A Subjective Ranking of: Quentin Tarantino

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Quentin Tarantino, the ever-infamous film-bro hero. Despite his sometimes problematic and annoying cult-like following of children yet to experience international cinema, he is undeniably a phenomenal filmmaker and storyteller overall. His ability to pay homage, steal from endless obscure films, and combine witty dialogue with epic plots and characters is unmatched in the American markets. He has remained consistent since his first major release of Reservoir Dogs in 1992, something not many auteurs have accomplished.

            He leaps between genres, sometimes blending wildly different ones together into one in the case of Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2. Or when he commits to a particular aesthetic within a historical context with Django: Unchained and Inglorious Bastards. He’s all over the place but simultaneously always locked in to make a tight piece of cinema.

            As a creative and a critic in his own right, Mr. Tarantino is known for his often kooky and very opinionated personality. My all-time favorite interview moment with him was in his duel of wits with “Jan” on a local news station when he was promoting the Kill Bill films. For those who know, we can appreciate the absurd argument that took place, but I won’t spoil it for anyone who hasn’t; it’s on YouTube at the top searches, go find it and enjoy. Given his obsessive and often intense social nature, it feels right to start off a ranked series with his work. Everyone has their own ranking of his films, and as he is some of the most reviewed in contemporary times, especially these days, it feels doubly right to tackle him first.

            Before I begin, I want to preface with a couple of quick things. First, film bros need to chill with the Pulp Fiction bandwagon. It’s a great film, and we all know this, but it’s not the only thing he’s ever done, and it’s unfair to discuss it only when he’s done more. This being said, please spare me the negative comments for Pulp Fiction’s placement. Second, all of Tarantino’s films are great in their own respects, so just because there is a nine ranking and one ranking doesn’t make the former “terrible” by any means. Just means the higher are better, not that the lower are bad. Okay, now that the housekeeping is out of the way, let’s piss some kids off.

9. Death Proof

            Tarantino’s 2006 attempt at a horror film did not go over well with critics. Rated fine, but especially low compared to the rest of his work. And I believe this is for a good reason; it’s sometimes meandering, paced like a slow-burn crime/horror film, and then suddenly it’ll turn into a full-blown action flick. Known for being indulgent, but often to the ultimate benefit of the audience, here is jarring and off-putting at times.

The rising tension in a number of the scenes that revolve around Kurt Russell’s character stalking his victims feels annoying sometimes like he didn’t know where the story needed to go and instead just wrote out dialogue that he thought was entertaining to fill the space. With his other films, he’s able to use “meaningless” dialogue to convey character motivations and interests that will later serve a purpose. It doesn’t in Death Proof. Rather, we get characters introduced and explore their personalities just for them to be killed a scene later.

            The film isn’t without some great moments, though. Specifically, the final car chase that just keeps on going is really fun and well-executed. This is where the film turns from a drama/horror to a stunt-heavy action showcase. Kurt Russell steals the show with his deranged serial killer character, but the second cast of gals that face off against him in this chase sequence match the intensity required to make it thrilling. Overall, it has its merits. Tarantino’s dialogue, while wandering and not story-centric, is still funny and entertaining. The gore and action when it happens don’t disappoint, either.

8. The Hateful Eight

            His second most recent film, The Hateful Eight (2015), leaves much to be desired in the action department but overall is a fun single-location slow-burn thriller. A group of outlaws, officers, and passersby collect in a small cabin to wait out a brutal snowstorm on the ending days of the American Civil War. Samuel L. Jackson and Kurt Russell lead the ensemble cast as everyone vies for the outlaw, played by Jennifer Jason-Leigh, with her gang closing in to free her. With all of that, you’d think this would be a powerhouse of a Tarantino time. It is, it just goes for way too long and meanders at times with his stereotypical self-indulgent, longer dialogue-driven sequences.

Where the film succeeds is in the way it focuses on its characters over the simple plot. You’d expect a single-location film of his (like Reservoir Dogs) to be quickly paced and centered on progression, but he instead decides to give detailed backstories for each person, with flashbacks and all. Dogs does this too, mind you, but in Hateful Eight, it is very deliberate and often an entire sequence instead of a simple cutaway. This is a large part of the extended runtime. There’s even an episodic version of the film cut into four parts on Netflix if that’s still around, and I argue the better way to watch it. With a three-hour runtime, you might as well cut it up into sections with all the subplots and cutaways.

Still a very well-made film, the cinematography is sensationally executed. The contrast of the blue snow and dark skies with the Western attire and genre is very pretty to look at, especially when the bullets start flying and the blood starts flowing.

7. Inglorious Basterds

            From this point forward, I consider all of these to be very, very good films. They are all virtually neck-in-neck in my book. Basterds is no exception to the rule. From Tarantino’s best opening sequence to the hilarious sidebars and satisfyingly gruesome violence, this is a very entertaining experience. Brad Pitt gives a performance of a lifetime as the leading Nazi hunter, but Christopher Waltz is brutal and merciless as his counterpart. His character’s building of tension in the opening scene alone is what earned him an Oscar.

What this film introduces that hadn’t quite been used until this point in his career (with a couple of exceptions that we’ll get to) is a heart, an emotional core from which the film processes. The majority of his work is fast-paced, dramatic entertainment, and while Basterds is not different in that regard, it is different in that it includes a moral grounding that makes it that much more satisfying to watch. What I’m referring to specifically is the anti-Nazi violence and wholesome teaming up to perform just that. It’s the perfect historical fiction: fantasies of killing Nazis and burning up all the big actors of the Third Reich.

            While most of his work includes bloody climaxes, some don’t, and this one carries with the intensity. Leading off with the last point, the final act goes above and beyond in combining a thrilling and satisfying conclusion to an already two-plus-hour adventure. Finishing out the throughline established in the opening scene and, at the same time, having the protagonists’ struggles culminate in their shared objectives is a match made in heaven when it pertains to a well-constructed finale. It is also incredibly rewatchable for the one-liners and individual gore-fest scenes, as well as all of the reasons mentioned above.

6. Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2

            Counted as one film, and for a good reason, as you can easily watch this back-to-back without interruption, and it all flows as a single story. The epic of revenge and bloodshed, all with a feminist flare and a blending of genres that, before this and since, haven’t been effectively replicated. Part samurai-action, western, film noir, and many others, Tarantino combines contrasting genres in fluid form, never leaning too far into one aspect or the other. Dancing between these with Uma Thurman’s captivating leading performance makes for a wildly unique film, but then adding in an ensemble cast of villains for her to numerically take down one by one up the ante on the creativity.

Vol. 1 takes a very straightforward approach to introducing the audience to the anti-hero protagonist, leading her against only the first couple of her foes. Utilizing exposition as a part of the storytelling, Tarantino is careful never to bore the audience with meaningless dialogue; instead, every sequence builds off of the previous and repeatedly switches views and visual styles to keep them engaged. This culminates in a one-on-one showdown between our heroine and one of her former allies. A satisfying payoff, but leaves some to be desired for the second installment to fulfill.

Vol. 2 expands off of its predecessor by venturing into the epic genre, once again spilling guts with sword and gun-fu violence through numerous differing visual lenses. Where the first is setting up many of the characters, the second allows the ensemble to flourish and further explores their motivations and desires and how they ultimately connect to our heroine’s journey of vengeance. The final act takes a massive deviation from the first, with dramatic twists to once again subvert the audience’s expectations. Tarantino’s creativity was on full-throttle with both of these and together they are some of his most exciting work.

5. Pulp Fiction

            Once upon a time, I would’ve ranked this as the “greatest film ever made.” While it is indeed a great film, it is far from the greatest ever made. This being said, holy hell, did QT lock in for the writing and plot structure. There’s a good reason it’s been copied a million times over; it’s because it was the first of its kind in the way it went about jumping between timelines with its set of characters.

The main throughline of the plot revolves around Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta’s characters, but with each scene, we begin to have alternative perspectives unfold from the ultimate ensemble cast. Bruce Willis, Uma Thurman, Rosanna Arquette, Eric Stolts, Ving Rhames, Tim Roth, and Harvey Keitel, just to name a few. And every character has their role so well-defined that even for the shorter sequences, they make their presence known. My favorite example has to be Ving Rahmes’ portrayal of Marcellus Wallace, the mob boss in charge of Sam Jackson and Travolta’s characters. His coolness is only offset by the crew he surrounds himself with. He brings a sort of comic relief to the film as well. In the middle of tense moments, sometimes inspired by himself, he will make just the right facial expression to give the audience a reaction. When Bruce Willis’ Butch crosses paths with Wallace in the middle of a busy street, his reaction is hilarious but also progresses the story through drama.

The balance between humor and drama is another strong point of Fiction, as noted with Ving Rhames’ character. This is once again primarily due to the writing job by Tarantino. It’s simultaneously a unique piece of cinema that invents its own subgenre while also stealing from so many different films before it that it morphed into its being. This is his genius, his ability to dance on many different lines between genres and ideas. This harks back to the hype I give the Kill Bill volumes and ultimately one of his greatest talents as a writer and creative.

4. Reservoir Dogs

            Quentin Tarantino’s official directorial debut was in 1992 with the release of Reservoir Dogs. This film has not aged as well as his others, primarily due to some off-color language, comments, and slurs used throughout (Pulp Fiction gets away with it much better). But the problematic language aside, the talent young Tarantino shows is off the charts. Where the directing is inspired by the likes of a gritty 70s action thriller, the writing plays out like a play written for theater. The isolated sequences in single locations with extended dialogue between the characters feel like something Mamet would write.

The story itself unfolds in what would later become Tarantino’s trademark style of jumping around between moments in time when he deems them the most important for the viewer. We start with the aftermath of the heist, our anti-heroes entering a warehouse rendezvous where they argue about the potential rat amongst them. As the story unravels, we discover that Tim Roth’s Mr. Orange is, in fact, the rat, and for the rest of the film, we dance around eggshells with him as he avoids being uncovered by the others. Where Quentin’s genius returns to the fold is in when and how he reveals certain pieces of information and backstory. It’s not until much later in the film that we get to see how it came to be that Mr. Orange infiltrated the criminals’ ranks and the lies he has to teach himself to convince them.

            My favorite part of the film is when the action does happen; it’s sudden and overwhelmingly violent. The shootout between Mr. Orange, Mr. White, Mr. Brown, and the cops halfway through is so crisp and badass. So is that of Mr. Pink’s escape, where he uses a car door as a shield to blast through a wall of police officers. Once again, it is ultimately QT’s delicate balance of these different elements that allows the film to work as well as it does. This is his second-best crime film for the tightness of that reason.

3. Jackie Brown

            Now, we get into controversial territory. This is the first and only of Quentin Tarantino’s films to date that is based on source material outside of his own imagination. So, he’s under a tighter leash than he is normally. Some directors disrespect the figurative leash and go out and make a mockery of the source but not him. Based on Elmore Leonard’s classic novel Rum Punch, Jackie Brown (1997) follows the titular heroine as she finds herself caught up in a criminal triangle, a battle of wits between the cops, a hardened gun salesman, and a bail bondsman all vying for a big payday on drug money.

Pam Grier stars as Jackie Brown, an aging bachelorette working as an air stewardess, running money back and forth from Mexico to LAX for people on the side. When the ATF snatches her with cocaine that she didn’t know about, she’s pulled into the world of Ordell Robbie and his criminal enterprises. The story meanders so strategically so as to never bore the viewer but give them enough time to process the emotions of each character as the story continues. This becomes critical as the final act rolls around, where Jackie takes the throne in the battle of wits, outplaying the criminals and police, only to find herself hopelessly lost in the quiet romance with the bond bailsman. Grier and Robert Forster have incredible chemistry that, when combined with the genius adaptive writing of Tarantino, turns into a romantic tragedy for the ages.

            What QT accomplishes here is, by my measurement, his greatest progressive achievement in the context of his career. It’s an oddball in that it’s a crime-driven story, but one with far more heart and humanity than any of his others, leaning heavily into the romance genre throughout. Bodies aren’t flying all over the place, and when there is bloodshed, it’s done with far more care than his other films. Well, with the one exception of the infamous “Is it this aisle, Louisssss?” which never fails to crack me up. Get Robert DeNiro in a Tarantino film and have him be an absolute degenerate that I can’t help but giggle at. I beg anyone who questions this placement to give it another watch, as they might be surprised at how it stands out from the rest.

2. Django: Unchained

            To somehow assimilate the classic spaghetti western with a comic book stylization of action and even drama is a feat of its own, but to combine this with a timeless message against one of our worst sins in the way Quentin Tarantino does with Django: Unchained is nothing short of genius. By far his most violent film, but done so with context and purpose, the aforementioned action sequences play out with such playfulness against the evil-doers of the slavery era.

What stands out to me the most about the writing of this script is the character development, particularly as it pertains to Christopher Waltz’s character of the German bounty hunter, Dr. King Schultz. The beginning of the film finds him grappling with the evil of slavery and the lack of humanity surrounding the United States at the time, but ultimately leaning into it to get by on his adventures. It’s not until he meets and teams up with the titular Django (the D is silent) that he begins to see the real tragedy and horror behind slavery: how it not only separated families but physically and psychologically abused them in every way possible. When Django tells him the story of his lost wife and his immense passion for saving her and escaping to what Schultz refers to as “a more enlightened area of this country”, he can’t help but feel morally responsible for assisting him in his quest.

            Django’s character arc is just plain satisfying to watch unfold, quite potentially the best action-hero arc thus far this century. From a lowly slave on the verge of death through labor, he’s freed by the German and brought into the world of bounty hunting, where he learns not only how to kill and defend himself but how to outwit his enemies and even read. Once the final act rolls around, he’s become the smartest person in the room, not only utilizing physical power and guns but also brainpower to stay a couple of steps against his foes.

            Visually, this is the second most attractive of his films to look at, even when the brutally graphic violence is happening. There are two shots specifically that I think about regularly. The first towards the beginning of the film is when Schultz shoots one of their first targets as he tries to escape on horseback through a cotton field. There’s a slow-motion moment where blood splatters over a vine of perfect white cotton, and it lingers for a moment. A second, right before the final showdown where Django rides past burning buildings on Candyland plantation on a naked white horse, one hand grasping the mane for support and the other wielding a rifle. Both of these could be frozen in the frame and placed in my domicile for decoration. Perfect cinematography. This, aligned with top-shelf screenwriting makes for a film deserving of this high placement.

1. Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood

            Quentin Tarantino’s most recent effort isn’t only his most wholesome and heartfelt, filled to the brim with emotions for a lost era of Hollywood, but it’s a genius showcase of everything the man has learned about crafting a piece of cinema throughout his career. It’s delicate, far more so than his more audaciously violent films, even despite the implications of the final act.

            Following a duo billed as the new-coming of Robert Redford and Paul Newman, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio lead as Cliff Booth and Rick Dalton, respectively. What, to some, may see as meandering scenes and meaningless dialogue, I see Tarantino communicating his characters’ development in a more nuanced way.  Through flashback cutaway sequences and humorous “hang out” styled dialogue, we slowly uncover the deeper flaws and intricacies of the leading protagonists. At the same time, QT has rebuilt 1969 Hollywood from the ground up, in some instances quite literally, to bring that specific time and place back to life. Then he recorded it into this beautiful capsule to always serve as a way of going back or, for people like myself, to visit for the very first time.

The film takes several detours throughout that don’t just add to the runtime but add to the aesthetic and cultural tone of the story. One of the best examples of these is early on in the film, where we get one of a few extended flashbacks to learn about Cliff’s experiences as a stunt double on set with Rick. In this particular scene, Cliff faces off against a Bruce Lee stand-in as they argue over who would be a better fighter amongst the greats. It ends in the two having a one-on-one fight to the crew’s pleasure. It’s light on its feet with the editing and camerawork, just as the fighters are, and it gives the audience a glimpse into the filmmaking world of the time, as well as who Cliff really is. Alternatively, for Rick, we get to spend an entire day on set with him as he interacts with co-stars, and other cast and crew, and struggles to find his place in a rapidly advancing industry with no intent of keeping him around. His complicated views on the world and the self-loathing he drowns with alcohol create a realistic view of many of the stars of the era, battling the changing tide of mainstream culture and expectations of Hollywood.

The best detour is in the back half when Cliff takes an excursion with a Manson hippie to the infamous movie ranch from which they hid out. Tarantino ditches the drama to create a movie-within, an insolated scene of heightened tension as Cliff sniffs out potential wrongdoing to an old friend of his who lives there. The black comedy coming out amidst questionable behavior of the surface-level innocent hippies feels like QT specifically reminding the viewer of the genre-bending he's always been capable of.

            The final act is the most Tarantino he could get, going full guns-blazing with the graphic violence. But for some reason, it feels different this time. There was a new cadence to the blows, one that felt less action-based and more intended for comic timing. The rest of the film before these moments is also incredibly tame compared to the rest of his filmography, amplifying the fun factor even more. This is QT at the absolute top of his game, as though he took a few steps back from what he was used to and decided to take some risks heading into the drama department more than he usually does. But as he achieved with Jackie Brown, he created a living and breathing world that his characters can do the same in. This is what he’s always done very well, but in his older age, he has obviously condensed into a more mature perspective on the art; this is the prime example to date.

********************************************************************************************

            Despite the many critics and controversies that will always surround Tarantino and his work, his passion for cinema will always shine through. Not one of these on this list is a “bad” film, they all have a ton of redeeming qualities and are very close to one another. I’m a firm believer that his filmography will only age better with time, as his frequent blending of genres and styles will maintain them as impactful and timeless pieces of art. He has inspired me and countless others to begin our journey of screenwriting and ultimately (hopefully) one day becoming a filmmaker, and he will no doubt continue to do so in his coming ventures. Chances are the release of his upcoming and final tenth film will change up the order of this list a little bit, so that’ll be a fun way to return to the argument sometime in the near future.