Romancing the Sword: The Best of Quentin Tarantino
Here are my picks in no particular order (except numerical):
10. Grindhouse: Death Proof (2007)I think one of the things that makes Tarantino unique is that he takes two of the most common elements in filmmaking, humor and violence, and combines them together in such a way that it leaves an impression on us strong enough for it to materialize into what we have come to call his style. Consider, for example, his toothless friend getting shot in the face in Desperado, Tim Roth cutting off his friend’s little finger in Four Rooms, his bathrobed belly-aching when Jules and Vincent show up to his house with a bloodied car in Pulp Fiction. The violence is graphic and intense, so why is it always so damned funny?
Whatever the reason, in 2007 all the stops were pulled out for the Grindhouse double-feature, which displayed such extreme ultra-violence that you almost don’t know whether to cringe or laugh. Quentin didn’t direct the entire 3+ hours of the double feature (he shared directing responsibilities with the likes of Rob Zombie, Robert Rodriguez, and Eli Roth), but the sheer spectacle of the thing earns it a spot among Tarantino’s best.
Grindhouse trivia – some years ago Tarantino was talking to a friend about buying a car. He wanted to get a Volvo because he “didn’t want to die in some auto accident like the one in Pulp Fiction.” His friend replied that he could get any car he wanted and give it to a stunt team, and for $10,000 or $15,000 they would “death-proof it” for him, and into Tarantino’s head popped the idea for this movie.
9. Sin City (2005)Two years before Grindhouse, Tarantino had teamed up again with Robert Rodriguez and graphic novelist Frank Miller to come out with the highly stylized Sin City. Tarantino and Rodriguez combine the dark, wet streets of a comic book metropolis with a stylish sense of violence and visionary photography in a story about the widespread decline of morality in a gritty metropolis. The film was directed by Rodriguez but it is such a visionary accomplishment that, even though Tarantino took only special guest directing credit, it still earns a spot among his best work.
Sin City trivia – Robert Rodriguez did the score for Kill Bill Vol. I (2003) for a whopping salary of $1. To pay him back, Tarantino agreed to direct his segment of Rodriguez’s film for $1. When asked about his experience in directing in HD (Tarantino staunchly supports film over digital), Tarantino simply replied, “Mission accomplished.”
Favorite line – Marv: “I love hitmen. No matter what you do to them, you don’t feel bad.”
8. From Dusk ‘til Dawn (1996)This will probably be the most unpopular movie on my list of Tarantino’s best, but even though it was not as well-received as most of his other work, I still maintain that the first half of this movie is so entertaining and so well written and acted that it outweighs the weaknesses of the second half. Quentin Tarantino and George Clooney made an outstanding team as a couple of marauding criminals escaping to Mexico and leaving a trail of bloody aftermath in their wake, and Juliette Lewis is an added bonus in a role that she seems born to play.
The movie starts out as a charismatic crime tale and descends into a vampire slaughterfest that’s imaginative buta definite step down from the first half of the movie, but this ranks with Desperado and Pulp Fiction as one of my favorite of Tarantino’s actual performances in a movie. He takes a writing credit while once again under Robert Rodriguez’s direction, but it’s his performance, as well as Clooney’s, Lewis’s, and Harvey Keitel’s, that really make it memorable.
From Dusk ‘til Dawn trivia – Salma Hayek, who appears as an exotic dancer at the Titty Twister, did not work with a choreographer. Rodriguez just told her to feel the music and dance to it, and the result was so freaking crazy hot that he did the same thing with Jessica Alba in Sin City.
Favorite line – Seth (Clooney) – “I may be a bastard but I’m not a f**king bastard.”
7. Desperado (1995)Another of Tarantino’s misunderstood classics, Desperado throws all caution to the wind in the swashbuckling Mexican western the same way From Dusk ‘til Dawn did with vampires. Antonio Banderas takes over the title role of El Mariachi, played by Carlos Gallardo in Robert Rodriguez’s original 1992 film. This sequel to El Mariachi finds a wandering musician looking for work but finding only heaps of trouble, helped along by his conspicuous possession of a guitar-case full of guns, one of which you may remember seeing worn in the nether regions of the character Sex Machine in From Dusk ‘til Dawn.
Banderas’ performance is definitely the highlight of the movie, although I will argue that this is Tarantino at his funniest, as he chokes down a mouthful of beer that reminds him of a joke, the telling of which has to be one of the best told jokes I’ve ever seen in a movie. Everything is over the top in true Rodriguez/Tarantino form, but the entertainment level is through the roof as always and the gunfights are freaking awesome I don’t care what anybody says.
Trivia – When they shot the love scene between Banderas and Salma Hayek, the entire film crew showed up to watch it. And for good reason.
6. True Romance (1993)Tarantino takes a writing credit for True Romance, which really should be placed higher on this list, since it also features one of Inglorious Basterds star Brad Pitt’s early film roles. True Romance is definitely an under-appreciated gem and I highly recommend it if you haven’t seen it already. The best description I’ve heard of the move is that it’s sort of like a boy meets girl kind of thing, except more like boy meets girl, boy kills girl’s pimp, new couple takes pimp’s coke, bad guys chase couple. Oh and Elvis is thrown in there somewhere. There’s nothing like a newly married couple on the run from bloodthirsty gangsters to bring you the height of true Tarantino-style romance.
Oh, and Brad Pitt plays a guy named Floyd. This is not to be missed!
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5. Jackie Brown (1997)Weighed down by the pressure of living up to Pulp Fiction, Tarantino’s previous feature film, I don’t think Jackie Brown initially got the recognition that it deserves, but it is the best reflection of Tarantino’s life-long love of 70’s blaxploitation films, one of the biggest stars of which takes the starring role in the film.
Pam Grier is Jackie Brown, an unassuming flight attendant caught in the middle of a gun smuggling operation run by the owner of the airline that she works for. Stuck between the gun runners and the ATF, Jackie gets involved in a thick plot to set them all against each other and try to make off with half a million dollars herself. It’s a great crime story set at a crackling pace and with a massive cast, including Samuel L. Jackson, Robert DeNiro, Bridget Fonda, Chris Tucker, and Michael Keaton.
Best line – Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson) – “AK-47! The very best there is. When you absolutely positively got to kill every motherf**ker in the room, accept no substitutes!”
4. Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)Turning his back on vampires and gunslingers, Tarantino takes on writing and directing responsibilities in bringing his auteur style to his tale of ultimate betrayal and revenge. The first film in Tarantino’s two-part saga, if I remember correctly, ended so abruptly that a lot of people were a little angry at having to wait another year to find out the rest of the story. It was a bold move for them to finally introduce us to the hated Bill in the form of the late David Carradine in a lengthy, talky scene where he lovingly makes bologna sandwiches for his and Elle’s daughter, but don’t worry, the movie has plenty of the ultra-violence that Tarantino is best at.
Kill Bill trivia - Kill Bill Vol. 2 is unofficially Quentin Tarantino's first sequel, and he badly violates the higher-body-count rule of sequels. In the original film, 41 people are killed. In the sequel, 3!
3. Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)Ah, the one that started it all. Or the one that started them both, anyway. In one of the most stunning sequences to come along in years, Uma Thurman’s character, here known only as The Bride, wakes up from a coma to discover that the baby with which she was pregnant has been stolen, she’s beaten and bruised and bleeding and buried alive by the assassination team that she was once a part of. As the title song explains, her baby shot her down and she soon embarks on a mission to get revenge on the other four members of the brilliantly titled Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. Revenge is a dish best served cold and The Bride gets plenty close to death to soak lots of coldness into her bones, and it comes out in the stunning fight sequences that are to follow. This is not only one of Tarantino’s best films, it is a gory martial arts classic.
2. Reservoir Dogs (1992)One of Tarantino’s technically simplest films ever, Reservoir Dogs definitely deserves the crown for violence. The Kill Bills had geysers of blood and eyeballs ripped out and such, but the scene in Reservoir Dogs with the cop’s ear is one of the most horrible scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie, and believe me, I’ve seen a lot of movies. The violence is much more gritty and visceral here than in most of Tarantino’s other films, which is why it’s so much more difficult to watch. An ensemble cast all deliver stunning, spot-on performances in a simply told but highly effective crime thriller.
Known only by their colorful names, seven total strangers come together to pull off the perfect diamond heist, only to learn how little they can trust each other when things immediately go horribly wrong. Tons of blood and gore and brilliant dialogue, it may be difficult to watch but it is definitely one of Tarantino’s most effective films ever.
1. Pulp Fiction (1994)Whenever I write a list like this, I always hate to jump on the bandwagon and go along with the crowd with what the number one movie should be, but I watched Pulp Fiction again not too long ago and there is just no way to argue that it is not Tarantino’s best film. In one of my favorite film structures, Pulp Fiction is about a lot of totally different people who's lives come to be intertwined with each other in the most unexpected ways. The title refers to a style of sensationalized writing that is "generally regarded as being of poor quality," which is more than I can say for the writing of Pulp Fiction, which is about as good as we can ask for in a movie. When you can keep an audience enraptured by a couple of guys in a cafe talking about nothing more interesting than burgers and wandering, you know you're doing something right in the screenwriting department.
But it is the performances that really bring out the subject matter and make it resonate within us. John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson are both in peak form as two of the main characters, Vincent and Jules, as are Bruce Willis, Uma Thurman, Tim Roth, Ving Rhames, the list goes on.
But you've all seen the movie, you know all this stuff. Rather than go on and sing obvious praises, I'll just let Jules explain it as only he (and the Bible) can -
"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of charity and goodwill shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and a finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee."
-Ezekiel 25:17
