#5
Jackie Brown
Jackie Brown is probably the most disparate film in Tarantino’s oeuvre. It’s not that it isn’t recognizable as a Tarantino feature, but it isn’t necessarily as stylized and it’s differences could easily make it the favorite for many as well as cause others to shy away.
The one thing about Jackie Brown, however, is that while you’re watching it you know you are watching a quality film and most likely one you walk away from asking yourself, “Is that Tarantino’s best movie?” I know I have it here at #5, but I believe even I could make an argument for why it just might be a better fit at #1.
#4
Kill Bill: Volume One
I love the stylized action of Kill Bill: Vol. 1. I love the anime sequence. I love Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii, Chiaki Kuriyama as Gogo Yubari and the entire, blood-drenched finale. I love the music during the final showdown between The Bride (Uma Thurman) and O’Ren. The music, the choreography the silence disturbed only by the occasional *donk* of the shishi-odoshi. Perfect as far as I’m concerned.
#3
Inglourious Basterds
My #2 and #3 are interchangeable at this point, in large part because Django Unchained is so fresh in my mind and therefore has the overall sense of “newness” and anticipation to see it again whereas Inglourious Basterds is just a push of a button away. That said, there is so much to love about Inglourious from the Christoph Waltz‘s introduction to the world as Hans Landa to Brad Pitt‘s highly entertaining Nazi-scalping Aldo Raine.
I could place any of my top five Tarantino films at #1 at any moment and to place any of them anywhere but is difficult to do, but decisions must be made…
#2
Django Unchained
The reason I place Django Unchained slightly above Inglourious Basterds is due to the fact I found it to be Tarantino’s most mature feature to date. While he bathes the film with his stylistic flourishes and signature characters such as Samuel L. Jackson’s snarling and nasty house slave Stephen, he also managed to remind us of a part of America’s history many of us would rather forget. He did so in an intensely brutal fashion, rarely shying from the violence and yet gives the audience a level of reprieve in the end that often goes overlooked as many believe the film seemed to hit its climax with the death of Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). I disagree.
#1
Pulp Fiction
At the end of Inglourious Basterds, Brad Pitt’s Aldo Raine says “This may be my masterpiece.” It’s clear Raine is speaking for Tarantino, but I don’t believe QT will ever be able to top Pulp Fiction. It’s got the controlled drama of Jackie Brown matched with the rapid-fire mayhem of his other films. The film is a perfect balance of the ridiculous and the intriguing and one that instantly changed cinema as soon as it hit theaters.
I know Tarantino haters will disagree with a lot of what I’ve written here. Many calling him a cinematic hack that merely steals from others and whose films are about as deep as a four-year-old’s wading pool. I guess that’s fair and I wouldn’t even run to disagree, but I would say I appreciate what Tarantino has brought to me in terms of his films, which is not only a collection of eight very entertaining movies, but an appreciation for cinema’s history.
Haters may say his appreciation is to steal from the greats without recognition, but there is rarely a moment I hear Tarantino speak where he isn’t referencing the films he loves, giving us all a little more to look out for. His lists of favorite films of years gone by and in a variety of genres are only a Google search away. As far as I’m concerned, films like Pulp Fiction and his style of storytelling have affected the cinematic landscape just as much if not more than any other filmmaker of the last 20 years and I’d say he’s done so in a positive way. To that, I say Happy Birthday Quentin Tarantino and here’s to many more…
