The Tarantino Dozen | Features | GWN
In 1994, proper ahead of Quentin Tarantino was once about to explode together with his Oscar/Palme d’Or-winning sophomore property “Pulp Fiction,” he had a profile within the September factor of Main points. The profile additionally incorporated a listing of 15 “must-see films” from him.
I’ve all the time been interested by this checklist. Again next, I used to be a budding cinephile, on the lookout for tips about movies that might bulk up my cinema wisdom. And right here we had a listing that ran the gamut: Westerns, crime flicks, French Unused Flow choices, ‘70s dramas, even a Blaxploitation flick.
It wasn’t till not too long ago that I came upon that lots of the movies in this checklist made up a program Tarantino curated for the Stockholm Global Movie Pageant in 1994, the place he additionally received a number of awards for “Pulp.”
If you happen to glance again at Tarantino’s three-decade-plus profession, you’ll see how those movies in truth influenced a bundle of items in his filmography, from characters to scenes to complete plots. So, in refuse specific layout, listed below are the quantity movies that nice-looking a lot made Tarantino the long-lasting filmmaker he’s nowadays:
“Blow Out” (1981)
WHAT TARANTINO SAID: “It’s Brian De Palma’s finest film, which means it’s one of the finest movies ever made because, as we all know, Brian De Palma is the greatest director of his generation. John Travolta, by the way, gives one of the best performances of all time in this movie.” – From a 1993 information piece in “Quentin Tarantino – Visits Video Archives,” 2018
WHAT IT INFLUENCED: Just like when De Palma boldly leased adorable song-and-dance guy Travolta to megastar in his paranoid, political mystery, Tarantino ultimately did the similar factor, giving Travolta a career-rejuvenating position as a hitman in “Pulp.”
“One-Eyed Jacks” (1961)
WHAT TARANTINO SAID: “If I had to pick my three favorite Westerns, they would be “Rio Bravo,” primary; “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” quantity two; and “One-Eyed Jacks,” quantity 3.” – From a 1993 interview in ‘Quentin Tarantino: Interviews,’ 1998
WHAT IT INFLUENCED: Marlon Brando directed and stars on this scabrous Western, a story of disreputable gunslingers double-crossing and in quest of revenge that’s now not not like what Tarantino did in his all-star chamber piece “The Hateful Eight.”
“Rio Bravo” (1959)
WHAT TARANTINO SAID: “It’s one of the great hangout movies. There are certain movies where you hang out with the characters so much, they actually become your friends… My whole thing was if I ever liked a girl and we started, like, seeing each other a little bit, I would show her ‘Rio Bravo’ – and she better like it!” –From “Quentin Tarantino talks Rio Bravo,” 2007
WHAT IT INFLUENCED: Tarantino all the time makes movies the place you get to grasp the characters, from the band of sinful guys in “Reservoir Dogs” to the loners, lasses and losers who occupy Tinseltown in “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.”
“Bande a part” (1964)
WHAT TARANTINO SAID: “I remember at the Fox Venice [movie theater], they had a big [Jean-Luc] Godard film festival… I really, really liked ‘Bande a part,’ in particular. It really kinda grabbed me. But, then again, one of the things that grabbed me is that I almost felt like I could’ve done that. I could’ve attached a camera to the back of a convertible and just had somebody drive around Venice Boulevard if I wanted to.” — From “Quentin Tarantino on Jean-Luc Godard,” 2016
WHAT IT INFLUENCED: Now not simplest did Tarantino identify his A Band Aside manufacturing corporate next the film, he modeled his memorable ‘Pulp’ dance quantity between Travolta and Thurman next the cafe dance scene the 3 leads do within the film. (Thurman even rocks a wig that makes her appear to be Godard muse Anna Karina.)
“For a Few Dollars More” (1965)
WHAT TARANTINO SAID: “[‘Fistful’] is terrific, but the second movie is so great and takes the whole idea… and takes the whole idea to such a bigger canvas that it obliterates the first one.” — From Membership Random Podcast, 2024
WHAT IT INFLUENCED: The second one installment within the Guy with Incorrect Identify Trilogy, with Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef’s bounty hunters becoming a member of forces to tug ailing a heartless cupboard robber, sounds a bundle like when Jamie Foxx and Christoph Waltz joined forces to tug ailing Leonardo Di Caprio’s slave proprietor in “Django Unchained.”
“Le Doulos” (1962)
WHAT TARANTINO SAID: “‘Le Doulos’ has always been probably my favorite screenplay of all time—just from watching the movie. I just loved the wildness of watching a movie that up until the last twenty minutes I didn’t know what the f*ck it was I was looking at. And the last twenty minutes explained it all.”— From Movie Remark, 1994
WHAT IT INFLUENCED: The pitch of Melville’s unpredictable, unraveling crime flick definitely impressed Tarantino’s maximum novelistic motion pictures (‘Dogs,’ ‘Pulp,’ the ‘Kill Bill’ movies,’ “Inglourious Basterds’).
“Rolling Thunder” (1977)
WHAT TARANTINO SAID: “When I first saw ‘Rolling Thunder’ with my mother and her boyfriend Marco in 1977 on the film’s opening night in Los Angeles, on a double feature with ‘Enter the Dragon,’ it blew my fucking mind!… What I used to claim about ‘Rolling Thunder’ was it was the best combination of character study and action film ever made. It still is.” – From “Cinema Speculation,” 2022
WHAT IT INFLUENCED: If it wasn’t for this Paul Schrader-penned exploitation flick, with William Devane as a Vietnam vet removing the thugs who killed his crowd, we wouldn’t have a bundle of the movies in Tarantino’s vengeance-filled filmography. He additionally named a short-lived movie distribution corporate he based next the film.
“Breathless” (1983)
WHAT TARANTINO SAID: “Jim McBride’s model of ‘Breathless” was an extremely influential movie for me… Here’s a film that’s indulging totally in all of my obsessions: comedian books… rockabilly song… and in addition within the mode of films. Now not that the characters sit down round and speak about motion pictures the entire occasion, yet with the virtue of inexpensive procedure pictures occurring at the back of them all over the entire movie.” – From the BBC documentary “Quentin Tarantino: Hollywood’s Boy Wonder,” 1994
WHAT IT INFLUENCED: McBride’s Americanized remake of Godard’s French Unused Flow groundbreaker has Richard Gere as a cool-but-geeky outlaw, identical to Christian Slater’s protagonist within the Tarantino-written “True Romance” — and Tarantino himself.
“His Girl Friday” (1940)
WHAT TARANTINO SAID: “I remember how I came across Howard Hawks; I saw ‘His Girl Friday’ and I thought that it was the best movie I ever saw. Then I saw ‘To Have and Have Not’ and didn’t like it as much, but I could tell it was a Howard Hawks movie. My aim is that some kid in 50 years time has the same experience with me and my films. At the end of a director’s career you don’t look at just one movie – you look at all of them.” – From The Parent, 2010
WHAT IT INFLUENCED: The savvy, rat-a-tat discussion Hawks and Charles Lederer & Ben Hecht delivered to this screwball “The Front Page” adaptation made enough quantity of an influence on Tarantino to form the characters in his motion pictures spout alike, bright banter.
“The Long Goodbye” (1973)
WHAT TARANTINO SAID: Since Tarantino has grow to be certainly one of Altman’s maximum hardcore detractors, it’s tough to seek out anything else certain QT has mentioned about an Altman movie. However the movie did have a fiftieth yearly screening at his Unused Beverly Cinema in 2023.
WHAT IT INFLUENCED: A number of scribes have discussed how Altman’s rambling neo-noir adaptation of the Raymond Chandler vintage is just like Tarantino’s maximum LA-centric movies, specifically “Jackie Brown.”
“They Live by Night” (1949)
WHAT TARANTINO SAID: Nicholas Ray’s 1949 movie noir is every other one Tarantino has been mum about all over the years, even supposing it does appear viewable that…
WHAT IT INFLUENCED: …he lifted its lovers-on-the-run premise for “Romance” and “Natural Born Killers,” two street motion pictures he wrote yet didn’t direct.
“Coffy” (1973)
WHAT TARANTINO SAID: “The film that just knocked my socks off the most was ‘Coffy,’ from the moment she shot the guy in the head with a sawed off shotgun and his head exploded like a watermelon. I had never seen that before and then it just got better from there.” – From “What It Is… What It Was!,” 1997
WHAT IT INFLUENCED: Tarantino ultimately were given Pam Grier to megastar in “Brown,” aka his very personal Blaxploitation movie. Vengeful beauties can be discovered within the “Bill” motion pictures and “Basterds.”