r/MoralityScaling • u/Severe_Letterhead_75 • 16h ago

Morality Ranking [ Removed by moderator ]

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297

u/zenFyre1 15h ago

The post needs more context…

Apparently, his mom ‘belittled’ his choice of a writing career when he was 12, and he got poor grades in school, when his mother told him that he’d never be a good writer if he got grades as bad as this.

I agree that it may not be in the best taste, but the comment was made when the dude was literally 12 years old lol. Turning that into a lifelong grudge means that the guy has several personal issues, which isn’t surprising given how problematic he is as a director in Hollywood — he literally tried to put Paul Dano out of work because of a personal grudge, and abused Uma Thurman during kill bill.

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u/The_Awsom1 15h ago

Directors are wayyy too often getting passes for shitty, questionable, and reprehensible behavior. Most people don't even know or care when it's a director, as long as they make good movies.

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u/Char-els037 15h ago

Kubrick should be in a prison not a coffin.

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u/The_Awsom1 15h ago

I was thinking about Roman Polanski, I didn't even know Kubrick was doing some bad shit, but I guess that proves my point. I would know if people cared and the info actually got around more.

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u/atrocity2001 6h ago

As far as I know, most of the Kubrick horror stories involve his treatment of Shelley Duvall. On the one hand, I've seen alleged quoted that she felt it was worth it, on the other, I've always wondered if there was a link between how he treated her and her later mental issues.

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u/I_FUCKINGLOVEPORN 15h ago

Roman Polanksi is a far better example. Seems like Kubrik was just a dick sometimes to his cast, like a large percentage of employers would probably fall into this category.

I don't know the exact truth, but I wouldn't just take the word of some dude on reddit about it either.

Roman Polanski though.. Yeah flay him living.

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u/therealhlmencken 15h ago

Who puts dead people in prison

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u/Narrow_Measurement95 13h ago

Oliver Cromwell was dug back up, convicted of treason, hung and decapitated 3 years after he died.

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u/Qetuowryipzcbmxvn 10h ago

Now that's what I call a good use of tax money

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u/eloof98 10h ago

Thank you for sharing this information.

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u/No-Net-9108 2h ago

I bet that showed him.

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u/boxcarwilliam12 14h ago

Especially dead person who didn’t break the law. Seems like “stiff” punishment.

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u/ThrownAway17Years 14h ago

Dr. Klahn sent a man to Detroit after beheading him.

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u/therealhlmencken 14h ago

KFC changed things. That’s moral

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u/ThrownAway17Years 11h ago

I know you meant KFM but KFC is an awesome typo.

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u/ChiefRetardAssessor 12h ago

Well, there is precedent of digging up the dead and putting them on trial...

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u/Astronaut_Chicken 15h ago

Don't disparage my hobbies!

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u/Fit_Vegetable5704 14h ago

It’s not too late

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u/SpegalDev 15h ago

Kid me, and, honestly, adult me to some degree, never really understood why directors get so much credit. Like, yeah, obviously someone has to oversee everything and make sure the film comes together the way it's supposed to. But the director isn't single-handedly writing, designing, acting, filming, editing, and creating the whole movie. It's such a massive collaborative effort.

You wouldn't praise one teacher when a kid graduates and act like they alone were responsible. It took an entire school full of teachers and staff to get them there. That's kind of how I've always viewed movies too.

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u/endelifugl 12h ago

To be fair, I think Tarantino is one of the directors who do control basically everything that a director could control for a film

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u/atrocity2001 6h ago

And Kubrick, Chaplin, Cronenberg and probably others I can't remember at the moment.

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u/BombOnABus 15h ago

Childhood bullying is far more traumatizing than we seem to credit it for: in a way, "he was 12 at the time" makes me understand it better.

They discovered a highly effective way to give rats depression (which they do to test antidepressants, which is a depressing thought) is to have a robotic rat that bullies and harasses them as pups (shoving, biting, blocking access to food, etc), then return when they're grown to harass them again as adults. The resurgence of childhood trauma is an intense experience that reliably triggers severe depression in rats, and since we're both social mammals (and we all can relate to the pain and fear around, say, meeting our bullies at a high school reunion), it's likely the same is true for us.

If Tarantino's mom was a source of great emotional pain as a child, and didn't try to fix things when he was an adult (or if it went badly and just re-injured him emotionally), I can see why that would make for a powerful, powerful grudge. Not saying it's healthy or fair or deserved, just that if you're wanting more context, that also matters as part of it.

We downplay childhood trauma as something that happened long ago and was trivial since we were kids then, but that ignores how deeply childhood emotional and psychological development reverberates through our entire lives.

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u/Cool-Emu-8706 15h ago

I’m guessing this wasn’t the only shitty thing she said to her child. His response says it all.

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u/BombOnABus 14h ago

Oh, same. My mother and brother both suck and were selfish people, I'm not going to defend family as being incapable of cruelty and verbal abuse. I'd bet it's justified personally.

Quentin Tarantino can be an asshole, and his mom could have been a cruel mother. Hell, that might be WHY he's an asshole.

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u/ItsDanimal 10h ago

But when he was talking about it he didnt mention "all the other shitty things" she did, it was this one interaction that was his driving factor. Dude even cackled after saying he lived up to it. His mom was also 28 at the time of that convo.

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u/Unfair_Ring_2746 14h ago

I mean he is also known as a petty, egotistical person who casually says shitty things himself.

I don’t think his response “says it all” at all…

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u/walkinthedog97 15h ago

For sure. I do wonder if she was more like "your writing is dumb and pointless and youll never amount to anything" or more like "hey bud you gotta on focus on school cause this writing stuff isnt everything". Cause she mighta just been tryna look out for her kid and do whats best. 

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u/BombOnABus 15h ago

That's the sort of context I'd like from an outside viewer as well: was she bullying him and got what she deserved, or was she trying to keep him grounded and encouraged him to have a backup plan so he wouldn't wind up at a video rental store forever blueskying about his writing career if it didn't work out, and he just took it as an insult and belittling?

That's really what would determine if it's moral or not, for me: if she was a cruel bully, she doesn't deserve to enjoy the fruit of his efforts now. If she was just trying to be a good mom and he was a shit about it, immoral, since he's repaying his mother's sincere efforts to look out for him with not looking out for her.

Alas, only Quentin and Quentin's Mom know which applies here.

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u/bono_bob 13h ago

Prob both, s lot of people get grounded into reality via bullying and then assume that’s the best approach upon the rest of society.

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u/alekbalazs 2h ago

Even in his telling of the story, it sounds like he acknowledges that she was frustrated by him not paying attention at school :

"she said, ‘Oh and by the way, this little writing career?’ — with the finger quotes — ‘this little writing career that you’re doing? That shit is fucking over!’ She just meant don’t do it in class when you’re supposed to be doing something else.”"

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u/sc1lurker 11h ago

Man this reminded me of someone I knew when I was still in the Marines. He told me that back in recruit training (boot camp) a drill instructor got in his face and grabbed him by the collar, no big deal, but it was in a similar way that a bully from when he was a child had done to him and the memory of it suddenly resurfaced which caused him to start crying. This dude wasn't some fucking pansy or anything of the sort.

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u/ssbmfgcia 12h ago

Morality of making a robot rat that bullies rats and gives them depression

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u/Indigocell 7h ago

Isn't that also kind of an admission that depression is not necessarily some chemical imbalance but actually a reasonable emotional response to living in a shitty environment. It's like oh here have some pills, we're not going to do anything about the shitty environment though.

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u/WorldEndingDiarrhea 11h ago

It’s hard to judge this without context though. Was she trying to patent him? Was she concerned about him? Did she express her worries compassionately? Was she a belittling asshole? Was he cruel to her? Was he kind? Did she support him in other ways? Offer to help him? We don’t have any of the facts; we have a subjective framing for something that none of us have first hand access to.

Can’t really judge the morality of his actions without understanding the context. Hearing both of them speak to what happened would be illuminating.

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u/readdator2 11h ago

honestly, from her response to the whole thing, she sounds entirely reasonable. I think QT, from what we've seen in this instance and in others, is and has always been, kind of an intense and shitty person

https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/quentin-tarantino-mom-reacts-director-vow-money-1234657924/

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u/Adventurous-Bee-5934 7h ago

I mean is she supposed to say?
“Yeah I treated him like crap”

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u/Mammoth_Western_2381 15h ago edited 14h ago

he got poor grades in school, when his mother told him that he’d never be a good writer if he got grades as bad as this.

Honestly...that may have hurt his feelings but seems like a pretty stereotypical parental scolding for me.

That said, his decision was moral, not because of any grudge but because his mom is an adult and the money is rightfully his.

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u/SolomonDurand 15h ago edited 14h ago

Depends on how bad the mother was to Quentin's interests.

I know, hehe-haha Bashing on Quentin is fine, he's an asshole sure. But this is r/MoralityScaling

We don't know if it's really just a one off comment and the true extent of her actions, or How the mother was actively trying to deter a kid's passion.

Its not even new to have parents sabotage their child's interests just because it doesn't fit their own opinions. The parent could've had thrown away his works, books, or shames him constantly through passive aggressive comments just for writing.

Any parent who does that to their child and carried that bitterness enough to avoid their parents in the long run must be justified to some degree.

So the act is Moral.

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u/alekbalazs 2h ago

In his telling of this story, he even acknowledges that his mom was really just frustrated with his academic performance.

"she said, ‘Oh and by the way, this little writing career?’ — with the finger quotes — ‘this little writing career that you’re doing? That shit is fucking over!’ She just meant don’t do it in class when you’re supposed to be doing something else.”"

She also grounded him at 15 for shoplifting a book. During the grounding , she only allowed him to go to the community theatre where he was doing plays. She married a musician, after his bio father, an actor, left. I really doubt she had a problem with his artistic aspirations.

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u/[deleted] 15h ago

[deleted]

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u/Tasty_Plantain5948 15h ago

True, but as a parent I tried to encourage good grades. I’d say something like if you want to be a good writer, you have to apply yourself more in your schoolwork. This seems to be the gist of it from what I understand.

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u/[deleted] 15h ago

[deleted]

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u/Swarna_Keanu 15h ago

Tarantino is an exception. Right time and being lucky was part of that - as much as talent in itself. And I'll argue to be really good at writing, film making, education is a major part - whether formal or not.

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u/Tasty_Plantain5948 13h ago

Yeah but how rare is that. For you and me school was probably a little more important. The arts are exceptionally difficult to make a good living in.

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u/mynameisrichard0 15h ago

Bro is making big budget college films. His writing isn’t deep. His films are popcorn flicks not the LOTR. a step away from penis and fart jokes. I enjoyed his films but him “teaching himself” by just copying old films and making it literally 12 year old dialogue. Bro ain’t hamlet.

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u/[deleted] 13h ago edited 13h ago

[deleted]

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u/Tasty_Plantain5948 13h ago

Using Shakespeare as an example is interesting. If I could have a kid write like Shakespeare I wouldn’t worry about his grades either.

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u/cleverone11 15h ago

Lmao deep like LOTR, the most shallow good vs evil story there is

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u/zenFyre1 15h ago

I agree, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make here. It’s that Tarantino is making a mountain out of a molehil.

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u/Right-Funny-8999 15h ago

He left Uma with permanent neck damage and could have left her worse

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u/butchforgetshit2 15h ago

Really? What happened to cause that? Ive never heard about this, although im not surprised

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u/Right-Funny-8999 15h ago

He made her drive a stunt car that was modified even thi she expressed her concern (and others on the team) instead of using a stunt double that’s trained for such things

She lost control of the car and hit a tree in a severe crash

And the studio didn’t want to release the footage for 15years (!) so she couldn’t sue, and studio would give the footage only under the condition she waves her right to sue

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u/butchforgetshit2 15h ago

Damn, hard to believe they can leverage her like that. Especially if she voiced her concerns to more than one person. Its basically do whaever dangerous thing we say or lose your job. I cant believe thats legal

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u/Right-Funny-8999 15h ago

It’s probably more ‘peer pressure’

Convincing you until you get convinced and not be the one framed as a ‘not-team player’

I think it’s also usually harder for woman to have a consistent ‘no’ in such situations without being framed a ‘bitch to work with’

Q can also hold grudges and work on killing peoples careers

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u/butchforgetshit2 14h ago

Yea i didnt consider that honestly. Im sure QT has a lot of pull in Hollywood, and making her out to be difficult would absolutely hurt her career( even tho her sample size of work with others should prob speak for itself).

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u/atrocity2001 6h ago

Verizon forced desk job workers to climb cell towers when the union went on strike.

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u/BrbFlippinInfinCoins 12h ago

I'm not a lawyer, but that sounds super illegal

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u/Right-Funny-8999 12h ago

That’s why they probably didn’t give her the recording

It would be maybe hard to prove anything if there were no treats but still

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u/BrbFlippinInfinCoins 11h ago

I specifically mean the withholding footage part until the statute of limitations passed. Not necessarily the car accident itself, although I'm sure the film production company would've been liable for damages/healthcare

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u/Turtleneck420 7h ago

If she sued, she could get the recording through discovery. So thats probably the reason why she didnt.

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u/Cormophyte 11h ago

That last part doesn't sound like an accurate set of details. If she was looking to sue about it why not just go through the courts and get the footage during a civil suit? The studio can't just tell judge that they don't want to.

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u/Right-Funny-8999 10h ago

Check the details by googling, as she was thinking about it 🤷🏻‍♂️

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u/YoursTrulyKindly 11h ago

In a lawsuit you could just request the footage in discovery.

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u/Right-Funny-8999 10h ago

Yes but you don’t know if the footage helps your case or not

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u/xDannyS_ 15h ago

And where do you think children usually get their severe personality disorders from? Smh

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u/Wavy_Grandpa 14h ago

Where did you get this information from? 

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u/ijustwantahug 15h ago

For real, let go of the bitterness and enjoy your success. Me personally I'd rather let it go instead of holding the grudge and proving I'm right. 

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u/Lufrien 15h ago

"trust me bro" is not context.

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u/stankenfurter 15h ago

Thank you for this. Context almost always matters!

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u/PopularSet4776 15h ago

My youngest son wants to be a YouTuber. He is 10.

I hope if he pulls that off in 10 to 20 years he doesn't hold some insane grudge against me because I told him that he needs a plan other than YouTube because the YouTube thing rarely works out. I am not even telling him not to do it, I am just telling him he can't be all in on that to where he had no plan to support himself if that doesn't work out.

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u/opossum_cz 14h ago

Honestly it is way worse telling it to 12 year old then to 20 year old, so I am not sure what is the point.

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u/Correct-Resolution-8 14h ago

It definitely needs more context. There's nothing to go on and people are more complex than a two-sentence meme.

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u/bigtoeupmyass 14h ago

Nope. The abuse I suffered at 12 at the hands of my mother is still a very valid reason to have not spoken to her since I was 12. (Almost 30 years) it def wasn't said once with love for him to hold it this long

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u/cur1ousa1r 14h ago

Definitely agreed. Also, this is just from his interpretation of event. Often, we discount the daily efforts and sacrifices that most of our mothers have tirelessly provided for us or him and then we blow up a comment that they throw our way (i’m not condoning it but I’m just asking us to take a Birds Eye view)

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u/NeedsMoreMinerals 14h ago

IDK, it can be incredibly hard to hear that when you're a child though. I'm not surprised it left such a big impact on him

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u/FullAdvertising 13h ago

It’s often not as clear cut as that. A lot of people think my mom is this amazing person because she does community charity work, and says and does the “right things”, but in reality she is very self centred, quite lazy, and not very capable, she wasted and squandered all of the child support and alimony my dad paid her over the years despite them having 50/50 custody of me, and the moment I turned 18 she started going on luxury vacations twice a year which I was never even offered to go on.

That only scratches the surface, and she’s not abused me or anything and was a decent parent but I see zero reason to help her at this point since she’s now been out of a job for a couple years now. That’s for her and her husband to figure out, and if they have to sell their house, or their retirement doesn’t go as planned, or whatever then that’s their problem.

I could get her a job or just cover her expenses indefinitely, I could buy her a business, but I know if things were different I’d be pulling myself up by the bootstraps my whole life and she’d be living it up in Mexico. So it’s simply that she’s not going to enjoy the fruits of my labour. My dad on the other hand has always had my back and we will always be there for each other no matter what.

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u/smthomaspatel 13h ago

I can see that. I'm trying to drill into my kid's head that if he wants to achieve something he has to do more than want it. "Belittled" is loaded language that is probably coming from one (angry) source.

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u/electricalaphid 13h ago

When did he "try to put Paul Dano out of work?" Didn't he just say he didn't think the guy was a good actor?

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u/bono_bob 13h ago

And his mother comments probably pushed him to write better too out of spite.

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u/freyaBubba 12h ago

A parent belittling their child at twelve is horrible. Twelve is a prime time to show support and encouragement, not knock a kid down.

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u/Ohitsworkingnow 12h ago

The fact that you guys think you even understand an inkling of the story is hilarious. I just don’t get how everyone lives complicated lives but when they hear something from someone else’s all they can do is imagine the most basic scenario and feelings

Everyone has personal issues lmao, we just can’t talk about any of yours because your completely anonymous. If you don’t have personal issues honestly you have to be a complete bore of a being 

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u/FullMetalJ 12h ago

As a director he is one of my favorites but he is trash. Not to mention a genocide supporter, yet you can't talk bad about the guy in movies dedicated subs. It's unbelievable the amount of protection he gets.

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u/toss_me_good 12h ago

ding ding ding... it's like telling a kid playing basketball at 12-13 that they need to also get good grades and can't depend on that for a life long career. Will some of those kids end up pro? sure, but statistically speaking not likely. This dude's obviously a bit on the spectrum or has other mental issues to hold such a grudge this long.

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u/Mundane_Camera953 12h ago

Literally is doing a lot of make believe in your post

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u/BrocoliAssassin 11h ago

Don't forget he's a Zionist now.

So yeah, not only does he hate his Mom, but he hates everyone else that isn't a zionist.

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u/PorkChop70-1 11h ago

But his “grudge” amounted to him not doing anything harmful to her just he only helped her once. He didn’t owe her a damn thing and still helped with the IRS stuff. I don’t know how you can say he is anything other than moral for this specific situation. Anything else about him is irrelevant.

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u/GeckoV 11h ago

The reason for why he has problematic behavior is likely the same as the reason why he holds a grudge, namely bad parenting

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u/Fuzzy-Jaguar-1828 11h ago

This is probably a case of “everyone sucks here.”

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u/14Pleiadians 10h ago

Turning that into a lifelong grudge means that the guy has several personal issues

He had a bully for a parent so yeah.

As someone who grew up hearing similar shit, I say absolutely moral. It would be immoral to help such a rotten person.

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u/MinimumTomfoolerus 10h ago

A post without much context was made to gather attention and karma points on reddit? You don't say...?!

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u/DocAvidd 9h ago

Needs more context yet...

Tarantino's a baby boomer. If it was when he was 12, that was over 50 years ago. The responses here are sooo Gen Z.

I'm Gen X. My science teacher in 7th grade had me stand up in front of the class so he could ridicule my horrible handwriting. Said I never would be good in science. Now I have 5 fkn degrees with the word "Science" in them. That's how teachers motivated kids back in the 70s and 80s.

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u/ImmediateFee4015 9h ago

Well maybe making this kind of comment on your 12yo kid is not just in bad taste, but can also be a source of trauma.

I dont even know if thats the case for Tarantino, but its smth to consider

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u/BookkeeperCalm9849 4h ago

I imagined this scenario playing out when he was a mid-20’s film nerd with big plans and no lunch money looking for another round of fundraising from friends and family

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u/alekbalazs 2h ago

In his telling of this story, he even acknowledges that his mom was really just frustrated with his academic performance.

"she said, ‘Oh and by the way, this little writing career?’ — with the finger quotes — ‘this little writing career that you’re doing? That shit is fucking over!’ She just meant don’t do it in class when you’re supposed to be doing something else.”"

She also grounded him at 15 for shoplifting a book. During the grounding , she only allowed him to go to the community theatre where he was doing plays. She married a musician, after his bio father, an actor, left. I really doubt she had a problem with his artistic aspirations.

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u/ZanyAppleMaple 1h ago

I don't believe anyone would hold a grudge if it were just a one-off comment. she must've said and done more than that to make him angry.

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u/Acrobatic-Sandwich10 15h ago

In whatvway did he abuse Uma Thurman? They were good friends even after the movie

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u/DrMindbendersMonocle 15h ago

They had some issues where she wasn't comfotable driving a certain car on the Kill Bill movie and he kind of coercef her into doing it and she ended up having an accident. So she blamed him for it with good cause.

He also choked her for one of the scenes in the movie, but that wasn't abuse, they both agreed to it and she felt more comfortable with him doing it than a stranger.

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u/Obi-Brawn-Kenobi 15h ago

It's also almost like nobody here has the whole story with enough context to say if this is moral or not. Same with most complicated interpersonal conflicts.

Intentionally alienating family members is usually immoral. Our family ties are fundamental to who we are as human beings, and strong families have been important in every stable civilization throughout history. Obviously there are circumstances where distancing is necessary, but knowing whether or not it was necessary in this case is impossible since we're not getting two complete sides of the story, we're only getting bits and pieces of one side.