Tarantino. Tarantino is clearly a style-plus auteur (a term I made up to help distinguish even the greatest auteurs on this list) influenced by exploitation cinema, De Palma, Scorsese, Woo, Leone, Godard (though QT disputes that mostly). Despite his influences he creates his own post-modern, violent film world that is entirely his own every bit as much as Lynch, Wes Anderson, Fellini. His influences might be mostly B-cinema but he is clearly a maker of super-produced (very un-B-cinema) films who not only is one of the most accomplished writers in the history of cinema but a masterful craftsman behind the camera as well… and I haven’t even discussed his brilliant work on non-linear narratives…
…. For the purposes of this list Tarantino already has 1 top 100 film, 3 top 500 films (excluding everything from 2009-now) and again, visually and narratively checks every box you’d need from a top auteur.
Best film: Pulp Fiction. Pulp fiction is a big differentiator when picking out QT amongst his peers.
total archiveable films: 7
top 100 films: 1
top 500 films: 3 (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs)
top 100 films of the decade: 6 (Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill, Inglourious Basterds Django Unchained)
most overrated: Nothing overrated by TSPDT on QT. His three films in the TSPDT top 1000 are Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction of course.
most underrated: Django Unchained has moved up a little since 2015 but it’s still #11 for 2012 on the TSPDT 21st century list and that’s underrating it by several slots. It ss a very entertaining film.. Robert Richardson as the DP does some fantastic work here- and I certainly wish this, not Hateful Eight– had been QT’s 65/70mm film. Wondrously zoom-heavy. Waltz’s exacting diction is just perfect for Tarantino’s dialogue. His “brittle brothers” and “Lubbock, Texas”. Flashbacks done in an effective washed-out (what looks like 16mm) taken straight from 1970’s B-picture cinema. Amazing shot of blood splattering on cotton. Narrative is part German folklore, Blaxploitation, western. The surrealism sequences with Kerry Washington haunting the Jamie Foxx character is really well done. Lovely De Palma (or Hitchcock Vertigo if you like) 360-shot near the end. It is a major achievement for these 4 lead actors (DiCaprio, Foxx, Waltz and Samuel L. Jackson).
gem I want to spotlight: Kill Bill is underrated as well but it’s finally starting to get more and more of its due. Perhaps this is the cost of breaking up a movie into two parts for strictly commercial reasons. It may take another decade or two for people to rightly piece it together and conclude it’s one of the best films in its genre of all-time.
stylistic innovations/traits: His dialogue is unmistakable and surely he’s known for this violence. Most of his work manipulates the linear narrative structure beautifully and now his recent films have been tackling and rewriting tragic points in history. He’s a creator of a rich mise-en-scene, he’s a sharp editor (especially of action sequences) in scene along with his narrative editing supremacy, and has gorgeous tracking shots throughout his oeuvre. There are repetition in his shots like the trunk POV shot, the overhead shot (usually of carnage), there’s the 360-shots from De Palma, the doorway shots (The Searchers), chapter breaks, Morricone music, pop/rock soundtracks.
top 10
- Pulp Fiction
- Kill Bill
- Inglourious Basterds
- Reservoir Dogs
- Django Unchained
- Jackie Brown
- The Hateful Eight
By year and grades
| 1992- Reservoir Dogs | MS |
| 1994- Pulp Fiction | MP |
| 1997- Jackie Brown | HR |
| 2003- Kill Bill Vol 1 | MP |
| 2004- Kill Bill Vol 2 | MP |
| 2009- Inglourious Basterds | MP |
| 2012- Django Unchained | MS |
| 2015- The Hateful Eight | R |
*MP is Masterpiece- top 1-3 quality of the year film
MS is Must-see- top 5-6 quality of the year film
HR is Highly Recommend- top 10 quality of the year film
R is Recommend- outside the top 10 of the year quality film but still in the archives
Tarantino puts The Lone Ranger in his top ten films of 2013 but praises the climax. I get why he praises the climax because it’s cool. It’s technically exceptionally well executed for sure but I found the whole thing way too over the top and out of sync with the rest of the movie. The same thing happens in The Cowboys with John Wayne. The 3rd act can be interpreted as “cool” but in the grand scheme of things out of sync with the rest of the movie.
It’s sad what he is doing. The whole 10 film nonsense has completely screwed his head.
He had no budget issues. Reasonably young. A great career stopped for no logical reason.
@AP – Tarantino got married in 2018 and now has two young children so he is prioritizing family over directing. I don’t want to play psychiatrist but from what I have read he has a pretty terrible relationship with his parents so perhaps that is playing a role in this. And it is not coming out of nowhere he has said for a long time that he did not want to start a family until the end or near end of his career. Don’t get me wrong I’d love another Tarantino film and hope we get that 10th movie but if he is done Once Upon a Time in Hollywood would be a perfectly fitting final movie
@James Trapp- love this- I watched ” Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” again the other night – so damn good
@Drake – it really is, I love the soundtrack so much as well
He’s such an amazing filmmaker with many amazing movies (both Hateful Eight and Inglorious being my favorites from his filmography). I just wish he wasn’t so dislikable as a person
@dom- “I just wish he wasn’t so dislikable as a person”
and ACTOR
Thanks now i got flashbacks of his character in From Dusk till Dawn, gross -_-
This is my list of Tarantino films
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
Resevoir Dogs
Django Unchained
Pulp Fiction
Kill Bill Vol.2
Inglorious Basterds
Jackie Brown
Kill Bill Vol.1
Death Proof
The Hateful Eight
My ranking of Tarantino`s films that I`ve seen:
1. Pulp Fiction MP
2. Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood MP
3. Kill Bill MP
4. Inglourious Basterds MP
5. Reservoir Dogs MP
6. Django Unchained MS/MP
7. Jackie Brown HR/MS
8. The Hateful Eight R/HR
9. Death Proof R (fringe)
30 Best Performances
1. Waltz- Inglourious Basterds 5
2. L. Jackson- Pulp Fiction 5
3. Pitt- Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood 5
4. Travolta- Pulp Fiction 5
5. DiCaprio- Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood 5
6. Thurman- Kill Bill 5
7. Thurman- Pulp Fiction 5
8. Grier- Jackie Brown 5
9. Waltz- Django Unchained 5
10. Forster- Jackie Brown 5
11. L. Jackson- Django Unchained 5
12. Jason Leigh- The Hateful Eight 5
13. Carradine- Kill Bill 5
14. L. Jackson- The Hateful Eight 5
15. L. Jackson- Jackie Brown 5
16. Keitel- Reservoir Dogs 5
17. Buscemi- Reservoir Dogs 5
18. Goggins- The Hateful Eight 5
19. Laurent- Inglourious Basterds 5
20. Pitt- Inglourious Basterds 4.5
21. Russell- The Hateful Eight 4.5
22. DiCaprio- Django Unchained 4.5
23. Madsen- Reservoir Dogs 4.5
24. Robbie- Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood 4.5
25. Foxx- Django Unchained 4.5
26. Willis- Pulp Fiction 4.5
27. Dern- The Hateful Eight 4.5
28. Keitel- Pulp Fiction 4
29. Walken- Pulp Fiction 4
30. De Niro- Jackie Brown 4
Question for anyone: Which Tarantino film would be best for a movie club/movie discussion?
@James – Jackie Brown or Once Upon a Time In Hollywood could be good.
@James Trapp- I’m not really sure you can go wrong here- I feel like there’s a good case for just about all of them.
@Harry@Drake – for sure, I do a movie club with my family and wanted to pick Tarantino film. Torn between your two suggestions @Harry and Reservoir Dogs. But no wrong answer, probably just throw em in the randomizer
I’m surprised that QT isn’t higher on the list. Death Proof is probably his worst and still merits an R. Will be move up when Once Upon A Time ages into consideration?
@Tom Van Buskirk- I am not sure where QT will land on the next update- but the director’s list generally omits the last 10 years of work (in line with the best films of all-time list moratorium) so this last update on the director’s list here does not really included anything from 2009-current.
Interesting. I have to agree with @Drake here though. Just doesn’t really sound like QT but I guess anything is possible.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/quentin-tarantino-sets-the-movie-critic-final-movie-1235351260/
Pauline Kael biography for QT’s final film. Guess we will see Hollywood in the 1970s and beyond through her eyes.
Whatever it will be, a new Tarantino film may happen soon. Very exciting.
@AP- Thanks for sharing. I’m there for the next Tarantino film- whatever it is. But I will believe this one when they actually start production. This just does not sound like him.
according rumors on the internetz this film have been cancelled and Tarantino is still revaluating his last film.
My ranking of Tarantino movies :
1 – Pulp Fiction (MP)
2 – Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (MP)
3 – Inglourious Basterds (MS)
4 – Django Unchained (MS)
5 – Reservoir Dogs (MS)
6 – Kill Bill Part I & II (MS)
7 – Jackie Brown (HR)
8 – The Hateful Eight (HR)
9 – Death Proof (R)
Just wanted to share that I finished his latest book “Cinema Speculation” a week ago and it was an incredibly breezy read full of insights. Most of the chapters are dedicated to specific films (Bullit, Taxi Driver, The Getaway for example) and there’s a lot of interesting discussions – it sorta feels like he manages to talk about every major American film of the 70s and late 60s though. He understands De Palma so well.
Did disagree with Tarantino saying that Point Blank stops shining cinematically after the first ten minutes though.
@Harry- Interesting Harry- thanks for this- I want to check this out.
What are some of your favourite books about cinema. Any good recommendations?
Reservoir Dogs MS
Pulp Fiction MP
Jackie Brown HR
Kill Bill Vol 1 HR
Kill Bill Vol 2 HR
Inglourious Basterds MS
Django Unchained HR
The Hateful Eight HR
Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood MS
@Drake – okay, I was just curious as I know on the Billy Wilder page you mention that the concensus overrate Wilder as you note the following:
“TSPDT has him as the 16th best director of all-time and this is simply incorrect. I’ve found that he certainly transcends being just a screenwriter at times (Sunset Boulevard and Double Indemnity in particular are remarkably directed) at times- but not at all times”
I certainly did not mean to imply Wilder was a superior filmmaker to someone like Scorsese (my personal favorite) just because Wilder is a superior screenwriter. The question I meant to ask and you actually answered it anyways was whether or not you factor in writing.
“I have tried to take the writing into account in my ranking. It is not easy.”
@Harry@Drake – I am curious, do you guys (or anyone else who wants to weigh in) think it’s possible to make a distinction between director and filmmaker. So for example, Tarantino wrote the screenplay for every film he directed that is in the archives; I believe that they are all original screenplays with the exception of Jackie Brown. So if there was a list of greatest filmmakers which included writing and other aspects aside from directing then directors like Billy Wilder, Tarantino, and the Coen Brothers would reap the benefits. I realize of course that someone could just make a list of greatest writers, and view that as an entirely separate concept from a list of greatest directors. None the less the idea crossed my mind.
@James Trapp – I certainly wouldn’t make the “director” vs. “filmmaker” distinction here- and if I did- it wouldn’t be around the writing. So Wilder is a filmmaker and Scorsese is a director? Hmmm- yeah definitely not. There are just too many auteurs that do not write their screenplay- it sort of crumbles this distinction. I have tried to take the writing into account in my ranking. It is not easy. Even in your examples here, Billy Wilder certainly adapted much his work from other sources, and Wilder pretty much always had a co-writer. The Coen Brothers have adapted material several times as well from Homer to Cormac McCarthy. There are also far too many directors that write or co-write their own material to make much of a difference on the top 250 director list (both Wes and PTA, Malick, Coppola (both), Truffaut, Godard, Lynch, Woody Allen, Bergman, and many many more).
Final Ranking and Grades:
MPs
# 1 Pulp Fiction
# 2 Kill Bill (I view as one film)
# 3 Inglorious Basterds
# 4 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
MS/MP
# 5 Reservoir Dogs
# 6 Jackie Brown
# 7 Django Unchained
R
# 8 The Hateful Eight
# 9 Death Proof
Study Summary:
This study was a blast, I love Tarantino. I think all this films with the exception of The Hateful Eight and Death Proof are either MPs or borderline MPs
The Kill Bill films which I count as one (per Tarantino) were the biggest surprise for me, at one point I didn’t even consider them in his top 5 now I have at # 2
Tarantino is the ultimate auteur, he’s a world creator with a consistent style while at the same time never makes the same type of film twice. You never get the sense that any of his films are attempts to recreate the success of previous ones
I don’t know if he’s going to makes another film or not but if not Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is not a bad way to end a career.
@James Trapp- Thank you for sharing this and congrats on the study. Gonnna be tough to top Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as a career capper.
@Drake do you think Tarantino is top 20 when it’s all done? I mean #44 already and that’s not including MP, MP/MS and MS films that have been released after 2009, all consistent with his style.
@Harry- Just eyeballed his filmography in comparison with Leone (currently #20 on the list) and that does seem like approximately the spot he’d end up. He has clearly had a marvelous career.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
Notes:
Starts with boxy aspect ratio for movie/tv show in the movie, uses black and white similar to opening of Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid, while this is not a Western but the movie within the movie, Bounty Law is
2:40 aspect ratio changes as does color
Soundtrack starts
8:30 shot of Rick Dalton in a film shooting Nazi’s with flamethrower, this will come up again at end of film
11 min cool seeing Pacino in a Tarantino film even if it’s only for a few minutes
16:58 Rick trashes Spaghetti Westerns which is funny given that Tarantino thinks The Good the Bad and the Ugly is one of the greatest films of all time
21 min great sequence of Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) driving through LA in the evening
Huge contrast between Rick’s mansion where he lives next to Roman Polanski who at the time was at the top of Hollywood and Cliff’s tiny house in the middle of nowhere
Rick “to my wives and all my sweethearts may they never meet” hilarious, sounds like the thing Marcello Mastroianni’s character in 8 ½ would think
30:05 amazing shot at Hollywood Pool Party, I love the use of red on one half on screen and blue on other, looks like Coppola’s One From the Heart (1981)
33:37 Cliff in yellow shirt driving yellow car with yellow interiors
40:55 more yellow on movie set, Cliff with yellow shirt
43:15 flashback with Cliff and Wife, it’s implied Cliff might have killed her, violence is frequent with Tarantino, but this implication is a little darker
44 min controversial Bruce Lee scene, hilarious
59:46 great dissolve edit from Dalton to Margot Robbie’s as a fictionalized version of Sharon Tate
1 hour mark we have Tate going to bookstore
1:07:00 Tate goes into movie theatre, more yellow, this is obviously intentional
1:09:55 great low angle shot with on set of Rick Dalton’s movie, great movie set within the movie
1:13:24 gorgeous shot of smoke-filled bar in the movie within the movie
1:35:00 Spahn Movie Ranch, hilarious using a group of Hippie’s for the antagonists
1:40:13 nice frame using door
1:44:00 nice interior shots of Cliff visiting George Spahn (Bruce Dern) inside the dark trailer
1:50:28 Cliff punches hippie off the ground
1:53:25 nice low angle shot
1:58:23 Dalton inside airplane drinking Bloody Mary
2:00:05 Kurt Russell narrates Rick Dalton’s run of acting in Italian movies, matched on screen with the movie screens
2:03:24 split screen shot of Rick and Cliff drinking on plane
2:05:00 beginning of montage of the films main characters giving an update on where they are in their personal and professional characters, followed by montage of neon lights on various billboards/signs going on throughout the town
2:07:55 beautiful use of light in dim restaurant
2:15:00 Rick hilariously tells off the hippies
2:18:20 silhouette shot of hippies approaching Rick’s house
2:25:00 after 5 min of built up there is an explosion of violence
2:28:20 A bloodies up Sadie goes into Rick’s pool, great shot of the red into the blue pool
Rick gets flamethrower and kills Sadie in the pool
Thoughts:
Rick Dalton is a bit unusual for a Tarantino character but in a good way he feels more like a real person then many of Tarantino’s other films which is not a criticism but observation, despite him being a movie star he’s actually quite sympathetic in his lack of self-esteem and concerns about his future, I like the rich character details like his penchant for whiskey sours and leather jackets to his nervous studding
The soundtrack is amazing of course, I like how the film mixes both diegetic and non-diegetic music throughout, much of it in scenes with Cliff driving around
Tarantino has talked before about his love for what he calls “hangout movies” which I interpret as a sort of variation of a “buddy film” I think this would qualify
This is much less plot driven than other Tarantino films, there are numerous vignettes than do come together near the end of film, I love the flame thrower scene
The use of color is very impressive, such rich detail in the mise-en-scene
Tarantino is so verbal so it’s interesting to watch some of the extended scenes here that feature little to no dialogue, most of these scenes involve Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate
I would have probably called this a MS when I saw in theatres, but repeated viewings have really increased this to clear cut MP level and possibly in my top 3 for Tarantino although its close
Verdict: MP
@James Trapp- great work here “Tarantino is so verbal so it’s interesting to watch some of the extended scenes here that feature little to no dialogue, “