Hateful Eight is excellent. I had Pulp ranked first for fairly obvious reasons, but Hateful Eight is very praiseworthy.
Perhaps the most interesting element to me is that it’s essentially a bottle episode. Tarantino loves to slap his POV onto genres, and while H8 is his Western, I think it’s perhaps more notable that this is really a properly done bottle episode in how it pretty much takes place entirely in one room. You could argue that Reservoir Dogs is a bottle episode and maybe a more traditional one in that it was really a budget driven choice, but Hateful Eight really uses the concept to drive the story. The claustrophobic aspect ads a ton to the mood and tension of the film. The movie also reminds me of Clue in some regards which is a nice touch.
I don’t understand the criticism of the twist at the end. I thought it was well executed and unexpected.
Pulp Fiction is possibly my favorite movie of all time, so it was an easy poll for me. I like all of Q’s films, although three (Django Unchained, Hateful 8, and Death Proof) were disappointing because he set the bar so high.
There is almost nothing I can add to this. Jackie Brown is neck and neck with The Hateful Eight as Tarantino’s best film and slips only in wasting De Niro in a role that didn’t utilize his talent. Tarantino showed the screen presence and appeal of Pam Grier, playing a character “on the wrong side of 40” (Grier turned 48 near the end of filming) and the astonishingly deep character acting of Robert Forester in a story about two people reflecting on their mistakes and looking at one final chance go get ahead. But it wasn’t another Pulp Fiction, and both critics and the viewing public turned on Tarantino for it. Reservoir Dogs is a not-too-distant third just for the immediacy. The rest of Tarantino’s oeuvre has been blatant homage, overly clever wish fulfillment, and a lot of naked feet. Pulp Fiction had some great scenes (particularly any with Harvey Keitel) but it’s not a great story, and the rest are just indifferent examples of excess in scenery chewing and cinematic bombasticity. I just wonder what Tarantino could have done adapting more of Elmore’s work because he is one of the few directors who seemed to really understand it.
As an exercise probably done better elsewhere (and possibly on the Dope before} I wanted to try to map his films to genre while trying to avoid hyphenations and superfluous adjectives. It’s not nearly as clean as I expected.
Movie
Genre
Hateful Eight
Western
Inglourious Basterds
War
Kill Bill Vols 1 & 2
Kung Fu
Death Proof
Grindhouse
Jackie Brown
Django Unchained
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Reservoir Dogs
Pulp Fiction
He doesn’t really have a proper Noir movie. He doesn’t have a true horror movie or slasher film yet, though you could maybe include From Dusk Til Dawn if you wanted to. Most of his films are crime stories but I don’t think that’s a specific enough genre.
Reservoir Dogs could be called a heist movie, but the actual heist isn’t in the film, nor is the stereotypical planning and recruiting tropes. Jackie Brown teases some Blacksploitation concepts but doesn’t really fit the mold, which I think is the point. Django is kind of a slavery movie, but I don’t know if that qualifies as a genre. Pulp Fiction suggests pulp comics, but the movie doesn’t really fit a genre which is probably why it’s considered revolutionary.
I love Tarantino, but one thing I’ve never liked about him is his casual sadism. Weirdly enough, despite their ridiculous body counts, the Kill Bill films are possibly his least sadistic movies.
Also, they’re great action films - really, his only action films - and I like action more than I like the other genres he works in.
I found a reddit post saying it has to do with Miramax trying to consolidate the streaming rights of all its films. So as licenses expire they’re not immediately selling the rights to another service.
I’m enjoying this thread. I did a little searching but don’t see anything similar for other notable directors like Wes Anderson, Scorsese, Coen Bros, Kubrick, Hitchcock…there’s a bunch of them. We recently ran though this with bands.
With that said, I have a hankering to rewatch Tarantino’s movies. I have a newly remodeled basement, new couch (well, will Friday), new TV and sound system. Only problem is we are entering the lighted, non-snowy part of the year when I want to be outside.
What I love about it is for one brief moment, I thought they were about to go full Sci-Fi (The Thing trappings)…I thought they’d managed to hide the twist.
That’s why I hate The Hateful 8, except I think it is the actors he’s being sadistic to. “How much will they take because they think we’re making art?” Apparently, a LOT. “Spill some more blood on them!”
I thought Once Upon A Time… dragged a lot and gave me the impression QT had made it for himself rather than anyone else, more so than any of his other films. The Bruce Lee bit was just embarrassing. It was definitely the most disappointed I’ve been watching a QT film, although I wouldn’t argue with anyone who says Deathproof is worse. I’ve also never had the slightest urge to watch KB1 or KB2 again after initially seeing them in the cinema.
I always enjoy watching IB, as someone else said, the set pieces are terrific. JB I went years without seeing after the first time, so when I watched it again I enjoyed it as a new film virtually. You can sort of tell it’s not an original QT story. I think it was the first time I ever saw a ‘15’ certificate at the cinema and I remember it was a bit of a thrill to do so.
Django, well it is too long, but I think I like it, mostly because Sam Jackson is just magnificent in it. And I really rate LDC so that helps. RD I can see why it set QT down the road of superstardom, but it never really grabbed me particularly.
H8, I saw on Netflix because the cinema chain I was a member of had a dispute with the distributor, must’ve been his first film since Deathproof I had only seen on the small screen. Maybe that affected my view of it, but I don’t remember being blown away and can barely remember the story, despite it being relatively recent.
Pulp Fiction is my favourite. Someone further up the thread was trying to classify the films by genre. I’d put PF under comedy as it makes me laugh, a lot. I must’ve seen it at least half a dozen times.
I don’t have time or attention span to read all the responses, so I apologize if any of this has already been brought up.
First of all, I read an interview with him long ago (that I’m far too lazy to try and find right now) that kill bill 1&2 only counts as 1 movie. And Deathproof doesn’t count at all.
And speaking of Deathproof, of the few comments I did read in this thread, you all seem to hate it because it’s bad. But that was the WHOLE POINT. Both Planet Terror and Deathproof were SUPPOSED to be horrible homages to horrible grindhouse schlock. And both of them were brilliantly ridiculous and terrible. Which I count as a win.
But anyway, here’s my order…
Depending on my mood, all of these are tied for first…
Pulp fiction/inglorious basterds/Jackie brown
A nebulous “second place” goes to
Hateful eight (the extended Netflix version), Django unchained, Reservoir dogs.
If Deathproof counts, then Deathproof.
Then Kill Bill 2, then 1. Both of which I still enjoyed, but they get worse each time I see them.