Quoted from Mr. Blonde It's true that playing to your strengths is a good thing, overall, but if that's all you ever do, it can be your downfall.

- Yep, as I suggested, it behooves one to explore both avenues, the good and the bad.

Quoted from Mr. Blonde For example: overall, I love Tarantino. However, he is somebody who has focused solely (and even doubled down on) his strengths and not tried to improve his weaknesses. As such, his newer stuff has grown stale (and, at times, become downright unwatchable) and if you go back and look at his old stuff, it's not not aging well, in my opinion. Much as I love a good portion of his films, the only one that I believe is actually aging well is Kill Bill Vol. 2, and it's aging very well.

- I can't agree with this as Pulp Fiction is my favourite film of all time. I think Death Proof is by far his worst and preferred The Hateful Eight to Django Unchained. Kill Bill Vol. 2 is great though. Just curious, what elements do you think have aged badly with his earlier films?

Quoted from Colkurtz8 - I can't agree with this as Pulp Fiction is my favourite film of all time. I think Death Proof is by far his worst and preferred The Hateful Eight to Django Unchained. Kill Bill Vol. 2 is great though. Just curious, what elements do you think have aged badly with his earlier films?

Mine, as well. I think The Hateful Eight is his worst, overall, although it's close with Vol. 1 and Death Proof.

Tarantino's writing used to be special and something to look forward to. We don't live in that world anymore. When you strip that away, what do you legitimately have? Reservoir Dogs is almost nothing without its dialogue, Pulp Fiction feels bloated without its dialogue, Jackie Brown is one I never personally liked (although I appreciate it) and doesn't suffer from that problem, Vol. 1 is bloated and horribly paced, Vol. 2 is almost perfectly paced, Death Proof took a Tales From the Crypt-style episode and expanded it to feature-length and every film after that is bloated with dialogue (more and more, with each movie) where the overall quality of the dialogue -- and script, itself -- goes down.

Quoted from eldave1 It's tough to crow about ones self in an area subjective as writing.  What some love, others hate. But I'll participate. For me: dialogue is my greatest strength.

Agree with both of those statements.

I expected the answers would be subjective. I was just interested to know what people thought their strengths were, regardless of what anyone else thought.

I though some wouldn’t agree with this type of question and was hoping to liven up a relatively quiet board as it seems most of the voting has been done and we still have 2 days left.

Quoted from Mr. Blonde Much as I agree with the idea of this post, there is an answer (mostly) to your question: you don't actually learn anything from focusing on what you're good at.

I didn’t think this would be a learning exercise. The question was asked out of interest and to get a bit of a discussion going. It was also an opportunity to blow your own horn if you wanted to

I do however agree that if you can identify your strengths and play to them that’s a good thing.

My biggest strength? I would say that what started out as a lack of knowledge when it comes to English, I was basically forced to write very lean in order to make fewer mistakes. It evolved into a lean writing style that I still use. I'm always told my scripts read fast and are easy reads. That is actually a big plus. Even better is that it now comes naturally to me to write that way.

I also think I'm pretty decent with coming up with ideas and I can write a feature in a couple of weeks if I feel like it. Now, if just these positives could get together with my negatives and come together in some happy medium, it would be great. Lol.

Quoted from Mr. Blonde Reservoir Dogs is almost nothing without its dialogue, Pulp Fiction feels bloated without its dialogue,

- Its true that he has always been revered for his dialogue but I feel he doesn't get the credit he deserves for his directorial chops, visual aesthetic, shot composition. Besides the great dialogue in both those films, still his two best I reckon, it has ingenious plotting, amazing set pieces and memorable characters which have entered film lexicon, instantly recognizable and iconic. Not including his first, never released, feature, Reservoir Dogs is essentially his debut film and wow, what a debut.

I love Jackie Brown and wouldn't be a big fan of Kill Bill Vol. 1 either. I remember going into Inglourious Basterds with trepidation after not liking the film's trailer or his previous effort Death Proof and leaving with a smile on my face, the man was back. However, I do concede that he suffers from over writing, a lack of a editor at times and may risk disappearing up his own hole. Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight are examples of this. Still, I think there is a lot more to his films than sharp dialogue and hype.  

Anyway, we're gone off course, lets hand the thread back to its original topic: Self-congratulation

Quoted from Warren Agree with both of those statements. I expected the answers would be subjective. I was just interested to know what people thought their strengths were, regardless of what anyone else thought. I though some wouldn’t agree with this type of question and was hoping to liven up a relatively quiet board as it seems most of the voting has been done and we still have 2 days left.

It is an interesting discussion - made me think.

Quoted from Colkurtz8 - I can't agree with this as Pulp Fiction is my favourite film of all time. I think Death Proof is by far his worst and preferred The Hateful Eight to Django Unchained. Kill Bill Vol. 2 is great though. Just curious, what elements do you think have aged badly with his earlier films?

Agree with you - you have to look at a writer's body of work. Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Inglorious Bastards, Django Unchained - all real solid IMO. That's 4 great films - in the pantheon as far as I am concerned even though there were a few stinkers.

Quoted from eldave1 Agree with you - you have to look at a writer's body of work. Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Inglorious Bastards, Django Unchained - all real solid IMO. That's 4 great films - in the pantheon as far as I am concerned even though there were a few stinkers.

I'd swap out Django and Dogs for KB2 and Jackie Brown, personally. Especially which, while Django has a great 40-minute sequence, it suffers mightily from the loss of Sally Menke.

Quoted from Mr. Blonde I'd swap out Django and Dogs for KB2 and Jackie Brown, personally. Especially which, while Django has a great 40-minute sequence, it suffers mightily from the loss of Sally Menke.

Not a fan of Kill Bill - just wasn't my thing. Did like Jackie Brown

Quoted from eldave1 Not a fan of Kill Bill - just wasn't my thing. Did like Jackie Brown

No on Vol. 2? I can certainly understand that.

Kill Bill 1 and 2 are in my all time top ten.  

QT is my favorite director, although, I wasn't a huge fan of django and h8ful.

Another one in my top ten is NBK, which was written by QT. At least the original screenplay. Politics aside, I really really like Stone.

Quoted from eldave1 Not a fan of Kill Bill - just wasn't my thing. Did like Jackie Brown

Jackie Brown was cool. I do think he is overrated. It would have been interesting to see the films he would have made if he wasn't hailed as a wunderkid.

My greatest strength is my life experience.

Quoted from DustinBowcot My greatest strength is my life experience.

That's one thing I find very interesting about screenwriting. We all bring our different life experiences to it, and an infinitely wide range of stories to tell.