Is Quentin Tarantino One Of The 10 Best Directors Of All-Time?

I would definitely put Kubrick in a top 5.

I don't have access to the universal top 10 directors of mankind list, but he's one of my favorites even though Kill Bill is complete garbage.

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Have you elaborated on your Kill Bill hating elsewhere? If so, could you link me to it so I can make disgusted faces and scoff to myself? If not, could you elaborate so I can do the same in this thread, instead?

Oh, no apology necessary, believe me. That was me simply refuting what your were saying to drive the conversation, that's all. People get called out all the time here when they make claims that aren't substantiated - it's just part of forum life, I presume. It;s rarely personal, though, more just part of the normal discourse on the boards. Please, continue to "discuss' this stuff, just be ready to defend yourself if your claims are kinda kooky! When I first came to MoFo in '03 (!!!), I quickly got my ass handed to me when i made some loose claims in the religion threads.

Now I try to make sure I am right before putting it in text, as nothing gets by this crew!

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It's blatantly cheesy and campy. The dialogue is crap town, the characters are really uninteresting as are the performances. Taratino pretty much parades his style (which isn't that great) over the stuff he's actually good at. My favorite part of both of the movies are the soundtracks, which are all songs from other movies. So I don't think it had a single good element of it's own.

Well, everything he does is blatantly cheesy and campy. And he parades his style in all his films, too; that's what most people like about him.

No way to argue the rest. I guess I find the dialogue a slight notch below his other films (some of it, at least), but I feel like the superior plotting, narrative, and drama more than make up for it.

I guess I can't wrap my head around someone who likes Tarantino in general but doesn't like Kill Bill, since it's probably the Tarantinoiest of his films. Or do you not like him much at all? I thought you did.

The thing is with every Tarentino film excluding Jackie Brown, everyone talks like Quentin Tarentino. Don't believe me, watch his films.

What about the fight sequence with the crazy 88s? That was breathtaking.

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"Loves them? They need them, like they need the air."

I wouldn't put him in the top 10, no. There are far too many directors in the past and present who are more influential and more talented than Tarantino. I can actually name ten off the bat still working today that are doing more with cinema.

Don't get me wrong, though, he makes enjoyable films, but that's about it. And yeah, the Crazy 88's Fight was great.

Kill Bill rocks my socks. Especially for someone who never did an action/martial arts movie.

I dunno its kinda like saying korean films suck because they speak korean.

Too post-modernist for my taste.

One things for sure, if the thread was titled 'Is Tarantino a likeable guy', the results would be pretty one sided.

He actually featured in a Cracked article listing "4 artists who make it really difficult not to hate them" recently arriving in at number 1.

Extract
" 1 Quentin Tarantino

Reservoir Dogs,Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Inglorious Basterds.

... I don't really need to go on about why Quentin Tarantino's awesome, right? He's one of the most consistently entertaining filmmakers working right now. He's always telling new, interesting stories and he's always telling them in inventive ways. He writes some of the sharpest dialogue and pulls fantastic performances out of every actor he works with. A lot of people feel like he trips himself up too much with his constant tributes to old, obscure foreign films. Or maybe they hate the fact that he packs all of his movies with his personal pop culture observations, because he wants to show off how damn clever he is, but I don't care. He's really talented, so there's a lot I'll let him get away with.

But, Unfortunately ...

This ****ing guy.



I have not come across a single interview with Quentin Tarantino that didn't make him sound like the most pretentious, arrogant and egotistical person on the planet (and I am a person who routinely Googles myself). He's never one to shy away from praising Quentin Tarantino, whether he's cockily telling an interviewer that "Inglorious was so good, I don't know how I'm going to top myself," or just generally acting like a total ****ing lunatic at awards shows, you don't have to look too far to find examples of douchechill-inspiring Tarantino-isms.



Seriously, watch that video I linked, it's really mind-boggling.

Video Here

Still, he knows he's good, and I guess there's nothing wrong with that. No one says you have to be humble. And I did say that his talent lets him get away with a lot.

But he had to keep pushing it. Probably the most aggravating dig came up during Inglorious Basterds. I really, really enjoyed that film. I thought it was smart, funny, entertaining and avoided all of the usual ticks that make Tarantino's movies feel so aggressively ... Tarantino-esque. It was a well-done movie that was surprisingly not full of itself, and when it was almost over, I thought, This might be his masterpiece.

Then, of course, the ending hit, and I grunted audibly in the theater. In case you've forgotten how it ends, Brad Pitt's Aldo Raine and Ryan from The Office's Ryan from The Office attack Christoph Waltz in the woods and carve a swastika into his forehead. Their work complete, they stand over Christoph and look down at him ...



... and Lt. Raine says "Private Ryan Howard, I think this just might be my masterpiece." And then it immediately smash-cuts to ...



I can't think of a more aggravatingly douchey way to end a movie than by having an actor say, direct-to-camera, "This is my masterpiece," and then instantly jumping to your giant "WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY" title card. He couldn't just let the movie stand on its own as a great movie, he had to come out and indirectly say, "I know how awesome I am."

And now that I mention it, I can think of a douchier way to end a movie. When the movie came out, Tarantino said in an interview that, when he was originally writing the script, he intended to play the role of Aldo Raine himself. Which means the ending of the movie was almost ...



Aaaaand we've reached the limit. If anyone has ever wondered how far being super talented would get them, it is precisely that moment.



Read more: http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-great-...#ixzz1H0jpNC1Y "

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I wouldn't steal a car, but I'd download one if I could.

I think that was my favorite part of Inglourious Basterds.

I would have to say no to him being one of the 10 Best directors, but I can see him being a favorite. I think he is definitely the most entertaining filmmaker to listen to in interviews or generally his opinions.

Yeah, I love how self-aware the last line in Basterds is. It's almost Tarantino parodying his own persona at that point. Even if he isn't, I still appreciate how meta it is. It's a perfect ending.

I've seen the film maybe four or five times now, and I like it more each time.

When the lights go down before a Tarantino feature, I always get a buzz of anticipation expecting something fun and enjoyable is gonna happen. And for me he's delivered in every case. It's like a mini-event... Of course, I'm a fan of the grindhouse and old kung fu movies, and the 70's action flicks that he gushingly pays homage to, so it's an easy sell for me. He may not be a deep philosopher or an artsy cynic, but if you grew up on Bugs Bunny and Dirty Harry (guilty), he's the man who makes it fun.

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Under-the-radar Movie Awesomeness.
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Jackie Brown & Reservoir Dogs tie for his best film. Inglorious being in my eyes his worst.

Strange, I wouldn't have guessed anyone listing Tarantino's movies in that order. Can everyone list his movies from best to worst in their opinion and explain if they wish? I'm curious.

Pulp Fiction
Inglourious Basterds
Kill Bill: Volume II
Reservoir Dogs
Jackie Brown
Kill Bill: Volume I
Death Proof

It's tight at the top of my list. I can't quit put into words why pulp beats out Inglourious for top spot. The non-linear timeline was a big pay-off for me but though obviously isn't a comparative when trading the two films off against each other, I just thought I'd mention I liked that.

Maybe it's something as small as the finest cameo I've seen from Christopher Walken, maybe one of my favourite scenes in any movie.

"He'd be damned if any slopes gonna put their greasy yellow hands on his boy's birthright, so he hid it in one place he knew he could hide somethin'--
his ass. 5 long years he wore this watch up his ass. Then he died of dysentery, he give me the watch. I hid this uncomfortable hunk of metal up my ass, 2 years. Then...After 7 years, I was sent home to my family. And... Now... Little man, I give the watch to you.".

Does not compute

You must mean the worst of his films at sucking...YEAH dude we're totally together on that one

Keeping in mind I haven't seen several of these movies since they came out (like Pulp Fiction, which is the only one I've seen more than once), here's how I'd rank them:

Pulp Fiction - Stylish, clever, great dialog. Not one of my favorite movies ever but I can see why it's so popular.
Kill Bill Vol. 2 - I found this a good deal more exciting and entertaining than the first. The fights were a bit dirtier and more desperate, the ending was legitimately unpredictable. I thought the superman speech was the best thing he's written in years.
Jackie Brown - I need to watch this again. I saw it on the big screen when it came out and haven't seen it since. I remember the big set piece that's shown a bunch of times. At first it seemed pretty novel (to my 17 year old self) but it eventually started to drag. I like repetition in music more than in film, though I prefer it in both when it's not just repetition. I loved the quasi-romance between Jackie and the parole officer. Sexy and funny in spite of some mild reservations.
Inglorious Basterds - I loved the idea of rewriting WWII as a trashy revenge movie. I'm a little undecided about how well Tarantino lived up to his ambition on this one. Brad Pitt is as fun to watch as ever. The idea that a nazi war film is two hours of picking off ally soldiers (and its implied comparison with the basterds) elicited some laughs but otherwise I just don't remember laughing that much, and most of the scenes focused on the girl's revenge felt a bit off... An interesting movie that still feels like an open book to me.
Kill Bill Vol. 1 - Once it gets past the initial post-coma confusion the plot and story lost a lot of the excitement and momentum. With the stunts and set pieces I know Tarantino's heart is in the right place (or at least, I think we like a lot of the same movies). I just don't think he pulled it off here.
Death Proof - Enjoyed it as part of the Grindhouse double-feature (though the lesser of the two) but the dialog and chase felt overlong and repetitive. Overall it's a bit too uneven for me to fully buy it.
Reservoir Dogs - Been way too long to have a fair assessment. Felt totally terrified (in a good way) by it when I was fifteen and had never seen a staged torture before, but what I remember of Tarantino's freshman film-making leads me to think it's a filmed play with emphasis on dialog. Just knowing my taste nowadays the dialog is going to have to be really amazing to pull the weight for me, but I'd be willing to give it a shot. Another one I'm not sure about.