I have been following this thread with interest and
would like to add a couple of comments.

Violence I have said is not cartoonish in Tarantino.
There is a possible exception to this, or perhaps
adjustment. Perhaps a conscious response to his own
critical reception. The fight between Ving Rhames and
Bruce WIllis. The remorseless pursuit and especially
the choosing of weapons is structured in a way very
similar to a tex avery cartoon. Now does this mean the
violence is cartoonish. No I don't think so I think we
could say that the violence is placed in a narrative
framework comparable to a cartoon but the violence
contrast with its cartoonish placement (the presence
of blood for instance).

Now in response to the last post I would say that
violence is interesting in real life cartoons such as
Home Alone and even more so in Home Alone II and that
we can use the term cartoonish in these cases. I
believe the phrase 'cartoon' has been given a specific
tex avery meaning and I don't see why that is
problematic. We still have those other meanings
available to us and I'm sure Manga and Akira are in
dialogue with Disney and Avery.

Something I said in a post from a little while back
hasn't been taken up and I wish to reiterate it. What
do we mean by violence? One of the posts said the most
'violent scenes happen off screen' (I paraprhase).
Another refered to 'over-the-top violence'. Why is it
when we start discussing violence we go into these
lazy metaphors and ways of thinking which we would not
allow ourselves in other areas. Does violence have a
top? How do you know these violent scenes happen off
screen? Unless perhaps we're talking about violence
being done to the viewer by cutting the film abruptly
or cutting away (the end of Blair witch or the ear
scene in Reservoir dogs).

I love violent movies. I love kung fu movies and
peckinpah, war films and gladiator movies like
Spartacus, Tex Avery cartoons and Akira, spaghetti
westerns and the Battle of Algiers. There appears to
me such a spectrum of violence and so many different
ways it is mediated that to discuss I feel we need a
more sophisticated critical language than that we seem
to be using.
all the best
john

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