Tarantino In Pulp Fiction

One of my favorite aspects regarding Tarantino style is how he chooses to exclude characters or their faces from shots. This can be seen in several times in Pulp Fiction as well as Kill Bill vol 1. In Pulp Fiction we don’t actually see Marcellus’s (Ving Rhames) face till late in the movie all we see is the back of his head with a single Band-Aid on it. Ultimately the effect of this shot is building up Marcellus and giving him an intimidating aura. Tarantino does a similar style of shot when introducing Mia (Uma Thurman) for the first time while she ‘powders her nose’ before coming down to Vincent Vega (John Travolta) for their dinner. This shot has a similar effect on Mia’s character it builds her up just as Marcellus got an intimidating aura she does as well as alluding to how beautiful she truly is. In Kill Bill Vol 1 we never even see a full shot of Bill’s (David Carradine) face. It gives Bill an illusion of mystery we find ourselves constantly wondering who is Bill what does he look like and how dangerous is he really.
This scene builds up the “Bear Jew” talking about all the rumors, he is a golem and he beats Nazis to death with a club, these vivid descriptions create an image of a large savage man. This is alluding to the apache tactics that the “Basterds” are utilizing in their attacks against the Nazis. Therefore in this instance Tarantino is not only creating the image of the “Bear Jew” but actually constructing the image that is the “Basterds” as a group instead of individuals. Tarantino wants us to see the “Basterds” as a group of savage warriors without mercy to give the audience insight into the brutal reputation that the “Bastards” have earned among the Germans. All of the above shots create instant suspense and leave the audience with a frenzy of questions which we are left to answer for ourselves and it is done entirely with visual