Tarantino's Top Nine Films of All Time
Oh yeah. Here we go. I’ve been waitin’ a long time to write this one. So I have this one friend who is also quite the movie buff. He is trying to make it out in Hollywood as a screenwriter. He, like most people, swears by Pulp Fiction, thinks it’s Tarantino’s best film, and declares it his favorite film of all time. He, like most people, IS WRONG. So wrong. Pulp Fiction is waaaay overrated. Luckily for you guys, I’m here to explain why. First, we will put Tarantino’s films in the order that I think they should be rated. (A good general note here: ranking Tarantino’s films is like ranking Stanley Kubrick’s films – they are all masterpieces, even the bad ones like Barry Lyndon and The Hateful Eight. So while for the next few minutes I am going rail against Pulp Fiction and The Hateful Eight and, of course, a bit on Jackie Brown, remember their worst films are better than 99% of the crap that comes out of Hollywood. Here we go.
Quentin Tarantino’s Top Nine Films of All Time
- Kill Bill: Volume 1
- Kill Bill: Volume 2
- Reservoir Dogs
- Pulp Fiction
- Death Proof
- Inglourious Basterds
- Django Unchained
- Jackie Brown
- The Hateful Eight
1 & 2. Kill Bill – My favorite. The best of Tarantino’s films. Why? Hundreds of reasons: the characters, the plot, the action, how the film makes you feel, etc., etc. But all of his other films place strongly in the those categories as well. Kill Bill is superior to all of them because of one thing: rewatchability. Now I know what you are thinking: yes, his other films are rewatchable, sure. But if you were stuck on a desert island and you could only bring one film (I’m counting Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Kill Bill: Volume 2 as one film here [They were shot as one film. It was only because together they were too long that they were split into two films]), which of Tarantino’s films would you bring? Definitely not Hateful or Brown. With Django you would get bored of the slave theme and with Basterds you would get bored of the Nazis. Death Proof is too dark. Pulp Fiction‘s narrative storyline, while innovative and unique, would be too distracting and misleading and annoying. And Reservoir Dogs, while it has a better story perhaps, doesn’t quite have enough production value (which is part of it’s charm).
You would want Kill Bill, because at the end of the day it is Tarantino’s purest, juiciest tale. Some may call it a simple revenge tale, but it is far from simple. A group of assassins kill their fellow assassin and her unborn child after she breaks their leader’s heart. Only she doesn’t die. She wakes up from a coma four years later and goes on a killing rampage through the underworld of Japan killing 88 elite assassins. And that is just to get to her first target!
Kill Bill‘s scenes are purer and the characters are purer than in Tarantino’s other films. And that simply makes the film more enjoyable than his other films. It’s like your favorite brand of ice cream. Sure you could get the Dreyer’s or even Ben and Jerry’s chocolate ice cream, but they just don’t compare to Haagen Dazs’ chocolate ice cream. It’s just smoother, it’s just tastier, it’s just better. Like Haagen Dazs, Kill Bill not only hits the right notes, but it ALWAYS hits the right notes every time you watch it. None of Tarantino’s films, especially Pulp Fiction, can say that.
Sure, the first time Travolta saves Mia with the adrenaline shot it is fucking unreal. The surprise jars you. But the second time you watch the film, it loses something. We know it’s going to end well. We know she is going to live. Same thing with the Zed scene: once you know they get out alive, it takes away from the horror. Not so with Kill Bill. The opening scene where Bill puts the (what he thought was the) final bullet in The Bride’s head and right before he does she whispers, “It’s your baby,” BANG!, never gets old. It never loses its power and emotional pull because the love between the characters is so strong. It’s goes so deep not just into our minds on an emotional and “people/relationships” level, but also on a deeper, physical, biological level. Can you imagine the pain in that moment that Bill felt? Not only has he just murdered the love of his life for the wrong reason, but also he has murdered his unborn child? I can’t fathom the pain. It’s too great. It’s too pure. None of the other scenes or characters from any of Tarantino’s other films produce that level of feeling. AND THAT IS JUST THE VERY FIRST SCENE OF THE MOVIE!!! A feeling like that could get you through the rest of your life on a desert island.
The rest of both of the Kill Bill films are a reflection of that scene. Every other minute of the films are tied to that singular moment. That is what gives the entirety of the films their power and places them at the top of the list.
3. Reservoir Dogs – Tarantino’s first film. It’s just so brilliant. It’s what made him Tarantino. It’s got all the exquisite, trademark Tarantino dialogue and exquisite, trademark, strong Tarantino characters. And of course, Chris Fucking Penn!!! The story here is what sets it apart from the rest of the films on the list.
4. Pulp Fiction – Alright we made it. We’re here. Now I’m not saying I didn’t like Pulp Fiction. I did. No, I really did. Only thing is, since I saw it the first time I have probably rewatched it only 4 or 5 times, whereas I have rewatched Kill Bill literally 100 times. And Reservoir Dogs probably about 30 times. Pulp Fiction is strong, but it relies more on its disjointed narrative arc to surprise and incite rather than its characters. Vincent Vega is actually a pretty boring character. He is high most of the film. Sam Jackson is great, but overtime, through his other films, audiences realized, “Oh. He is always like that: really loud and over the top. That performance wasn’t that special.” Hence why he was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in Pulp Fiction, and then never again since. Sorry screenwriter friend, I win.
5. Death Proof – Now this will be a surprise to true Tarantino fans. Most people see this as his weakest film. I highly disagree. Yes it was part of a double feature called Grindhouse that included Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror. Yes, it is very dark and one dimensional. BUT IT IS FUCKING FANTASTIC. Kurt Russell plays a serial killer of women who kills them by giving them rides in his car and then going and crashing it. His side of the car has of course been “death-proofed.” It’s a fantastically insane little movie. The best scene is when, although the girl already thinks he is “creepy”, he convinces her to give him a lap dance. It’s a mesmerizing scene. He is incredible. I think this is the movie/role that actually revitalized Russell’s career as of late.
6. Inglourious Basterds – Does it get much better than rewriting WWII history where Hitler gets gunned down by two crazed American Jews? Nope! Basterds edges Django cause come on, it’s WWII.
7. Django Unchained – Leo DiCaprio is a racist slaveowner. That’s really all you need to know. Oh and the theme song is fantastic.
8. Jackie Brown – A smokin’ Bridget Fonda gets banged by Robert Deniro. It’s the highlight of the film.
9. The Hateful Eight – Turned it off after 5 minutes of watching it. Maybe it gets better. They all end up in a cabin for two hours… so probably not. All I know is the beginning scenes in the carriage were so bad I couldn’t keep watching. Like I said, maybe it gets better.
BAM!
So that settles that. I could have dived into Basterds and Django a bit more, but you’ve scene them, you know how good they are, how important they are to their genre of movies, yada, yada, yada. The point is you now know how I feel about all of Tarantino’s movies. He is one of the most important directors of all time and he has given us some tremendously unique movies. The world is a better place because of Tarantino.