleasure, and on the filmmakers who had an understanding of the audience that they did not.” He then points out one “second-string critic” for the Los Angeles Time, Kevin Thomas, that did seem to get what these filmmakers were trying to do, and would praise the films, even though the majors would dump on them.

Whether or not it’s the horror genre, action, or whatever, if you are a film-lover, you should read this book. It will either reignite your passion for cinema or dump some more gasoline on the already burning fire. He shows you that cinema is not just what the big critics say is a good movie or not. He makes it okay to like these low budget action or exploitation films, as well as giving you reasons to why they are actually well-made films.