The authorized Tarantino documentary, 21 Years: Quentin Tarantino, has been freed from the Weinstein "wreckage" in the conclusion of a year-long legal battle which restores the rights to Wood Entertainment. Director, Tara Wood describes the film as a celebration of the works of Tarantino. It reveals the famous film creator's passion behind his worldwide box office domination, and how his career has stimulated discussion of changes in the industry.
In 2017, Wood (co-director of 2014’s acclaimed 21 Years: Richard Linklater) asked The Weinstein Company to release the Tarantino documentary following the onslaught of sexual harassment allegations against company founder Harvey Weinstein. According to Woods' statement, the project needed to be handled with the consideration it, and Mr. Tarantino, deserve. The Weinstein company refused, and so Wood embarked on a legal battle that would be prolonged but worth it.
Now, with a favorable ruling, the film has returned to the creative team at Wood Entertainment. And the production team couldn't be happier. “We are thrilled, and eager to conduct our final interviews and complete the documentary, free from Harvey Weinstein and his complicit cohorts” said Wood last week. “We look forward to finding a new distribution partner, in time for the July 2019 release of Quentin’s next film, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood.”
Tarantino’s career is unmatched in its talent and diversity of subjects with his oeuvre of eight films. In his first production, Reservoir Dogs and its stunning follow up, Pulp Fiction, Tarantino challenged the status quo and revolutionized independent cinema. He later turned familiar genres upside down and celebrated characterizations from the 70s, in such films as Jackie Brown, Kill Bill, and the gasoline-charged Death Proof. He then challenged traditional American ideas on the issue of race in Django Unchained, and rewrote history in Inglorious Bastards. Most recently, Tarantino took on the western like no one before with the glorious widescreen mystery, The Hateful 8.
Naturally, such success comes with its distractors and Tarantino's critics are as numerous as his fans. 21 Years: Quentin Tarantino examines every part of what it takes to be a Quentin Tarantino film with (and soon to be without) the now disgraced, Weinstein. Wood concluded, “This project has always been in honor of Mr. Tarantino's career, and as a woman, creator and protector of that vision, I am grateful to have it back in caring, respectful hands.” And I think it's safe to say that every filmmaker, regardless of gender, would agree that this was a battle worth fighting, even if Woods had not won. Battles like this must be taken on if only to support the artist. Viva la Revolution!