LETTERS: Tarantino's video view of the banal

Sir: In your fashionable defence of Quentin Tarantino (leading article, 1 February) you suggest his films bring cartoon violence "to a realistic landscape". But it is surely the simplicity of the landscape that constitutes the major weakness of his films. Too often the environment depicted in Tarantino's movies merely reflects the empty-headed imagination of the figures he portrays; a world derived from second-rate, poorly observed films. In this respect, they differ from the best of the violent films of the 1970s.

Cinema at its best broadens and deepens our awareness of seemingly banal landscapes. Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction are both impressive films.

Yet Tarantino restricts the landscape of cinema to the world of the exploitative video. I can't help feeling (though I belong to that fabled 18-25 age group) that he thereby undermines the value of film.

Yours sincerely, N. Joicey Cambridge 3 February