Quentin Tarantino’s first movie Reservoir Dogs has one eye on the past. The soundtrack is littered with 70’s music, we hear snippets from a radio station “super sounds of the 70’s”, the characters talk about the past. This is something that has been a key to his career ever since, creating something original by repackaging the past. The reason it works is that he doesn’t take the best of the past, he takes the cool, and the quirky. But he doesn’t only look back, he has always had an eye on the future, or more precisely his legacy. His intention to make just ten films then retire. The idea being that the final films great directors tend to be rubbish. Given he has just celebrated his 60th birthday and is reported to be working on his final film, it seems like a good time to look back on his movies to date. What better way to do that than a ranking.
A few notes on the ranking: I have only included feature films directed by Tarantino, not films he scripted, acted in, or co-directed. I have also judged the films as they were released in the UK, Therefore, Death Proof is included as a standalone film, The Grindhouse Project is not included, Kill Bill is two separate films. Finally, and most importantly, there is no measure or metric to this ranking, it is just my preference. If you have a differ ranking feel free to share it, but remember, neither of us is right or wrong, they are just opinions.
1 – Pulp Fiction: What can I say, the film is perfect. Despite the broken timeline it all makes perfect sense and hangs together as a single piece. The casting is perfect throughout, as are the performances, but the real star is Tarantino’s script that keeps the movie moving at a perfect pace. The film has some of the best dialogue ever filmed. The two and a half hours zip past as if it were 90 minutes. It has been copied and emulated from the moment it came out. The film has no great subtext or deeper meaning, but if you are looking for that why watch a movie called Pulp Fiction?
2 – Jackie Brown: Probably the best plot of any Tarantino movie, but it isn’t his! Based on the novel Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard, the director adapted it himself and injected his own style, swagger, and dialogue. The cast is amazing throughout, but Pam Grier totally owns it. It is a film that tends to divide opinion but is probably the most accessible Tarantino movie and one that people who are lukewarm on his more indulgent projects should still enjoy.
3 – Reservoir Dogs: I was 16 when the movie came out, I first saw it at the cinema two years later (it took another year before it got a video release), I have seen every subsequent film on release at the cinema. The genius of the film is the twist on convention, it is heist movie that doesn’t show the heist. There isn’t much plot, it’s all about the characters, their relationships, and interactions. These encounters are accentuated by Tarantino’s unique dialogue. The other key to the brilliance is the casting.
4 – Kill Bill Vol. 1: Remember Pulp Fiction? Uma Thurman plays an actress whose biggest role came in a TV pilot that didn’t get picked up. Her character was from a group of female assassins, sound familiar. The story goes that she pitched the idea of The Bride on the set of Pulp Fiction. The fact that it is in the script suggests Fox Force Five predates The Bride, even so the characters and the idea are credited to both Turman and Tarantino. Objectively some of the films on the list are better than this, but the film is so much fun, it is just dripping with style, the soundtrack is amazing, and one of the chapters is breathtaking: Show Down at House of Blue Leaves!
5 – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: I was really concerned when Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was announced. Firstly, we don’t need another movie about Charles Manson, but more significantly, is Quentin Tarantino capable of the sensitivity needed to tell the story of the horrendous murder of actress Sharon Tate? My fears were exacerbated by the fact I didn’t particularly enjoy his last film, The Hateful Eight (spoiler, its bottom of this ranking). I needn’t have worried, the film is an absolute blast and a true return to form. Taken on its own merits it is a fun, and often funny film that somewhat recaptures my favourite of his films, Pulp Fiction. It is also a fitting love letter to Hollywood as a whole, and the birth of New Hollywood. A director who has always had an eye on late 60’s, and 1970’s cinema, he has finally visited the era, and it was a rich and rewarding trip. The film has its issues, but they are easily forgotten simply because they are outweighed by everything else that is so good. Not Tarantino’s masterpiece but an accomplished work and for only the second or third time in his career, he isn’t just entertaining us, he has something to say.
6 – Inglourious Basterds: The last line of Inglourious Basterds is. “This might just be my masterpiece.” It may just be that! Bringing together all the elements of his previous films but giving them a bit more depth despite the apparent brevity he brings to a serious subject. It also has something that Tarantino is never normally accused of. He is commenting on the way movies rewrite history, and people take this fiction as truth. It’s a film I appreciate a little more with every rewatch.
7 – Kill Bill Vol. 2: The to Kill Bill movies should have been one, but it was too long and Tarantino wouldn’t cut it down. The story from the first film unfolds and is revealed here. Still excellent, just not as much fun as the first movie.
8 – Death Proof: Originally intended as part of Grindhouse, a double feature of Death Proof and Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror. When Grindhouse underperformed at the US box office the two films were released separately in some territories including here in the UK. At nearly two hours, it plays in a slightly extended cut from the Grindhouse version. It is still made to look like a Grindhouse movie with two connected stories put together in a perfect disjointed way as if they were two features edited down and cut together for a fleapit or drive-in. The first half of the movie is dialogue heavy; the second part is all action. Both are filled with countless movie references including a lot of 70’s car movies. Not his best movie but a hell of a lot of fun.
9 – Django Unchained: I like this movie, but I have only watched it a couple of times. The main issue is that it is unnecessarily long to the point of being self-indulgent, not as much so as the movie below, but still self-indulgent. There is a scene some way into the film were Jamie Foxx’ Django meets a character played by Franco Nero, the eponymous anti-hero of Sergio Corbucci’s 1966 Spaghetti Western Django. This just makes me think, I would rather be watching that film.
10 – The Hateful Eight: This is the film where Tarantino lost me. He has made no secret of the fact Rio Bravo is one of his favorite films. For all its action, most of the film consists of a group of people sitting in a room talking. Was he trying to remake that? It has some great moments, but they are so spread out. An unnecessarily long film that adds nothing to the genre or the director’s catalogue.
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