Get ready to watch a rare piece of cinema as Vulture has come across the only remaining footage of Quentin Tarantino’s early film My Best Friend’s Birthday on YouTube.
I have not watched it yet, but did watch the opening to see what kind of quality we’re talking about and it is pretty good considering you can’t buy this anywhere. The YouTube description of it reads as follows:
It’s Mickey’s Birthday and his girlfriend just left him, so that’s when his friend Clarence shows him a birthday he’ll never forget.
The film was completed, but the final reel was destroyed in a lab fire that broke out during editing. The surviving part of the film was shown in part to a small crowd in early 1987.
Actor Allen Garfield was teaching Quentin Tarantino acting at the time, and that is how he also became involved in the project. Filmed over three years, from 1984-1987.
Later became the basis for True Romance (1993)
Tarantino co-wrote the film with Craig Hamaan and Roger Avary, who co-wrote Pulp Fiction with Tarantino and the two ended up winning an Oscar for the screenplay. Hamaan plays Mickey in the film and Tarantino is Clarence, his titular “best friend.”
I have no idea how long this will remain online so you may want to watch it right away.
