Listless: Best 5 Films by Quentin Tarantino

This past Sunday we finally saw the winners of the 2013 Oscars. While most of the Oscars were predictable, one of the biggest surprises was Christoph Waltz’s win for Best Supporting Actor in Django Unchained. While no one doubted Waltz’s acting ability and prowess, the fact that Waltz had won an Oscar only a few years earlier with the same director seemed to upend the usual Oscar trend of not giving awards to actors consecutively.

This win, along with Django’s win for Best Writing, is a credit to the skill and power of Quentin Tarantino, probably one of the last few artists left from the era of filming that also holds the works of Steven Speilberg, Martin Scorsese, and Stanley Kubrick. Tarantino considers each one of his films to be an important piece of work; he recently went on record stating that he believes every bad film is equivalent to three good ones in terms of how much people remember. So when one looks back at Tarantino’s filmography, it’s no surprise that almost every single one is a great piece of cinema.

Today, Pixel Splatter takes a look at the best of the best of Quentin Tarantino, the top 5 of his films.

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#5: Django Unchained

The D is silent

While this may be Tarantino’s most recent film, it certainly will have a lasting legacy. While Tarantino’s films have always been controversial, to say that Django was abnormally so even for Tarantino might be an understatement. Everyone from Spike Lee to The New Yorker criticized the movie for its portrayal of African-Americans to its use of violence.

To say that Django Unchained is not a brilliantly unique piece of work, however, would also be a mistake. As with all Taratino’s films, the characters, dialogue, and acting all work in conjunction. While Jamie Foxx was nothing to write home about, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Samuel L. Jackson all stole the show. Waltz’s turn as a German bounty hunter managed to show a morally complex character, one who opposed slavery and racism but who was able to kill someone without mercy. More surprising was DiCaprio’s inspired portrayal of the eccentric plantation owner Calvin Candie; he was hilarious, yet incredibly disturbing and dark. It was even more surprising when you realize this was DiCaprio’s first time not being in the lead role and being a villain. Jackson’s portrayal of a slave who liked things the way they were, the Uncle Tom character, seemed one dimensional at first, but became much more complicated and interesting as the film went on.

This is not even mentioning the controversial look at the antebellum South. While Tarantino’s film did have some historical inaccuracies, it certainly provided an interesting look at the darkness, pain, and attitudes of the South. The use of the N-word (a recurring theme in Taratino’s work), while also controversial, seemed to show to the audience that after a while, the word can, and should, lose its power, especially when Django starts using it himself. However great this movie is, its overly long third act sadly drags it down to #5 on this list.

#4: Kill Bill Part 1 and 2

I'd hate to be Bill. Wait, maybe...

Here is a film that is just sheer fun. This was Tarantino’s time to explore two new territories for him: Kung Fu and Western films. As with both genres, a common theme running throughout is revenge, and Tarantino took that theme and ran with it. Spread out through two films, Tarantino explored a very interesting mix of both genres that maintained his normal episodic style.

The Kill Bill films have some of the best-choreographed fight scenes that are a feast for the eyes. While the storyline is relatively simple for most of the film, it’s really about one woman trying to take back her dignity and get back at the man she once truly loved. As the film goes on, Uma Thurman’s character, The Bride, transforms from a simple outline of a person trying to get revenge into a woman who was betrayed and hurt by the man she loved most. When the Bride finally meets up with Bill, it’s a deep and emotional moment that Tarantino lets us revel in. Kill Bill stands as one of his most engaging and evolving movies and able to be a hybrid of two different genres.

# 3: Pulp Fiction

Watching Uma Thurman is like a stab to the heart (See what I did there?)

The placement of this film at number 3 on this list might be surprising. That isn’t to say that Pulp Fiction isn’t a great work. What makes Pulp Fiction work seems to be the opposite of what a great movie should have; chaos instead of order. From its non-chronological structure to its seemingly random plot developments (such as Bruce Willis finding himself in a sex dungeon), this is a piece that really tries to mirror real life. In real life, storytelling can’t work; things happen that don’t fit the narrative, people don’t always follow a single path. Like real life, Pulp Fiction is chaotic and doesn’t have a clear beginning, middle or end. It has no set plot and it makes no real sense. It’s a way to show us that trying to impose a story on real life can’t and won’t work.

Tarantino also blurs the line of whom you are supposed to like and whom you are supposed to hate. Initially Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta’s characters are supposed to be hated, yet Tarantino forces you to start identifying with them. They are mob hit men, but they talk about cheeseburgers, read magazines, and even go to the bathroom. All the characters in the film, from the mob boss to Bruce Willis’s boxer all seem to initially fit in the mold of hero or villain, but by the end are shown to be much more complex then what the normal movie character mold would have us believe. Pulp Fiction might be the most accurate depiction of real life and real people that movies are likely to give us. 

#2: Reservoir Dogs

This movie confused me about tipping

Tarantino’s first film might also be his strangest. Reservoir Dogs is a true character study. The film follows a group of robbers after they fail to rob a diamond store. We are never given their real names, but are only given names like Mr. White or Mr. Green. Yet, despite not knowing their names, we know who they really are. The movie’s first extended scene at the family restaurant where events like Steve Bucemmi’s character talking about his disagreement with the idea of tipping a waitress show us that these characters are real people. Like all of us, they have strong opinions even about the most minor of details. This idea continues throughout the film. Put in an extremely stressful situation, some of these robbers are shown to be torturers, cowards, or brave men. Tarantino found a way to push these characters to show us who they really are.

Also, like Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs tries to say something about real life. When Mr. Blonde deicides to torture and cut off the ear of another robber, he dances to the song “Stuck in the Middle With You.” It’s a completely ludicrous juxtaposition: a horrible act committed to one of the most jumpy, upbeat songs of the age. Real life is rarely poetic and contradictions can exist together. Reservoir Dogs has easily the most complex, contradictory, and compelling characters of any movie.

#1: Inglorious Basterds 

The movie that taught a generation how to spell swear words

What can’t you say about Inglorious Basterds? There is so much to love about this film; from the plot to the acting and the dialogue, everything about this film is clever and unique. While this film initially seems to be a straight up historical fiction, you quickly learn that that is not the case. While using WWII as a backdrop, this film totally makes history its own and never apologizes. It revels in its own world, from “killin’ Natzis” to the “Bear Jew.” Taratino literally rewrote WWII to give it the ending that everyone wanted, and to give back the ultimate revenge to Hitler for his terrible atrocities.

Yet there is much more going on here then sheer fun and historical revisionism. First, the acting is fantastic. We are wowed by Michael Fassbender’s first major acting role where he owns the scenes. Brad Pitt’s wonderfully simple Lieutenant Aldo Raine, with his brilliance and stupidity, surprises us. Like Django Unchained, Christoph Waltz makes this movie work. Who would have thought that someone could write a Nazi character that we would both love and hate at the same time? Hans Landa is so amazingly compelling, every scene he is in feels electrifying, and Tarantino knows it. Instead of zipping from scene to scene or set piece to set piece, Tarantino lets us sit in every single scene. Each scene is long, so very long, yet it never overstays its welcome. The acting and dialogue becomes so compelling that you never want it to end.

Even the film’s themes are complicated. While the film shows Tarantino’s trademark ultra-violence, there is something more interesting at play. The climax of the film takes place in a crowded theatre, with dozens of people including Hitler sitting to watch a movie that is essentially historical revisionism showing the Nazi’s doing better than they were. A fire breaks out and we get to see Hitler’s face blown off. Yet it seems oddly creepy because at the same time this happens, you yourself are sitting in a (hopefully) crowded theatre, sitting with dozens of people to watch a movie that is essentially historical revisionism. The people in the movie are doing the same thing that you are, yet we are supposed to be horrified by their enjoyment of the violence they watch. How are you to think that when you yourself are enjoying Tarantino’s own violence? It’s hard to come to terms with once you start to look at the complicated way Tarantino sets out to provoke his audiences.

While I know that many will agree with the films that ARE on this list, they may disagree with my placements on the list. Do you agree or disagree with this list? What are your favorite Tarantino films? Discuss below!