Quentin Tarantino once explained why CGI is “killing” cinema
In a world saturated with computer-generated imagery (CGI) and an industry dominated by comic-book adaptations and intoxicated by the idea of giving the big-screen treatment to every minor superhero character under the sun, filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino feel almost like the last stand — an ancient order of artists protecting their craft.
Just when we thought movies couldn’t get any more computer-generated, the threat of AI spilt over from science fiction into our entertainment industry, and huge companies like Disney shamelessly embraced it with open arms. Suddenly, producing ‘live-action’ movies that amounted to nothing more than animations wasn’t enough – they needed computers to make computers, too. From controversial VFX practices to scanning background actors to use their digital likenesses, the future of in-camera cinema looks bleak.
And Tarantino, as much of a clairvoyant as he is an auteur, had a vision of where his beloved art form was headed. In fact, it happened at a specific moment in time, almost 20 years ago – and in the presence of Keanu Reeves, as it happened. During an early screening of Kill Bill in 2003, Tarantino sat with Reeves and French filmmaker Luc Besson when a profound and terrifying realisation dawned on him. He later told Empire magazine, “I watched Keanu watching, and I suddenly felt it.”
Referring to the contrast between his movie and Reeves’ The Matrix, which Tarantino has famously and repeatedly cited as one of his favourite ‘modern’ movies but felt was undermined by the subsequent sequels, the wunderkind director explained, “You know, my guys are all real. There’s no computer fucking around. I’m sick to death of all that shit. This is old school with fucking cameras. If I’d wanted all that computer game bullshit, I’d have gone home and stuck my dick in my Nintendo.”
It’s the type of sentiment that only a ‘Best Screenplay’ Oscar winner could have articulated so well, but the director wasn’t finished. “This CGI bullshit is the death knell of cinema. Movies are far too fucking expensive at the moment, and it’s killing the fucking art form. The way it’s going, in ten years, it will officially be killed.” While the notion of cinema being killed could certainly be contended, his prediction on the ballooning cost of movies was not.
Kill Bill cost $55million for Volumes 1 and 2 – whereas the latest Avengers film, for instance, cost approximately $400million. In fact, the Kill Bill production went over budget by roughly $20m and over-schedule, but Tarantino wasn’t worried. As he put it to Variety, in comparison to the Star Wars and James Bond’s of the time, his kung-fu saga was “still the biggest motherfucking bargain in town.”
Luckily, it looks like Tarantino was wrong. Oppenheimer, Nolan’s recent 3-hour-long biopic about a nuclear physicist, which boasted practically almost entirely in-camera practical effects, has made over a billion dollars – with most of its revenue coming from large-format, IMAX and 70mm screenings. It looks like good old-fashioned films aren’t dead.
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