Quentin Tarantino

Tarantino was born on March 27, 1963, in Knoxville, Tennessee, the only child of Connie McHugh and aspiring actor Tony Tarantino, who left the family before his son's birth.^[1][2] He is of Irish ancestry through his mother, though he claims she is half-Cherokee; his father is of Italian descent.^[3][2] He was named in part after Quint Asper, Burt Reynolds's character in the TV series Gunsmoke.^[4] Tarantino's mother met his father during a trip to Los Angeles. After a brief marriage and divorce, Connie left Los Angeles and moved to Knoxville, where her parents lived. In 1966, Tarantino returned with his mother to Los Angeles.^[5][6]

Tarantino's mother married musician Curtis Zastoupil soon after arriving in Los Angeles, and the family moved to Torrance, a city in Los Angeles County's South Bay area.^[7][8] Zastoupil accompanied Tarantino to numerous film screenings while his mother allowed him to see more mature movies, such as Carnal Knowledge (1971) and Deliverance (1972). After his mother divorced Zastoupil in 1973, and received a misdiagnosis of Hodgkin's lymphoma, Tarantino was sent to live with his grandparents in Tennessee. He remained there less than a year before returning to California.^[9][10]

At 14 years old, Tarantino wrote one of his earliest works, a screenplay called Captain Peachfuzz and the Anchovy Bandit, based on the 1977 film Smokey and the Bandit. Tarantino later revealed that his mother had ridiculed his writing skills when he was younger; as a result, he vowed that he would never share his wealth with her.^[11] As a 15-year-old, Tarantino was grounded by his mother for shoplifting Elmore Leonard's novel The Switch from Kmart. He was allowed to leave only to attend the Torrance Community Theater, where he participated in such plays as Two Plus Two Makes Sex and Romeo and Juliet.^[9] The same year, he dropped out of Narbonne High School in Harbor City, Los Angeles.^[12][13]

Discover more about Early life related topics

Knoxville, Tennessee

Knoxville, Tennessee

Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state's third largest city after Nashville and Memphis. Knoxville is the principal city of the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had an estimated population of 869,046 in 2019.

Irish people

Irish people

Irish people are an ethnic group and nation native to the island of Ireland, who share a common history and culture. There have been humans in Ireland for about 33,000 years, and it has been continually inhabited for more than 10,000 years. For most of Ireland's recorded history, the Irish have been primarily a Gaelic people. From the 9th century, small numbers of Vikings settled in Ireland, becoming the Norse-Gaels. Anglo-Normans also conquered parts of Ireland in the 12th century, while England's 16th/17th century conquest and colonisation of Ireland brought many English and Lowland Scots to parts of the island, especially the north. Today, Ireland is made up of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The people of Northern Ireland hold various national identities including British, Irish, Northern Irish or some combination thereof.

Italians

Italians

Italians are a Romance ethnic group native to the Italian geographical region and its neighboring insular territories. Italians share a common culture, history, ancestry and language. Their predecessors differ regionally, but include the ancient Greeks in Magna Graecia, the Etruscans in northern Italy and, most notably, the Romans in central Italy, who helped create and evolved into the modern Italian identity. Legally, Italian nationals are citizens of Italy, regardless of ancestry or nation of residence and may be distinguished from ethnic Italians in general or from people of Italian descent without Italian citizenship and ethnic Italians living in territories adjacent to the Italian peninsula without Italian citizenship. The Latin equivalent of the term Italian had been in use for natives of the geographical region since antiquity.

Burt Reynolds

Burt Reynolds

Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. was an American actor, considered a sex symbol and icon of 1970s American popular culture.

Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centers on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, during the settlement of the American West. The central character is lawman Marshal Matt Dillon, played by William Conrad on radio and James Arness on television.

Carnal Knowledge (film)

Carnal Knowledge (film)

Carnal Knowledge is a 1971 American erotic coming-of-age romantic comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols and written by Jules Feiffer. It stars Jack Nicholson, Art Garfunkel, Ann-Margret, Candice Bergen, and Rita Moreno.

Deliverance

Deliverance

Deliverance is a 1972 American thriller film produced and directed by John Boorman, and starring Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, and Ronny Cox, with the latter two making their feature film debuts. The screenplay was adapted by James Dickey from his 1970 novel of the same name. The film was a critical and box office success, earning three Academy Award nominations and five Golden Globe Award nominations.

Elmore Leonard

Elmore Leonard

Elmore John Leonard Jr. was an American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. His earliest novels, published in the 1950s, were Westerns, but he went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.

Life of Crime (film)

Life of Crime (film)

Life of Crime is a 2013 American black comedy crime film written and directed by Daniel Schechter, based on Elmore Leonard's novel The Switch (1978), which includes characters later revisited in his novel Rum Punch (1992), which was adapted into the Quentin Tarantino film Jackie Brown (1997). Life of Crime was screened on the closing night 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, on the opening day of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, at the 2014 Traverse City Film Festival and released in theaters on August 29, 2014 by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions.

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays. Today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal young lovers.

Narbonne High School

Narbonne High School

Nathaniel Narbonne High School (NHS) is a school located at 24300 South Western Avenue, in the Harbor City area of Los Angeles, California. Narbonne serves grades 9 through 12 and is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Narbonne serves the Harbor City area and the city of Lomita.

Harbor City, Los Angeles

Harbor City, Los Angeles

Harbor City is a highly diverse neighborhood in the Harbor region of Los Angeles, California, with a population upward of 36,000 people. Originally part of the Rancho San Pedro Spanish land grant, the 2.58-square-mile (6.7 km2) Harbor City was brought into Los Angeles as a preliminary step in the larger city's consolidation with the port cities of Wilmington and San Pedro.

1980s: Early jobs and screenplays

Through the 1980s, Tarantino had a number of jobs. After lying about his age, he worked as an usher at an adult movie theater in Torrance, called the Pussycat Theater. He spent time as a recruiter in the aerospace industry, and for five years he worked at Video Archives, a video store in Manhattan Beach, California.^[14][15] He was well known in the local community for his film knowledge and video recommendations; Tarantino stated, "When people ask me if I went to film school, I tell them, 'No, I went to films."^[16][a] In 1986, Tarantino was employed in his first Hollywood job, working with Video Archives colleague Roger Avary, as production assistants on Dolph Lundgren's exercise video, Maximum Potential.^[17]

Before working at Video Archives, Tarantino co-wrote Love Birds In Bondage with Scott Magill. Tarantino would go on to produce and direct the short film. Magill committed suicide in 1987, but not before destroying all footage that had been shot.^[18] Later, Tarantino attended acting classes at the James Best Theatre Company, where he met several of his eventual collaborators for his next film.^[19][20][b] In 1987, Tarantino co-wrote and directed My Best Friend's Birthday (1987). It was left uncompleted, but some of its dialogue was included in True Romance.^[23]

The following year, he played an Elvis impersonator in "Sophia's Wedding: Part 1", an episode in the fourth season of The Golden Girls, which was broadcast on November 19, 1988.^[24] Tarantino recalled that the pay he received for the part helped support him during the preproduction of Reservoir Dogs; he estimated he was initially paid about $650; however, the episode was frequently rerun because it was on a "best of..." lineup, therefore received about $3,000 in residuals over three years.^[25]

1990s: Breakthrough

After meeting Lawrence Bender at a friend's barbecue, Tarantino discussed with him about an unwritten dialogue-driven heist film. Bender encouraged Tarantino to write the screenplay, which he wrote in three-and-a-half weeks and presented to Bender unformatted. Impressed with the script, Bender managed to forward it through contacts to director Monte Hellman.^[9] Hellman cleaned up the screenplay and helped secure funding from Richard N. Gladstein at Live Entertainment (which later became Artisan, now known as Lionsgate).^[26] Harvey Keitel read the script and also contributed to the budget, taking a role as co-producer and also playing a major part in the picture. In January 1992, it was released as Tarantino's crime thriller Reservoir Dogs—which he wrote, directed, and acted in as Mr. Brown—and screened at the Sundance Film Festival. The film was an immediate hit, receiving a positive response from critics.^[27][28]

Tarantino has had a number of collaborations with director Robert Rodriguez.

Tarantino's screenplay True Romance was optioned and the film was eventually released in 1993. The second script that Tarantino sold was for the film Natural Born Killers, which was revised by Dave Veloz, Richard Rutowski and director Oliver Stone. Tarantino was given story credit and stated in an interview that he wished the film well, but later disowned the final film.^[29][30] Tarantino also did an uncredited rewrite on It's Pat (1994).^[31][32] Other films where he was an uncredited screenwriter include Crimson Tide (1995) and The Rock (1996).^[33]

Following the success of Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino was approached by major film studios and offered projects that included Speed (1994) and Men in Black (1997), but he instead retreated to Amsterdam to work on his script for Pulp Fiction.^[34][35]

Tarantino wrote, directed, and acted in the dark comedy crime film Pulp Fiction in 1994, maintaining the stylized violence from his earlier film and also non-linear storylines. Tarantino received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, which he shared with Roger Avary, who contributed to the story. He also received a nomination in the Best Director category. The film received another five nominations, including for Best Picture. Tarantino also won the Palme d'Or for the film at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. The film grossed over $200 million^[36] and earned positive reviews.^[37][38]

In 1995, Tarantino participated in the anthology film Four Rooms, a collaboration that also included directors Robert Rodriguez, Allison Anders and Alexandre Rockwell. Tarantino directed and acted in the fourth segment of "The Man from Hollywood", a tribute to the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Man from the South".^[39][40] He joined Rodriguez again later in the year with a supporting role in Desperado.^[41][42] One of Tarantino's first paid writing assignments was for From Dusk till Dawn, which Rodriguez directed later in 1996, re-teaming with Tarantino in another acting role, alongside Harvey Keitel, George Clooney and Juliette Lewis.^[43][44][c]

His third feature film was Jackie Brown (1997), an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel Rum Punch. An homage to blaxploitation films, it starred Pam Grier, who starred in many of the films of that genre in the 1970s. It received positive reviews and was called a "comeback" for Grier and co-star Robert Forster.^[47] Leonard considered Jackie Brown to be his favorite of the 26 different screen adaptations of his novels and short stories.^[48]

In the 1990s, Tarantino had a number of other minor acting roles, including in Eddie Presley (1992),^[49] The Coriolis Effect (1994),^[50] Sleep With Me (1994),^[51][52] Somebody to Love (1994),^[53] All-American Girl (1995), Destiny Turns on the Radio (1995),^[54] and Girl 6 (1996).^[55] Also in 1996, he starred in Steven Spielberg's Director's Chair, a simulation video game that uses pre-generated film clips.^[56] In 1998, Tarantino made his major Broadway stage debut as an amoral psycho killer in a revival of the 1966 play Wait Until Dark, which received unfavorable reviews for his performance from critics.^[57][58]

2000s: Subsequent success

Tarantino went on to write and direct Kill Bill, a highly stylized "revenge flick" in the cinematic traditions of Chinese martial arts films, Japanese period dramas, Spaghetti Westerns, and Italian horror.^[59] It was based on a character called The Bride and a plot that he and Kill Bill's lead actress Uma Thurman had developed during the making of Pulp Fiction.^[60] It was originally set for a single theatrical release, but its four-hour running time prompted Tarantino to divide it into two movies.^{[61]: 1:02:10} Tarantino says he still considers it a single film in his overall filmography.^{[61]: 1:23:35} Volume 1 was released in 2003 and Volume 2 was released in 2004.^[62][63]

Tarantino in 2009

From 2002 to 2004, Tarantino portrayed villain McKenas Cole in the ABC television series Alias.^[64] In 2004, Tarantino attended the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, where he served as President of the Jury.^[65] Also Volume 2 of Kill Bill had a screening, but was not in competition.^[66]

Tarantino then contributed to Robert Rodriguez's 2005 neo-noir film Sin City, and was credited as "Special Guest Director" for his work directing the car sequence featuring Clive Owen and Benicio del Toro.^[67] In May 2005, Tarantino co-wrote and directed "Grave Danger", the fifth season finale of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. For this episode, Tarantino was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series at the 57th Primetime Emmy Awards.^[68]

In 2007, Tarantino directed the exploitation slasher film Death Proof. Released as a take on 1970s double features, under the banner Grindhouse, it was co-directed with Rodriguez who did the other feature which was the body horror film Planet Terror.^[69] Box-office sales were low but the film garnered mostly positive reviews.^[70][71]

Tarantino's film Inglourious Basterds, released in 2009, is the story of a group of Jewish-American guerrilla soldiers in Nazi-occupied France in an alternate history of World War II.^[72] He had planned to start work on the film after Jackie Brown but postponed this to make Kill Bill after a meeting with Uma Thurman.^[73] Filming began on "Inglorious Bastards", as it was provisionally titled, in October 2008.^[74] The film opened in August 2009 to positive reviews with the highest box office gross in the US and Canada for the weekend on release.^[75] For the film, Tarantino received his second nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director and Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.^[76]

2010s and 2020s: Established auteur

Tarantino at the French premiere of Django Unchained in January 2013

In 2011, production began on Django Unchained, a film about the revenge of a former slave in the Southern United States in 1858. The film stemmed from Tarantino's desire to produce a Spaghetti Western set in America's Deep South during the Antebellum Period. Tarantino called the proposed style "a southern",^[77] stating that he wanted "to do movies that deal with America's horrible past with slavery and stuff but do them like spaghetti westerns, not like big issue movies. I want to do them like they're genre films, but they deal with everything that America has never dealt with because it's ashamed of it, and other countries don't really deal with because they don't feel they have the right to".^[77] It was released in December 2012 and became his highest grossing film to date.^[78][79] He also received his second Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.^[80]

The Hateful Eight live reading at the Ace Hotel Los Angeles in April 2014

In November 2013, Tarantino said he was working on a new film and that it would be another Western, though not a sequel to Django Unchained.^[81] On January 11, 2014, it was revealed that the film would be titled The Hateful Eight.^[82] The script was then leaked in January 2014.^[83] Aggrieved by the breach of confidence, Tarantino considered abandoning the production which was due to start the next winter and publish it as a novel instead.^[84] He stated that he had given the script to a few trusted colleagues, including Bruce Dern, Tim Roth and Michael Madsen.^[85][86] On April 19, 2014, Tarantino directed a live reading of the leaked script at the United Artists Theater in the Ace Hotel Los Angeles for the Live Read series.^[87] Tarantino explained that they would read the first draft of the script, and added that he was writing two new drafts with a different ending.^[88] Filming went ahead as planned with the new draft in January 2015.^[89] The Hateful Eight was released on December 25, 2015, as a roadshow presentation in 70 mm film-format theaters, before being released in digital theaters on December 30, 2015.^[90] The film received mostly positive reviews from critics.^[91]

Tarantino with Margot Robbie at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival

In July 2017, it was reported that Tarantino's next project would be a film about the Manson Family murders.^[92] In February 2018, it was announced that the film's title would be Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and that Leonardo DiCaprio would play Rick Dalton, a fictional star of television Westerns, with Brad Pitt as Dalton's longtime stunt double Cliff Booth; Margot Robbie would be playing real life actress Sharon Tate, portrayed as Dalton's next-door neighbor.^[93] Filming took place in the summer of 2018.^[94] In wake of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations, Tarantino severed ties to The Weinstein Company and Miramax and sought a new distributor after working with Weinstein for his entire career.^[95] The film officially premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where it was in competition for the Palme d'Or.^[96] Sony Pictures eventually distributed the film, which was theatrically released in July 2019.^[97]

In November 2022, Tarantino revealed plans to shoot an eight-episode television series in 2023. No further details were provided.^[98]

As a producer

Tarantino has used his Hollywood power to give smaller and foreign films more attention. These films are often labeled "Presented by Quentin Tarantino" or "Quentin Tarantino Presents". In 1995, Tarantino formed Rolling Thunder Pictures with Miramax to release or re-release several independent and foreign features. By 1997, Miramax had shut down the company due to poor sales.^[99] The following films were released by Rolling Thunder Pictures: Chungking Express (1994, dir. Wong Kar-wai), Switchblade Sisters (1975, dir. Jack Hill), Sonatine (1993, dir. Takeshi Kitano), Hard Core Logo (1996, dir. Bruce McDonald), The Mighty Peking Man (1977, dir. Ho Meng Hua), Detroit 9000 (1973, dir. Arthur Marks), The Beyond (1981, dir. Lucio Fulci), and Curdled (1996, dir. Reb Braddock).^[100]

In 2001, he produced the US release of the Hong Kong martial arts film Iron Monkey, which made over $14 million worldwide.^[101][102] In 2004, he brought the Chinese martial arts film Hero to the US. It opened at number-one at the box office and eventually earning $53.5 million.^[103]

While Tarantino was in negotiations with Lucy Liu for Kill Bill, the two helped produce the Hungarian sports documentary Freedom's Fury, which was released in 2006.^[104] When he was approached about a documentary about the Blood in the Water match, Tarantino said "This is the best story I've ever been told. I'd love to be involved".^[104]

In 2006, another "Quentin Tarantino presents" production, Hostel, opened at number-one at the box office with a $20.1 million opening weekend.^[105] He presented 2006's The Protector, and is a producer of the 2007 film Hostel: Part II.^[106][107] In 2008, he produced the Larry Bishop-helmed Hell Ride, a revenge biker film.^[108]

As a film exhibitor

In February 2010, Tarantino bought the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles. Tarantino allowed the previous owners to continue operating the theater, but stated he would make occasional programming suggestions. He was quoted as saying: "As long as I'm alive, and as long as I'm rich, the New Beverly will be there, showing films shot on 35 mm."^[109] Starting in 2014, Tarantino took a more active role in programming film screenings at the New Beverly, showing his own films as well as prints from his personal collection.^[110] In 2021, Tarantino announced that he had also purchased the Vista Theatre in Los Angeles, stating that he intends to keep it a first-run theatre, and that like The New Beverly it will only show movies on film.^[111]

Film criticism

In June 2020 Tarantino became an officially recognized critic on the review aggregation website, Rotten Tomatoes. His reviews are part of the "Tomatometer" rating.^[112][113]

Tarantino reappraises films that go against the views of mainstream film criticism, for example, he considers the 1983 film Psycho II to be superior to the original 1960 film Psycho.^[114][115] He is also among a few notable directors, including Martin Scorsese and Edgar Wright, who appreciate Elaine May's 1987 film Ishtar, despite its reputation as being a notorious box-office flop and one of the worst films ever made.^[116][117]

Tarantino praised Mel Gibson's 2006 film Apocalypto, saying, "I think it's a masterpiece. It was perhaps the best film of that year."^[118] In 2009, he named Kinji Fukasaku's violent action film Battle Royale as his favorite film released since he became a director in 1992.^[119] In 2020, Tarantino named David Fincher's film The Social Network his favorite movie of the 2010s.^[120]

In August 2022, Tarantino stated that Steven Spielberg's Jaws is "the greatest movie of all time. Maybe not the best film, but the best movie ever made". The director continued his praise for Spielberg, "I think my favourite Spielberg-directed movie, again with Jaws carved out on its own Mount Rushmore, is Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom", because “He [Spielberg] pushes the envelope, he creates PG-13; a movie so fucking badass it created a new level in the MPAA.”^[121][122] He also views favorably the fourth film in the Indiana Jones franchise, asserting that he found Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull more enjoyable when compared to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.^[123][124]

Books

In 2020, Tarantino signed a two-book deal with HarperCollins.^[125] He published his first novel in June 2021, a novelization of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It received positive reviews from The New York Times^[126] and The Guardian.^[127] The second book under the deal titled Cinema Speculation, about films of the New Hollywood era, inspired by film critic Pauline Kael was published on November 1, 2022.^[125][128]

Podcast

In June 2021, Tarantino announced plans to start a podcast with Roger Avary. The podcast is named after Video Archives, a video rental store that both directors had worked at prior to their film careers, and will feature the directors, and a guest, examining a film which could have been offered for rental at the store.^[129] The podcast premiered on July 18, 2022.^[130]

Unproduced films

A number of film projects have been considered by Tarantino throughout his career. They have included comic book adaptations (Green Lantern, Iron Man, Luke Cage, Silver Surfer),^{[131][132][133][134]} sequels (Kill Bill:Volume 3),^[135] spin-offs of previous works (The Vega Brothers),^[136] crossovers of his own work with other genres (Django/Zorro),^[137] literary adaptations of well-known authors (Len Deighton, Bret Easton Ellis),^[138][139] and campaigning to direct in major film franchises (James Bond and Star Trek).^[140][141] Most of the projects he has discussed have been speculative, but none of them have been accomplished. In November 2014, Tarantino said he would retire from films after directing his tenth film.^[142]

Final tenth film

In 2009, Tarantino said that he plans to retire from filmmaking when he is 60, in order to focus on writing novels and film literature. He is skeptical of the film industry going digital, saying, "If it actually gets to the place where you can't show 35 mm film in theaters anymore and everything is digital projection, I won't even make it to 60."^[143][144] He has also stated that he has a plan, although "not etched in stone", to retire after making his tenth movie: "If I get to the 10th, do a good job and don't screw it up, well that sounds like a good way to end the old career."^[142] In March 2023, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Tarantino had completed a script titled The Movie Critic set in the 1970s and based on the career of film critic Pauline Kael, and the project is scheduled to begin production in the fall.^[145]

Discover more about Career related topics

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Manhattan Beach, California

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A production assistant, also known as a PA, is a member of the film crew and is a job title used in filmmaking and television for a person responsible for various aspects of a production. The job of a PA can vary greatly depending on the budget and specific requirements of a production as well as whether the production is unionized.

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Dolph Lundgren

Hans Lundgren, better known as Dolph Lundgren, is a Swedish actor, filmmaker and martial artist. His breakthrough came in 1985, when he starred in Rocky IV as the imposing Soviet boxer Ivan Drago. Since then, Lundgren has starred in more than 80 films, most of them in the action genre.

James Best

James Best

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My Best Friend's Birthday

My Best Friend's Birthday

My Best Friend's Birthday is a 1987 amateur comedy film directed, edited, co-written, co-produced and starring Quentin Tarantino. The film was shot in black-and-white and was originally meant to have a runtime of 70 minutes, but only 36 minutes of the film are edited altogether, leaving the project unfinished.

Elvis impersonator

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Reservoir Dogs is a 1992 American neo-noir crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino in his feature-length debut. It stars Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney, Michael Madsen, Tarantino, and Edward Bunker as diamond thieves whose heist of a jewelry store goes terribly wrong. Kirk Baltz, Randy Brooks, and Steven Wright also play supporting roles. It incorporates many motifs that have become Tarantino's hallmarks: violent crime, pop culture references, profanity, and nonlinear storytelling.

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Early influences

Tarantino at the 82nd Academy Awards in 2010

In the 2012 Sight & Sound directors' poll, Tarantino listed his top 12 films: Apocalypse Now, The Bad News Bears, Carrie, Dazed and Confused, The Great Escape, His Girl Friday, Jaws, Pretty Maids All in a Row, Rolling Thunder, Sorcerer, Taxi Driver and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.^[146]

Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Western films were a profound influence including Once Upon a Time in the West.^[147] He is an admirer of the 1981 film Blow Out, directed by Brian De Palma, which led to his casting of John Travolta in Pulp Fiction.^[148] Similarly, Tarantino was captivated with Jim McBride's 1983 remake of Breathless and with Richard Gere's unlikable but charismatic protagonist.^[149][150] The film's popular culture references, in particular the comic book Silver Surfer, inspired him to have the character's poster on Mr. Orange’s apartment wall in Reservoir Dogs.^[151] Tarantino has also labeled Rio Bravo as one of his influences.^[152] He listed the Australian suspense film Roadgames (1981) as another favorite film.^[153]

Other films he cited as formative influences include Hong Kong martial arts films (such as Five Fingers of Death and Enter the Dragon), John Woo action films (A Better Tomorrow II and The Killer), John Carpenter films (Assault on Precinct 13 and The Thing), blaxploitation films (including The Mack and Foxy Brown), Jean-Luc Godard films (Bande à Part and the 1960 version of Breathless), and Sonny Chiba's work (The Street Fighter and Shadow Warriors).^[151]

In August 2007, while teaching in a four-hour film course during the 9th Cinemanila International Film Festival in Manila, Tarantino cited Filipino directors Cirio H. Santiago, Eddie Romero and Gerardo de León as personal icons from the 1970s.^[154] He referred to De Leon's "soul-shattering, life-extinguishing" movies on vampires and female bondage, citing in particular Women in Cages; "It is just harsh, harsh, harsh", he said, and described the final shot as one of "devastating despair".^[154] Upon his arrival in the Philippines, Tarantino was quoted in the local newspaper as saying, "I'm a big fan of RP [Republic of the Philippines] cinema."^[155]

Style

Tarantino's films often feature graphic violence, a tendency which has sometimes been criticized.^{[156][157][158]} Reservoir Dogs was initially denied United Kingdom certification because of his use of torture as entertainment.^[159] Tarantino has frequently defended his use of violence, saying that "violence is so good. It affects audiences in a big way".^[160] The number of expletives and deaths in Tarantino's films were measured by analytics website FiveThirtyEight. In the examples given by the site, "Reservoir Dogs features 'just' 10 on-screen deaths, but 421 profanities. Django Unchained, on the other hand, has 'just' 262 profanities but 47 deaths."^[161] He often blends aesthetic elements, in tribute to his favorite films and filmmakers. In Kill Bill, he melds comic strip formulas and visuals within a live action film sequence, in some cases by the literal use of cartoon or anime images.^[162][163]

Tarantino has also occasionally used a non-linear story structure in his films, most notably with Pulp Fiction. He has also used the style in Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill, and The Hateful Eight.^[164][165] Tarantino's script for True Romance was originally told in a non-linear style, before director Tony Scott decided to use a more linear approach.^[166][167] Critics have since referred to the use of this shifting timeline in films as the "Tarantino Effect".^[168] Actor Steve Buscemi has described Tarantino's novel style of filmmaking as "bursting with energy" and "focused".^[169] According to Tarantino, a hallmark of all his movies is that there is a different sense of humor in each one, which prompts the viewer to laugh at scenes that are not funny.^[170] However, he insists that his films are dramas, not comedies.^[171]

Tarantino's use of dialogue is noted for its mundane conversations with popular culture references. For example, when Jules and Vincent in Pulp Fiction are driving to a hit, they talk about Vincent’s trip to Europe, discussing the differences in countries such as a McDonald's "Quarter Pounder with Cheese" being called a "Royale with Cheese" in France because of the metric system. In the opening scene to Reservoir Dogs, Mr. Brown (played by Tarantino) interprets the meaning of Madonna’s song "Like a Virgin". In Jackie Brown, Jackie and Max chat over a cup of coffee while listening to a vinyl record by the Delfonics' "Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time)".^[172][173]

He also creates his own products and brands that he uses in his films to varying degrees.^[174] His own fictional brands, including "Acuña Boys Tex-Mex Food", "Big Kahuna Burger", "G.O. Juice", "Jack Rabbit Slim's", "K-Billy", "Red Apple cigarettes", "Tenku Brand Beer" and "Teriyaki Donut", replace the use of product placement, sometimes to a humorous extent.^[175][163] Tarantino is also known for his choice of music in his films,^[176] including soundtracks that often use songs from the 1960s and 70s.^{[177][178][179]} In 2011, he was recognized at the 16th Critics' Choice Awards with the inaugural Music+Film Award.^[180][181]

A recurring image in his films are scenes where women's bare feet feature prominently. When asked about foot fetishism, Tarantino responded, "I don't take it seriously. There's a lot of feet in a lot of good directors' movies. That's just good direction. Like, before me, the person foot fetishism was defined by was Luis Buñuel, another film director. And [Alfred] Hitchcock was accused of it and Sofia Coppola has been accused of it."^[182][183]

Tarantino has stated in many interviews that his writing process is like writing a novel before formatting it into a script, saying that this creates the blueprint of the film and makes the film feel like literature. About his writing process he told website The Talks, "[My] head is a sponge. I listen to what everyone says, I watch little idiosyncratic behavior, people tell me a joke and I remember it. People tell me an interesting story in their life and I remember it. ... when I go and write my new characters, my pen is like an antenna, it gets that information, and all of a sudden these characters come out more or less fully formed. I don't write their dialogue, I get them talking to each other."^[184]

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82nd Academy Awards

82nd Academy Awards

The 82nd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2009 and took place on March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. The ceremony was scheduled after its usual late-February date to avoid conflicting with the 2010 Winter Olympics. During the ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Academy Awards in 24 categories. The ceremony was televised in the United States by ABC, and was produced by Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman and directed by Hamish Hamilton. Actors Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin hosted the show. Martin hosted for the third time; he first presided over the 73rd ceremony held in 2001 and last hosted the 75th ceremony held in 2003. Meanwhile, this was Baldwin's first Oscars hosting stint. This was also the first telecast to have multiple hosts since the 59th ceremony held in 1987.

Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American epic war film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The screenplay, co-written by Coppola, John Milius and Michael Herr, is loosely based on the 1899 novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, with the setting changed from late 19th-century Congo to the Vietnam War. The film follows a river journey from South Vietnam into Cambodia undertaken by Captain Willard, who is on a secret mission to assassinate Colonel Kurtz, a renegade Special Forces officer who is accused of murder and presumed insane. The ensemble cast also features Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne and Dennis Hopper.

Carrie (1976 film)

Carrie (1976 film)

Carrie is a 1976 American supernatural horror film directed by Brian De Palma from a screenplay written by Lawrence D. Cohen, adapted from Stephen King's 1974 epistolary novel of the same name. The film stars Sissy Spacek as Carrie White, a shy 16-year-old who is consistently mocked and bullied at school. The film also features Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, Nancy Allen, William Katt, P. J. Soles, Betty Buckley, and John Travolta in supporting roles. It is the first film in the Carrie franchise.

Dazed and Confused (film)

Dazed and Confused (film)

Dazed and Confused is a 1993 American coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by Richard Linklater. The film features a large ensemble cast of actors who would later become stars, including Jason London, Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich, Cole Hauser, Parker Posey, Adam Goldberg, Matthew McConaughey, Nicky Katt, Joey Lauren Adams, and Rory Cochrane. The plot follows the exploits of several Austin, Texas teenagers during the last day of school in 1976.

His Girl Friday

His Girl Friday

His Girl Friday is a 1940 American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell and featuring Ralph Bellamy and Gene Lockhart. It was released by Columbia Pictures. The plot centers on a newspaper editor named Walter Burns who is about to lose his ace reporter and ex-wife Hildy Johnson, newly engaged to another man. Burns suggests they cover one more story together, getting themselves entangled in the case of murderer Earl Williams as Burns desperately tries to win back his wife. The screenplay was adapted from the 1928 play The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. This was the second time the play had been adapted for the screen, the first occasion being the 1931 film which kept the original title The Front Page.

Jaws (film)

Jaws (film)

Jaws is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the 1974 novel by Peter Benchley. It stars Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody, who, with the help of a marine biologist and a professional shark hunter, hunts a man-eating great white shark that attacks beachgoers at a summer resort town. Murray Hamilton plays the mayor, and Lorraine Gary portrays Brody's wife. The screenplay is credited to Benchley, who wrote the first drafts, and actor-writer Carl Gottlieb, who rewrote the script during principal photography.

Pretty Maids All in a Row

Pretty Maids All in a Row

Pretty Maids All in a Row is a 1971 American sexploitation film that is part black comedy, part sex comedy, and part murder mystery. Starring Rock Hudson, Angie Dickinson, and Telly Savalas, it was released on April 28, 1971. Roger Vadim directed the film, and Gene Roddenberry produced and wrote the screenplay based on a 1968 novel by Francis Pollini.

Rolling Thunder (film)

Rolling Thunder (film)

Rolling Thunder is a 1977 American psychological thriller film directed by John Flynn, from a screenplay by Paul Schrader and Heywood Gould, based on a story by Schrader. It was produced by Norman T. Herman, with Lawrence Gordon as executive producer. The film stars William Devane in his first lead role alongside Tommy Lee Jones, Linda Haynes, James Best, Dabney Coleman, and Luke Askew in supporting roles.

Once Upon a Time in the West

Once Upon a Time in the West

Once Upon a Time in the West is a 1968 epic Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone, who co-wrote it with Sergio Donati based on a story by Dario Argento, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Leone. It stars Henry Fonda, cast against type as the villain, Charles Bronson as his nemesis, Jason Robards as a bandit, and Claudia Cardinale as a newly widowed homesteader. The widescreen cinematography was by Tonino Delli Colli, and the acclaimed film score was by Ennio Morricone.

Blow Out

Blow Out

Blow Out is a 1981 American neo-noir mystery thriller film written and directed by Brian De Palma. The film stars John Travolta as Jack Terry, a movie sound effects technician from Philadelphia who, while recording sounds for a low-budget slasher film, serendipitously captures audio evidence of an assassination involving a presidential hopeful. Nancy Allen stars as Sally Bedina, a young woman involved in the crime. The supporting cast includes John Lithgow and Dennis Franz. The film's tagline in advertisements was, "Murder has a sound all of its own".

Brian De Palma

Brian De Palma

Brian Russell De Palma is an American film director and screenwriter. With a career spanning over 50 years, he is best known for his work in the suspense, crime and psychological thriller genres. De Palma was a leading member of the New Hollywood generation of film directors. His direction often makes use of quotations from other films or cinematic styles, and bears the influence of filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock and Jean-Luc Godard.

Jim McBride

Jim McBride

Jim McBride is an American screenwriter, producer and director.

During his career, Tarantino's films have garnered a cult following, as well as critical and commercial success.^[1][185] In 2005, he was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.^[186] Filmmaker and historian Peter Bogdanovich has called him "the single most influential director of his generation".^[187] Tarantino has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the film industry.^[188]

In 2013, a survey of seven academics was carried out to discover which filmmakers had been referenced the most in essays and dissertations on film that had been marked in the previous five years. It revealed that Tarantino was the most-studied director in the United Kingdom, ahead of Alfred Hitchcock, Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg.^[189]

Discover more about Appraisals related topics

Cult following

Cult following

A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. A film, book, musical artist, television series, or video game, among other things, is said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fanbase.

Time 100

Time 100

Time 100 is an annual listicle of the 100 most influential people in the world, assembled by the American news magazine Time. First published in 1999 as the result of a debate among American academics, politicians, and journalists, the list is now a highly publicized annual event. Appearing on the list is often seen as an honor, and Time makes it clear that entrants are recognized for changing the world, regardless of the consequences of their actions. The final list of influential individuals is exclusively chosen by Time editors, with nominations coming from the Time 100 alumni and the magazine's international writing staff. Only the winner of the Reader's Poll, conducted days before the official list is revealed, is chosen by the general public. The corresponding commemorative gala is held annually in Manhattan.

Peter Bogdanovich

Peter Bogdanovich

Peter Bogdanovich was an American director, writer, actor, producer, critic, and film historian. He started his career as a film critic for Film Culture and Esquire before becoming a film director in the New Hollywood movement. He received accolades including a BAFTA Awards and Grammy Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.

Hollywood Walk of Fame

Hollywood Walk of Fame

The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California. The stars are permanent public monuments to achievement in the entertainment industry, bearing the names of a mix of actors, directors, producers, musicians, theatrical/musical groups, fictional characters, and others.

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 feature films, many of which are still widely watched and studied today. Known as the "Master of Suspense", he became as well known as any of his actors thanks to his many interviews, his cameo roles in most of his films, and his hosting and producing the television anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–65). His films garnered 46 Academy Award nominations, including six wins, although he never won the award for Best Director despite five nominations.

Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan

Christopher Edward Nolan is a British-American filmmaker. Known for his Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. His films have grossed $5 billion worldwide. The recipient of many accolades, he has been nominated for five Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards and six Golden Globe Awards. In 2015, he was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time, and in 2019, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his contributions to film.

Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese

Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, including an Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, three Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and two Directors Guild of America Awards. He has been honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1997, the Film Society of Lincoln Center tribute in 1998, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2007, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2010, and the BAFTA Fellowship in 2012. Five of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".

Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg

Steven Allan Spielberg is an American film director, writer and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. He is the recipient of various accolades, including three Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and four Directors Guild of America Awards, as well as the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1995, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2006, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2009 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. Seven of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".

Gun violence

Tarantino has said he does not believe that violence in film inspires real acts of violence.^[190] In an interview with Terry Gross, Tarantino expressed "annoyance" at the suggestion that there is a link between the two, saying, "I think it's disrespectful to [the] memory of those who died to talk about movies ... Obviously the issue is gun control and mental health."^[191] Soon after, in response to a Hollywood PSA video titled "Demand a Plan", which featured celebrities rallying for gun control legislation,^[192] a pro-gun group used scenes from Tarantino's film Django Unchained to label celebrities as "hypocrites" for appearing in violent movies.^[193]

Racial slurs in films

In 1997, Spike Lee questioned Tarantino's use of racial slurs in his films, especially the word "nigger", particularly in Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown.^[194] In a Variety interview discussing Jackie Brown, Lee said, "I'm not against the word ... And some people speak that way, but Quentin is infatuated with that word... I want Quentin to know that all African Americans do not think that word is trendy or slick."^[195] Tarantino responded on The Charlie Rose Show:

As a writer, I demand the right to write any character in the world that I want to write. I demand the right to be them, I demand the right to think them and I demand the right to tell the truth as I see they are, all right? And to say that I can't do that because I'm white, but the Hughes brothers can do that because they're black, that is racist. That is the heart of racism, all right. And I do not accept that ... That is how a segment of the black community that lives in Compton, lives in Inglewood, where Jackie Brown takes place, that lives in Carson, that is how they talk. I'm telling the truth. It would not be questioned if I was black, and I resent the question because I'm white. I have the right to tell the truth. I do not have the right to lie.^[196]

Tarantino said on The Howard Stern Show that Lee would have to "stand on a chair to kiss [his] ass".^[197] Samuel L. Jackson, who has appeared in both directors' films, defended Tarantino. At the Berlin Film Festival, where Jackie Brown was screened, Jackson said: "I don't think the word is offensive in the context of this film ... Black artists think they are the only ones allowed to use the word. Well, that's bull. Jackie Brown is a wonderful homage to black exploitation films. This is a good film, and Spike hasn't made one of those in a few years."^[198] Tarantino argued that black audiences appreciated his blaxploitation-influenced films more than some of his critics, and that Jackie Brown was primarily made for black audiences.^[199]

Django Unchained was the subject of controversy because of its use of racial slurs and depiction of slavery. Reviewers defended the use of the language by pointing out the historic context of race and slavery in America.^[200][201] Lee, in an interview with Vibe, said that he would not see the film: "All I'm going to say is that it's disrespectful to my ancestors. That's just me ... I'm not speaking on behalf of anybody else."^[202] Lee later tweeted: "American slavery was not a Sergio Leone spaghetti western. It was a holocaust. My ancestors are slaves. Stolen from Africa. I will honor them."^[203]

Kill Bill car crash

Uma Thurman was in a serious car crash on the set of Kill Bill because Tarantino had insisted she perform her own driving stunts.^[204] Tarantino said he did not force her to do the stunt.^[205][206] Although Thurman said the incident was "negligent to the point of criminality", she believed Tarantino had no malicious intent.^[207]

Roman Polanski

In a 2003 Howard Stern interview, Tarantino defended the director Roman Polanski against charges that Polanski had raped then-13-year-old Samantha Geimer in 1977. He said that Polanski's actions were "not rape" and Geimer "...wanted to have it".^[208] The interview resurfaced in 2018 and drew criticism, including from Geimer, who stated in an interview, "He was wrong. I bet he knows it... I hope he doesn't make an ass of himself and keep talking that way."^[209] Within days of the interview resurfacing, Tarantino issued an apology, stating "Fifteen years later, I realize how wrong I was... I incorrectly played devil's advocate in the debate for the sake of being provocative."^[210]

Anti-police brutality rally

In October 2015, Tarantino attended a rally held in New York protesting police brutality. The event aimed to call attention to "police brutality and its victims". At the event Tarantino made a speech, "I'm a human being with a conscience ... And when I see murder I cannot stand by. And I have to call the murdered the murdered and I have to call the murderers the murderers."^[211]

As a response to Tarantino's comments police unions across the United States called for a boycott of his upcoming film at the time, The Hateful Eight. Patrick J. Lynch, union president of the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, said, "It's no surprise that someone who makes a living glorifying crime and violence is a cop-hater, too. The police officers that Quentin Tarantino calls 'murderers' aren't living in one of his depraved big screen fantasies — they're risking and sometimes sacrificing their lives to protect communities from real crime and mayhem."^[211] The Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck said Tarantino "doesn't understand the nature of the violence. Mr. Tarantino lives in a fantasy world. That’s how he makes his living. His movies are extremely violent, but he doesn't understand violence. … Unfortunately, he mistakes lawful use of force for murder, and it's not."^[212]

Tarantino's response to the controversy was, "All cops are not murderers ... I never said that. I never even implied that."^[211] In an MSNBC interview with Chris Hayes, he said, "Just because I was at an anti-police brutality protest doesn’t mean I'm anti-police."^[213] He clarified his protest comments, "We were at a rally where unarmed people – mostly black and brown – who have been shot and killed or beaten or strangled by the police, and I was obviously referring to the people in those types of situations. I was referring to Eric Garner, I was referring to Sam DuBose, I was referring to Antonio Guzman Lopez, I was referring to Tamir Rice ... In those cases in particular that we're talking about, I actually do believe that they were murder."^[214]

Harvey Weinstein

On October 18, 2017, Tarantino gave an interview discussing sexual harassment and assault allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein. Tarantino said his then-girlfriend Mira Sorvino told him in the mid-1990s about her experience with Weinstein. Tarantino confronted Weinstein at the time and received an apology.^[215] Tarantino said: "What I did was marginalize the incidents. I knew enough to do more than I did."^[215]

On February 3, 2018, in an interview with The New York Times, the Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill actress Uma Thurman said Weinstein had sexually assaulted her, and that she had reported this to Tarantino. Tarantino said he confronted Weinstein, as he had previously when Weinstein made advances on his former partner, demanding he apologize. He banned him from contact with Thurman for the rest of the production.^[205] In a June 2021 interview on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Tarantino said he regretted not pressing Weinstein further, saying he did not know the extent of his misconduct before the 2017 scandal. He remarked on his "sad" view of his past relationship with Weinstein, saying he once looked up to him for fostering his career and describing him as "a fucked up father figure".^[216]

Bruce Lee

In 2019, Shannon Lee, daughter of Bruce Lee, called his depiction in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood disheartening and inaccurate.^[217] Tarantino said: "Bruce Lee was kind of an arrogant guy. The way he was talking, I didn't just make a lot of that up."^[218] During that time, China put the release of the movie on halt, with sources claiming that Shannon Lee filed a complaint to China’s National Film Administration.^[219] Tarantino refused to recut the movie for the Chinese release.^[220]

History of altercations

Tarantino has a history of clashing with people in the entertainment industry and being difficult with journalists.

In 1993, Tarantino sold his script for Natural Born Killers which was rewritten, giving him only a story credit. He later disowned the film which caused enmity; and the publication of a "tell-all" book titled Killer Instinct by Jane Hamsher—who with Don Murphy, had an original option on the screenplay and produced the film—calling Tarantino a "one-trick pony" and becoming "famous for being famous" led him to physically assault Murphy in the AGO restaurant in West Hollywood, California in October 1997.^[221] Murphy subsequently filed a $5 million lawsuit against Tarantino; the case ended with the judge ordering Tarantino to pay Murphy $450.^[222][223]

In 1994, Tarantino had an on-set feud with Denzel Washington during the filming of Crimson Tide over what was called "Tarantino's racist dialogue added to the script". A few years later Washington apologized to Tarantino saying he "buried that hatchet".^[224]

In 1997, during the Oscars, Tarantino was accompanying Mira Sorvino who had stopped to speak to MTV News host at the time Chris Connelly when he called her from the media scrum. Before she could talk to him Tarantino grabbed Sorvino telling her, "He's the editor of Premiere and he did a story on my Dad," and pulled her away. Connelly, a former Premiere magazine editor-in-chief said, "No, I didn't." As they walked off, Tarantino gave the journalist the finger saying "Fuck you!" and spat at him.^[225][226] The article that angered Tarantino included a 1995 interview from a biography by Jami Bernard with his biological father Tony Tarantino, someone he had never met, which he considered "pretty tasteless".^[227]

In 2009, Tarantino was set to appear on the talk show Late Show with David Letterman to promote Inglourious Basterds. A few years prior to this event, David Letterman had interviewed a former "unnamed" girlfriend of Tarantino on his show. Letterman joked about the relationship questioning why a "glorious movie star" would date a "little squirrelly guy". A couple of days later, Tarantino phoned Letterman screaming angrily, "I'm going to beat you to death! I'm going to kill you! I'm coming to New York, and I'm gonna beat the crap out of you! How can you say that about me?!"^[228] Letterman offered to pay for Tarantino's flight and let him choose the method of fighting, which Tarantino determined would be "bats". However, Letterman never heard from Tarantino again, until years later, when he came on the show to promote the new film. The host approached Tarantino in the make-up room, just before the show went live, and demanded an apology. Tarantino was not forthcoming, but at his publicist's urging, he begrudgingly conceded.^[229]

In 2013, during an interview with Krishnan Guru-Murthy on Channel 4 News while promoting Django Unchained in the UK, Tarantino reacted angrily when he was questioned about whether there was a link between movie violence and real-life violence. He informed Guru-Murthy that he was "shutting [his] butt down".^[230] Tarantino further defied the journalist, saying: "I refuse your question. I'm not your slave and you're not my master. You can't make me dance to your tune. I'm not a monkey."^[231]

In 2019, during the Cannes Film Festival, at the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood press conference, a journalist asked why Margot Robbie had so few lines in the film. Tarantino snapped back, "Well, I just reject your hypothesis", giving no further comment.^[232]

Discover more about Controversies related topics

Nigger

Nigger

In the English language, the word nigger is an ethnic slur used against black people, especially African Americans. Starting in the 1980s, references to nigger have been progressively replaced by the euphemism "the N-word", notably in cases where nigger is mentioned but not directly used. In an instance of linguistic reappropriation, the term nigger is also used casually and fraternally among African Americans, most commonly in the form of nigga, whose spelling originated from the phonological system of African-American English.

Charlie Rose (talk show)

Charlie Rose (talk show)

Charlie Rose is an American television interview and talk show, with Charlie Rose as executive producer, executive editor, and host. The show was syndicated on PBS from 1991 until 2017 and is owned by Charlie Rose, Inc. Rose interviewed thinkers, writers, politicians, athletes, entertainers, businesspersons, leaders, scientists, and fellow newsmakers.

Hughes brothers

Hughes brothers

Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes, known together professionally as the Hughes brothers, are American film directors and producers. The pair, who are twins, are known for co-directing visceral, and often violent, movies, including 1993's Menace II Society, 1995's Dead Presidents, 2001's From Hell and 2010's The Book of Eli. The brothers did most of their collaboration between 1993 and 2001. Since 2004, when Albert moved to Prague, Czech Republic, he and Allen have only directed one film together, The Book of Eli in 2010. They have been involved in directing and producing film and television projects separately since 2005.

Compton, California

Compton, California

Compton is a city in southern Los Angeles County, California, United States, situated south of downtown Los Angeles. Compton is one of the oldest cities in the county and, on May 11, 1888, was the eighth city in Los Angeles County to incorporate. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 96,456. It is known as the "Hub City" due to its geographic centrality in Los Angeles County. Neighborhoods in Compton include Sunny Cove, Leland, downtown Compton, and Richland Farms. The city has a high poverty rate and is generally a working-class community. Furthermore, Compton is known for its high crime rate, but strong culture.

Inglewood, California

Inglewood, California

Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 107,762. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. The city is in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, near Los Angeles International Airport.

Carson, California

Carson, California

Carson is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, in the South Bay region of Los Angeles, located 13 miles (21 km) south of downtown Los Angeles and approximately 14 miles (23 km) away from Los Angeles International Airport. Incorporated on February 20, 1968, Carson is the newest municipality in the South Bay region of Metropolitan Los Angeles. The city is locally known for its plurality of Filipino-Americans and immigrants. As of 2019, it was estimated that the city had a population of 91,394.

Berlin International Film Festival

Berlin International Film Festival

The Berlin International Film Festival, usually called the Berlinale, is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of the "Big Three" alongside the Venice Film Festival in Italy and the Cannes Film Festival in France. Tens of thousands of visitors attend each year.

Blaxploitation

Blaxploitation

Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, the president of the Beverly Hills–Hollywood NAACP branch. He claimed the genre was "proliferating offenses" to the black community in its perpetuation of stereotypes often involved in crime. The genre does rank among the first after the race films in the 1940s and 1960s in which black characters and communities are the protagonists and subjects of film and television, rather than sidekicks, antagonists or victims of brutality. The genre's inception coincides with the rethinking of race relations in the 1970s.

Devil's advocate

Devil's advocate

The advocatus diaboli is a former official position within the Catholic Church, the Promoter of the Faith: one who "argued against the canonization (sainthood) of a candidate in order to uncover any character flaws or misrepresentation of the evidence favoring canonization".

Patrick Lynch (police officer)

Patrick Lynch (police officer)

Patrick J. Lynch is a New York City Police Department officer, and the president of its union, the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York.

Los Angeles Police Department

Los Angeles Police Department

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 9,974 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-largest municipal police department in the United States, after the New York City Police Department and the Chicago Police Department.

Charlie Beck

Charlie Beck

Charles Lloyd Beck is a retired police officer, formerly serving as the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and subsequently as the Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department. A veteran of the department with over four decades as an officer, he is known for commanding and rehabilitating the Rampart Division after the Rampart scandal; and for technology enhancements during his time as Chief of Detectives. He agreed to be interim Superintendent of Police in Chicago in late 2019 while the city searches nationwide for a replacement for retiring Eddie Johnson. Beck took the helm of the Chicago Police Department on December 2, 2019 after Johnson was fired. On April 15, 2020, Beck stepped down and was replaced by former Dallas Police Department Chief David Brown, who had been nominated by Lightfoot to serve as permanent Superintendent. After his retirement he rejoined the Reserve Corps as a Reserve Police Officer and is assigned to the Office Of The Chief Of Police.

Relationships and marriage

In the early 1990s Tarantino dated comedians Margaret Cho and Kathy Griffin. From 1995 to 1998 he dated actress Mira Sorvino. He was her date at the 68th Oscars ceremony where she had won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In March 1998 they separated with Sorvino releasing a statement that "[They] still love each other very much" but had reached a "mutual" decision to go their separate ways."^[233] From 2003 to 2005, Tarantino was in a romantic relationship with filmmaker Sofia Coppola. The two have remained friends since their breakup.^[234]

On June 30, 2017, Tarantino became engaged to Israeli singer Daniella Pick, daughter of musician Zvika Pick. They met in 2009 when Tarantino was in Israel to promote Inglourious Basterds.^[235] They married on November 28, 2018, in a Reform Jewish ceremony in their Beverly Hills Home.^[236][237] As of January 2020, they were splitting their time between the Ramat Aviv Gimel neighborhood of Tel Aviv, Israel and Los Angeles.^[238] On February 22, 2020, their son^[239][240] was born in Israel.^[241] Their second child, a girl, was born in July 2022.^[242][243]

Faith and religious views

As a youth, Tarantino attended an Evangelical church, describing himself as "baptized, born again and everything in between". Tarantino said this was an act of rebellion against his Catholic mother as she had encouraged what might usually be considered more conventional forms of rebellion, such as his interests in comic books and horror films. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Tarantino was evasive about his religious beliefs but said he believed in God, whom he credited with giving him his writing ability.^[244]

In the 2010s, Tarantino continued ascribing his talents to gifts from God but expressed uncertainty regarding God's existence. "I think I was born Catholic, but I was never practiced," said Tarantino. "As time has gone on, as I've become a man and made my way further as an adult, I'm not sure how much any of that I believe in. I don't really know if I believe in God, especially not in this Santa Claus character that people seemed to have conjured up."^[245][246] In June 2021, Tarantino said he was an atheist.^[247]

Discover more about Personal life related topics

Margaret Cho

Margaret Cho

Margaret Moran Cho is an American comedian, actress, LGBT social activist, and musician. She is known for her stand-up routines, through which she critiques social and political problems, especially regarding race and sexuality. She rose to prominence after starring in the ABC sitcom All-American Girl (1994–95), and became an established stand-up comic in the subsequent years.

Kathy Griffin

Kathy Griffin

Kathleen Mary Griffin is an American comedian and actress who has starred in television comedy specials and has released comedy albums. In 2007 and 2008, Griffin won Primetime Emmy Awards for her reality show Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. She has also appeared in supporting roles in films.

Mira Sorvino

Mira Sorvino

Mira Katherine Sorvino is an American actress. She won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite (1995).

68th Academy Awards

68th Academy Awards

The 68th Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 1995 in the United States and took place on March 25, 1996, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles beginning at 6:00 p.m. PST / 9:00 p.m. EST. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards in 24 categories. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by David Salzman and Quincy Jones and directed by Jeff Margolis. Actress Whoopi Goldberg hosted the show for the second time, having previously presided over the 66th ceremony in 1994. Three weeks earlier, in a ceremony held at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on March 2, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by host Richard Dreyfuss.

Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress

Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress

The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to honor an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a supporting role while working within the film industry. The award is traditionally presented by the previous year's Best Supporting Actor winner.

Sofia Coppola

Sofia Coppola

Sofia Carmina Coppola is an American filmmaker and actress. She has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Golden Lion, and a Cannes Film Festival Award, as well as a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

Reform Judaism

Reform Judaism

Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its ethical aspects to its ceremonial ones, and belief in a continuous search for truth and knowledge, which is closely intertwined with human reason and not limited to the theophany at Mount Sinai. A highly liberal strand of Judaism, it is characterized by lessened stress on ritual and personal observance, regarding halakha as non-binding and the individual Jew as autonomous, and great openness to external influences and progressive values.

Ramat Aviv Gimel

Ramat Aviv Gimel

Ramat Aviv Gimel is a residential neighborhood in northwest Tel Aviv, Israel. It is considered to be an affluent area with higher than average real estate prices. The neighborhood was planned and built in the 1970s.

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv-Yafo, often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a population of 467,875, it is the economic and technological center of the country. If East Jerusalem is considered part of Israel, Tel Aviv is the country's second most populous city after Jerusalem; if not, Tel Aviv is the most populous city ahead of West Jerusalem.

Born again

Born again

Born again, or to experience the new birth, is a phrase, particularly in evangelicalism, that refers to a "spiritual rebirth", or a regeneration of the human spirit. In contrast to one's physical birth, being "born again" is distinctly and separately caused by the operation of the Holy Spirit, and it is not caused by baptism in water. It is a core doctrine of the denominations of the Anabaptist, Moravian, Methodist, Baptist, Plymouth Brethren and Pentecostal Churches along with all other evangelical Christian denominations. All of these Churches strongly believe Jesus's words in the Gospels: "You must be born again before you can see, or enter, the Kingdom of Heaven." Their doctrines also mandate that to be both "born again" and "saved", one must have a personal and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.

Tarantino has stated that he plans to make a total of just ten films before retiring as a director, as a means of ensuring an overall high quality within his filmography. He believes "most directors have horrible last movies," that ending on a "decent movie is rare," and that ending on a "good movie is kind of phenomenal."^[248] Tarantino considers Kill Bill 1 and 2 to be a single movie.^[249]

Discover more about Filmography related topics

Quentin Tarantino filmography

Quentin Tarantino filmography

Quentin Tarantino is an American filmmaker, who has directed ten films. He first began his career in the 1980s by directing and writing Love Birds In Bondage and writing, directing and starring in the black-and-white My Best Friend's Birthday, a partially lost amateur short film which was never officially released. He impersonated musician Elvis Presley in a small role in the sitcom The Golden Girls (1988), and briefly appeared in Eddie Presley (1992). As an independent filmmaker, he directed, wrote, and appeared in the crime thriller Reservoir Dogs (1992), which tells the story of six strangers brought together for a jewelry heist. Proving to be Tarantino's breakthrough film, it was named the greatest independent film of all time by Empire. Tarantino's screenplay for Tony Scott's True Romance (1993) was nominated for a Saturn Award. Also in 1993, he served as an executive producer for Killing Zoe and wrote two other films.

Reservoir Dogs

Reservoir Dogs

Reservoir Dogs is a 1992 American neo-noir crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino in his feature-length debut. It stars Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney, Michael Madsen, Tarantino, and Edward Bunker as diamond thieves whose heist of a jewelry store goes terribly wrong. Kirk Baltz, Randy Brooks, and Steven Wright also play supporting roles. It incorporates many motifs that have become Tarantino's hallmarks: violent crime, pop culture references, profanity, and nonlinear storytelling.

Miramax

Miramax

Miramax, LLC, also known as Miramax Films, is an American film and television production and distribution company founded on December 19, 1979, by Harvey and Bob Weinstein, and based in Los Angeles, California.

Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction is a 1994 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who conceived it with Roger Avary. Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Ving Rhames, and Uma Thurman, it tells several stories of crime in Los Angeles, California. The title refers to the pulp magazines and hardboiled crime novels popular during the mid-20th century, known for their graphic violence and punchy dialogue.

Jackie Brown

Jackie Brown

Jackie Brown is a 1997 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, based on Elmore Leonard's 1992 novel Rum Punch. It stars Pam Grier as Jackie Brown, a flight attendant who is caught smuggling money. Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton, and Robert De Niro appear in supporting roles.

Kill Bill: Volume 1

Kill Bill: Volume 1

Kill Bill: Volume 1 is a 2003 American martial arts film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Uma Thurman as the Bride, who swears revenge on a team of assassins and their leader, Bill, after they try to kill her. Her journey takes her to Tokyo, where she battles the yakuza.

Kill Bill: Volume 2

Kill Bill: Volume 2

Kill Bill: Volume 2 is a 2004 American neo-Western martial arts film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is the sequel to Kill Bill: Volume 1, and stars Uma Thurman as the Bride, who continues her campaign of revenge against the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad and their leader Bill, who tried to kill her and her unborn child.

Death Proof

Death Proof

Death Proof is a 2007 American black comedy action-thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Kurt Russell as a stuntman who murders young women with modified cars he purports to be "death-proof". Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Ferlito, Jordan Ladd, Rose McGowan, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Tracie Thoms, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Zoë Bell co-star as the women he targets.

Dimension Films

Dimension Films

Dimension Films is an American film production company owned by Lantern Entertainment. It was formerly used as Harvey and Bob Weinstein's label within Miramax, which was acquired by The Walt Disney Company on June 30, 1993, to produce and release independent films and genre titles, specifically horror and science fiction films.

Inglourious Basterds

Inglourious Basterds

Inglourious Basterds is a 2009 war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger and Mélanie Laurent. The film tells an alternate history story of two plots to assassinate Nazi Germany's leadership—one planned by Shosanna Dreyfus, a young French Jewish cinema proprietor, and the other by the British; but is ultimately conducted solely by a team of Jewish American soldiers led by First Lieutenant Aldo Raine. Christoph Waltz co-stars as Hans Landa, an SS colonel in charge of tracking down Raine's group. The title was inspired by Italian director Enzo G. Castellari's 1978 Euro War film The Inglorious Bastards, though Tarantino's film is not a remake of it.

Django Unchained

Django Unchained

Django Unchained is a 2012 American revisionist Western film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson, with Walton Goggins, Dennis Christopher, James Remar, Michael Parks, and Don Johnson in supporting roles. Set in the Old West and Antebellum South, it is a highly stylized, heavily revisionist tribute to Spaghetti Westerns, in particular the 1966 Italian film Django by Sergio Corbucci. The story follows an enslaved black man who trains under a German bounty hunter, with the ultimate goal of reuniting with his long-lost wife.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is a 2019 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. Produced by Columbia Pictures, Bona Film Group, Heyday Films, and Visiona Romantica and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, it is a co-production between the United States, United Kingdom, and China. It features a large ensemble cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and Margot Robbie. Set in 1969 Los Angeles, the film follows a fading actor and his stunt double as they navigate the rapidly changing film industry, with the looming threat of the Tate murders hanging overhead. It features "multiple storylines in a modern fairy tale tribute to the final moments of Hollywood's golden age."