Quentin Tarantino and his Films

Django Unchained is a tribute to a great genre spaghetti western is. Some people haven't seen any other films from that genre or seen only a few and thus like it very much. Another group, including me, likes it for the homage to another spaghetti westerns. I think Django Unchained is pretty good, but unfortunately I haven't seen Death Proof so can't judge which one is better.

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Though I have two Tarantino movies in my top 100, I wouldn't put him among my top 10 favorite directors. His movies are very cool but are not quite powerful, perhaps a natural consequence of the coolness factor. And I place great value on power.

Great opening post. Tarantino's films are something special. His undisputed masterpiece, Pulp Fiction, is one of the main reasons why I became a fan.

This is how I would rank his work:

1. Pulp Fiction
2. Inglourious Basterds
3. Kill Bill
4. Jackie Brown +
5. Reservoir Dogs +
6. Django Unchained
7. Death Proof


He'll never be able to make a better movie than Pulp Fiction, simply because it's impossible. That's how great Pulp Fiction is.

Inglourious Basterds is one of his most complete, most well made films. Kill Bill is undoubtedly his most stylish, and probably the most entertaining. And imo, his 3rd most complete film (I consider Kill Bill to be one movie, even though I think volume 2 is slightly better than the first).

Jackie Brown is almost perfect, and I think that in a way, it's the only movie that kind of came close to Pulp Fiction, in terms of style and atmosphere. There are some elements and details that you can notice in both films. Django is also great, and one of his most entertaining works (I never felt bored, not even for a minute), but it has to mentioned that it is a little unbalanced, slightly flawed, and not as complete or well made as the rest of his aforementioned works. Death Proof is his weakest, and even Tarantino knows it, because he has said so himself.


By the way, why do some people believe that almost all Tarantino fans are teenagers who enjoy his films purely because of the graphic violence? Actually, it's a lot of people. I've been a QT fan for years, and I'm not even a fan of graphic violence. Probably violence comes last for me in the list of things I like about Tarantino's films. For me, it's about the way he makes the movies, and that includes everything. Like Ebert once said, QT is in love with his camera, and this is exactly why I love his movies. It's because of how he makes them. Writing is excellent, directing and camera work is always top notch, music is superb (every single time), set pieces are great... the list goes on. Yet, as soon as people hear his name, they go "oh, that's the guy that makes violent movies". If you think Tarantino's films are all about violence, then you haven't got a clue.

his movies have his quirky brand of style and bravado in spades, yet have a superficial quality that i don't connect with.. it's a gut reaction and can be difficult to define

however, i do respect his love of movies generally speaking, and that he's going to do things his way and he doesn't really care to change for anyone. so it's no big deal that none of his movies strike me quite right. there's plenty of others that do

he's a guy who came from nowhere and got everything he ever wanted, so you can sort of understand him being egocentric to some extent.

I think that I can connect very well to Tarantino's films, specially Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction (Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained suffered a little from moralizing), still, I think there are stronger drugs in the market.

I had been a fan from the very get go with Reservoir Dogs. At the time, in the late 80's, most movies had nothing but Catch Phrases and no real dialouge, in regards to most action-based movies. Tarantino changed all of that and he went on to create some amazing films, as far as the genre is concerned with Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown (following close to the story Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard), True Romance (which he only wrote, not directed, but I do consider this a Tarantino film) and so forth with his partner Roger Avery.
During all of this, he could do no wrong in my lil fandom world. When he worked with Robert Rodriguez, again, he add a fantastic creative force to bring out some fun and amusing work, though Rodriguez did outshine him when it came to the Grindhouse double feature.
Though I did begin to drift away some time around Kill Bill when Tarantino seemed to love himself more than he did movies.
I do enjoy Inglorious Basterds seeing many of the aspects of his early movies (the lulling the viewer into a calmness before hitting them with some intense twist, good quality dialogue instead of simply blathering inanely)and have yet to see Django so I cannot comment on that one.
Luckily, while I was missing the old Tarantino style of moviemaking I was able to discover and thoroughly come to love, what some consider, Britian's counterpart; Guy Ritchie. Fast paced, visceral movies with excellent dialouge, quirky characters, a great soundtrack that was an intregal (sp?) aspect to the storyelling.
The early Tarantino movies had this, they were clever and innovative, now, Bigger, Louder, more CGI Bang for the Buck. Which he does prove to be very good at, but I don't rave about him like I once did.

Tarantino NEVER uses CGI, so what you're saying is just untrue. He's a big hater of CGI, actually.

He makes more ambitious movies, that's true. I love them, personally.

Nice post,Daniel
Personally,Django Unchained and Jackie Brown are the weakest QT films for me,and all other are equally good.
It's interesting that some of you mentioned that QT will never top Pulp Fiction.Well,I think he can.Don't get me wrong - PF is a great movie but QT still has his style which is visible in PF,so I think he can make a great film again.

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That is a mistake on my part and i do re-tract it. Thanks for the correction. And yes, that was what I was trying to express, but fell a little short in stating

I enjoy his films very much--whilst I'm watching them--but. and this might sound like the usual complaint, I feel he takes too much from other films.

That said, Inglourious Basterds--aside from its apparent barbarism--is one hell of a movie.

Death Proof works perfect as a movie it pays tribute too, Django Unchained doesn't. Forget Spaghetti westerns, it isn't even a good western film.

Whoever thinks its a good tribute to spaghetti westerns, clearly hasn't watched many of them.
I think Inglorious Basterds works better as a tribute to Spaghetti Westerns than Django Unchained.

Just using spaghetti western music and few references doesn't make it a good spaghetti western tribute. Heck most of the older spaghetti westerns look like a hack job, ripping off plot ideas & characters.. But Tarantino's Django is probably the worst of all the spaghetti westerns ever made.

How? (IB)

Just why do you think it's so bad?

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I have seen Tarantino using music from popular movies, but in this one he butchers the music of older & far superior spaghetti westerns.
I am sure he named the character King, just so he could use the song His name was King.

Inglorious Basterds & Kill Bill on the other hand used spaghetti western music & cinematography very tastefully.

There are lots of more things I can't recall at the moment about the film, as to how this movie fails as a tribute and ends up looking like a trashy big budget joke.
To go into detail I will have to rewatch it, and such movies I try hard to erase. So I dare not.

I see it as a film on itself.
I don't like to see movies purely as a 'tribute' or something like that. Of course there are A LOT of references that are very clear in Tarantino's movies, but I like to enjoy a film beyond that. For me, Django Unchained felt fresh.
It surely has a lot of references to older (spaghetti) westerns, but it also has a lot of other good things in it.

I agree that DU is grittier than IB or KB, but I completely fell for its humor, the characters (in particular DiCaprio's Calvin Cadie), the performances and its style.
I've rarely seen a period piece that looked so completely new and fresh. For me, the film had plenty of magical moments. I think Tarantino's directing and writing perfectly fit with the western theme.

I even want to admit that, objectively; Inglourious Basterds is the better movie of the two. I just liked Django Unchained even better. It's more of a favorite than IB is to me. it's more of a personal thing.

I don't agree about the music by the way. I found the music to be very tasteful and fitting. I'm not a modern music hater, so those scenes worked for me, and the old music also worked very well for the most parts.

Sorry. but Django Unchained doesn't work well as a standalone film.
Unlike other films where Tarantino uses references, here the references fail in service to the plot.

Tarantino has always proven to be a master of imitation than innovation, but here he fails even at that.

Lot of people in the past have tried to adapt the style of spaghetti westerns, Last Man Standing, Lone Wolf Mcquade, Inglorious Basterds are good examples. Inspite of them not being western films, they do a better job at paying tributes to spaghetti westerns.

Django Unchained has nothing new to offer.

You need to watch more movies then.. Cos it wasn't new & fresh in anyway.


I have to agree, I laughed a lot of times, Tarantino does have a sense of humor, even when he is doing interviews. The humor here is what strays it away from the usual spaghetti westerns but sadly not strong enough to make it a good film.

Then you clearly haven't seen the movies the music is borrowed from, they were used so cleverly there. Even Morricone said that tarantino used music without coherence here.

While I am not as in love with his films as I was when I first started becoming a movie buff, quite a few of his films are definitely worth the praise they get. He's made a few misfires, but which directors haven't? At least Tarantino's misfires still have elements that make them seem like they deserve more than an aura of mediocrity.

His work, ranked and rated:

1. Pulp Fiction
2. Reservoir Dogs
3. Inglourious Basterds
4. Django Unchained
5. Kill Bill Vol. 1
6. Kill Bill Vol. 2
7. Death Proof

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Fantastic thread. Everything you wrote I agree'd with, well almost. Ime a massive Tarantino fan but I just don't like Jackie Brown. Everything else is fantastic, ime also a huge fan of Death Proof.

Which songs from a borrowed movie don't work in Django Unchained?

I'm not sure exactly, but I think Morricone was more concerned with the fact that his music was used alongside more modern, and a lot different music such as '100 Black Coffins', which is totally different from Morricone's soft, elegant music, normally Morricone's scores are the only music in Westerns, and aren't real songs so they feel fitting to what your watching, where as Tarantino is using music that wouldn't of been possible back then, and from a different era. Whilst I thought it was fine, and enjoyed it in the film, I can understand why Morricone didn't like the use of his music mixed with all sorts of others.

My ratings, based on how I feel now:

Reservoir Dogs -- need to see again (wasn't thrilled by it, though)
Pulp Fiction --
Jackie Brown --
Kill Bill: Volume 1 --
Kill Bill: Volume 2 --
Death Proof --
Inglourious Basterds --
Django Unchained --

I trust that Tarantino will always make a phenomenal movie. Death Proof started off boring, but by the end I loved it. I think it was my favorite film of 2007 back in the day. Reservoir Dogs I watched years ago, but cannot remember it well. I didn't really like it and it's never made me want to rewatch it. To me, for some reason, it doesn't feel like a true Tarantino movie. To me, Tarantino did not come alive until Pulp Fiction.

I am not a fan of Inglourious Basterds, although I did like it a lot when I first saw it. It just never really stayed with me. Django Unchained -- I like it a lot more. Far more incredible than I.B.

Pulp Fiction is his holy grail. Jackie Brown is my feel good Tarantino movie.

But his greatest achievement, I think, is the Kill Bill movies. As great as all of the other stuff is -- as great as Pulp Fiction is and all that -- I think Kill Bill -- both volumes -- is his masterpiece. The most essential piece of work he's made. The defining centerpiece of his career. I think that ever since Kill Bill, Quentin Tarantino has been a bona fide major figure in art. Had Kill Bill not been made, I don't know if we would have had these last couple of great movies by him. He had been off the map for years until Kill Bill came back and made something of him again. I hope he makes a third movie in that series. I feel like the story isn't over.