Reservoir Dogs is obviously the Quentin Tarantino film we all pretty much consider his “first” film, but if you want to get technical the director that has since brought us the Kill Bill duology, Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained and, of course, Pulp Fiction actually kicked things off with a film called My Best Friend’s Birthday.
The 1987 feature is considered a 1987 film, though it was never released. Co-written by Craig Hamann and Tarantino and made for something like $5,000, the film was originally around 70 minutes long, but only 36 minutes survived a fire at the processing lab. In the film Tarantino plays Clarence who sets out to show his best friend Mickey (Hamann) a birthday he’ll never forget after his girlfriend just left him.
Featured below is the original Hamann and Tarantino screenplay (via Cinephile Archive) along with the surviving 36 minutes of the film. Some of the dialogue from the film would eventually find its way into Tarantino’s script for Tony Scott‘s True Romance.
NOTE: This screenplay is provided for educational purposes only.
