‘Jackass’: the gross inspiration behind one of Quentin Tarantino’s greatest scenes
Quentin Tarantino has developed a strong reputation for being one of the most knowledgeable cinephiles in the film industry. Throughout his career, he has borrowed inspiration from hallowed sources ranging from Sergio Leone to Mario Bava. Taking inspiration form other filmmakers is what becoming a great director is all about.
Add to that the fact that Tarantino was an utter cinephile before sitting behind the camera himself, and it’s no surprise that he would mine the wide cultural veins of the landscape for nuggets of inspiration that he would turn into jewellery. However, on one occasion, the revered filmmaker was irreversibly influenced by the iconic American comedy Jackass.
This happened during the making of Kill Bill: Volume 2, which contained references to innumerable genres, from samurai films to spaghetti westerns. According to Tarantino, the Kill Bill films were so effective because they transcended the multiple genres from which they borrowed their artistic frameworks.
Famously starring Uma Thurman as the Bride, one who is maintaining her campaign of revenge against the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, the project welcomes the likes of David Carradine, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, Gordon Liu and Michael Parks all back into the reckoning.
Though as Volume 2 attempts to expand ‘The Bride’s’ mythology, it slows considerably. Without the sugar-high of the initial film’s relentlessness, there is little for the viewer to cling onto, the result is undeniably disjointed. Despite somewhat failing to live up to the high expectations set by Volume 1, the second effort still enjoyed significant commercial success at the box office and provided a host of satisfactory pay-offs, including a few notable deaths.
While trying to figure out a proper plan for one of the fight scenes in Kill Bill: Volume 2, Tarantino felt stuck. He had a vague vision of the “white trash” fight between Uma Thurman and Daryl Hannah, but he realised something important was missing. Although the fight was brutal from the start, it needed something more.
Tarantino found a way out of his creative block when he chanced upon the widely beloved Jackass series. An indispensable part of American popular culture, Jackass has had a definitive impact on cultural trends, and it recently reinforced its legacy through the release of the critically acclaimed recent addition – Jackass Forever.
“It was always brutal, but it wasn’t ever gross,” Tarantino revealed while talking about the flash of inspiration he experienced. “And then, I saw Jackass, and I saw what I’d been missing, and so, I didn’t tell anyone, but I showed up on Monday, and there’s like a character that lives in this trailer that dips snuff.”
The filmmaker was so moved by the vision of America in Jackass that he decided to orchestrate the fight according to what he saw in the series. In addition, he made sure that everyone knew what he wanted by hosting a screening of Jackass for the whole crew, which subjected Daryl Hannah to quite a shock.
Tarantino explained: “In the South, old women and guys would have coffee cans, and you’d spit the snuff in the coffee can. At some point, Uma grabs the snuff coffee can and throws it in Daryl’s face, and now she has to fight with all of this crap on her, and that was Monday. On Thursday, I got a print of Jackass, and I screened it for the whole crew. Daryl is watching it and she goes, ‘That’s where the snuff juice came from! Oh my God!'”
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