5 Most Controversial Moments In Quentin Tarantino Movies

3. The Ear Scene

In the context of Tarantino's entire filmography this is a rather tame scene. But, it remains controversial because it was from Tarantino's first film and really announced to the world what kind of filmmaker he was and how exactly he was going to change the way movies were made. After the botched robbery we never see, Mr. Blonde arrives at the safe house with a surprise: he's captured one of the cops from the firefight. After taking him from the trunk to inside and tying him to a chair, Reservoir Dogs and Mr. Blonde enter an arena that felt strange for many viewers. Mr. Blonde starts playing the song Stuck in the Middle with You and handing out his own sick version of torture. He slices and dices with glee and when he finally goes in to take a trophy from the cop, his ear, the camera pans up looking away almost as disgusted as we are. When we come back, Mr. Blonde is joking and yelling into the detached ear. The scene was and is controversial for its blatant depiction of violence and of someone enjoying it on an unnatural level. Here was a criminal torturing a cop for the sheer glee of it all and it was all pretty disgusting. Yet, Tarantino worked it into the film well and had a point for keeping the scene in there. And the camera panning up was a genius aspect. The lens is supposed to be us looking away not wanting to see the torture being committed. But Tarantino drags us and camera back delving us into his sick and twisted underground world of criminals and lost souls. I, for one, have never been able to look away.