Quentin Tarantino Thinks Birds Are a Nuisance (pterodactyl-like screams)

Last May Quentin Tarantino filed a complaint alleging his neighbor’s parrots are too loud—that their squawking keeps him up at night and disrupts him from working.  The parrots owners are Alan Ball (creator of True Blood) and his partner Peter Macdissi. 

Tarantino’s attorneys filed this fantastic complaint. 

Here are some of the highlights:

The Quote:

Normally when lawyers try and quote literature in complaints it comes off contrived and cheesy, but for some reason, I think this quote at the start of a nuisance complaint is brilliant.

“Another writer, Johann Wolfgang on Goethe, once said: ‘He is happiest be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.”

The Lead in (ego):

Some clients have tremendous egos that need to be stroked, even by their attorneys.  Some complaints start off describing the parties as “brilliant physicians” or “great artists.”  I’m not sure how this description of Tarantino is at all relevant to the complaint.

“Plaintiff Quentin is an Academy Award winning screenwriter and director, best known for having written and directed such films as Pulp Fiction (for which he won the Academy Award for best original screenplay); Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill Vol. I, Kill Bill Vol. 2, and Inglourious Basterds, among numerous others.”

The Description of the Birds:

All complaints are subject to a fair degree of hyperbole, but give me a break.  This is what Tarantino has to say of his neighbor’s birds:

“They emit blood-curdling screams at random intervals for seven to eight hours each day.”

“Mr. Tarantino and others in his home are subjected to the Macaws’ obnoxious pterodactyl-like screams.”

“Their birds issue blood-curdling, pre-historic sounding screams…”

“…Macaw’s daily cacophony…”

“…Macaws, a large variety of wild parrot known for its intolerably loud screech and for behaving poorly in captivity.”

 There is no record of how this case was resolved, but I think Tarantino had a pretty fair chance of winning on the merits here.  This complaint goes to show how important a well written complaint is--and how ego permeates everything in Hollywood; even the law.