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There is a curious moment that occurs in Reservoir Dogs. A character, who has withheld a crucial detail throughout the entire film, a secret concealing a purpose this man was quite literally dying to protect, suddenly confesses resulting in a post-climax (the standoff) moment of tension (and final release) for the final frame. For some, this raises an obvious question. Why? There are Reddit threads dedicated to the question. I recall a Tarantino interview where he remarked that an Asian audience he screened the movie with nodded at that moment when they watched it (recognizing it as a duty). "They got it!" he said (or words to that effect) in the interview. Of course, that Asian audiences would "get it" makes sense, as the film rips off City on Fire rather shamelessly. Poor artists steal. Great artists do "homages" ("I shall confer upon you the honor of having your pocket picked").
A running theme for Tarantino is the confrontation driven by honor. Butch has to go back for his watch. The gold watch speech is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, Butch seems like a maniac to return home for a random accessory. The beauty of the watch speech is that it is necessary filler, or rather it might appear to be a character beat or quirk, but is the keystone motivator of a central moment. Clarence has to confront Drexel, because his honor demands that Alabama be free of her pimp entirely. Budd doesn't run from the bride, because that woman deserves her revenge. Butch confronts the pawnshop horrors because no one deserves to be left like that, not even a man trying to kill you. Again and again in Tarantino there are moments of action motivated by the demands of honor. The closest our hero comes to violating honor is when Also Raine almost kills Landa, but finds a middling solution to satisfy the demands of morality and keeping his word (that he will not kill the man).
Even when they can run away or should run away or keep quiet (prudentially) his characters don't. I think you can tell which of his villains and heroes he really likes, because they are honor bound to play a really bad hand and they willingly do so. They turn back. They don't run. They confess. And if you don't want to act now, but still feel sore about it later, they'll be waiting for you. I think that this is probably the way Tarantino thinks of himself and so his films reflect his imagined style of masculinity. I suspect that if one were able to goad Mr. Tarantino into a dramatic idiom in a social moment (via familiarity and recreational drugs) one might be able to get him to do something he really hates (or, in that moment, he would learn that he is a writer, a director, an occasional actor, but not an actual hero).
A running theme for Tarantino is the confrontation driven by honor. Butch has to go back for his watch. The gold watch speech is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, Butch seems like a maniac to return home for a random accessory. The beauty of the watch speech is that it is necessary filler, or rather it might appear to be a character beat or quirk, but is the keystone motivator of a central moment. Clarence has to confront Drexel, because his honor demands that Alabama be free of her pimp entirely. Budd doesn't run from the bride, because that woman deserves her revenge. Butch confronts the pawnshop horrors because no one deserves to be left like that, not even a man trying to kill you. Again and again in Tarantino there are moments of action motivated by the demands of honor. The closest our hero comes to violating honor is when Also Raine almost kills Landa, but finds a middling solution to satisfy the demands of morality and keeping his word (that he will not kill the man).
Even when they can run away or should run away or keep quiet (prudentially) his characters don't. I think you can tell which of his villains and heroes he really likes, because they are honor bound to play a really bad hand and they willingly do so. They turn back. They don't run. They confess. And if you don't want to act now, but still feel sore about it later, they'll be waiting for you. I think that this is probably the way Tarantino thinks of himself and so his films reflect his imagined style of masculinity. I suspect that if one were able to goad Mr. Tarantino into a dramatic idiom in a social moment (via familiarity and recreational drugs) one might be able to get him to do something he really hates (or, in that moment, he would learn that he is a writer, a director, an occasional actor, but not an actual hero).