Quentin Tarantino

• Born: March 27, 1963
• Place of Birth: Knoxville, Tennessee

Tarantino’s distinctive films helped to bring the independent film movement of the 1990s into mainstream popular culture, and his influence in the industry continued into the twenty-first century.

Quentin Tarantino was one of the most identifiable directors of the 1990s. Writing and directing the cult favorite Reservoir Dogs (1992) and the critically and popularly acclaimed Pulp Fiction (1994), Tarantino made two of the most distinctive and imitated movies of the decade. Tarantino’s films often employ crime story lines told in nontraditional form, punctuated with stylized violence and dialogue, and featuring extended monologues on aspects of popular culture. Tarantino’s work also shows the influence of B-movies, especially Hong Kong action movies, film noir, “blaxploitation” films, and spaghetti Westerns. Tarantino is also known for resurrecting the careers of fading actors like John Travolta in Pulp Fiction and Pam Grier and Robert Forster in Jackie Brown (1997). Tarantino’s films are also part of the larger postmodern movement in the arts, as they are intertextual. They synthesize scenes, themes, and other aspects of previous films. Tarantino wrote and directed Jackie Brown as well as penning the stories or screenplays for several other films, including True Romance (1993) and Natural Born Killers (1994).

Tarantino wrote, directed, and acted in Reservoir Dogs, his first feature film. With its nonlinear account of a heist gone wrong, Reservoir Dogs introduced many of Tarantino’s trademarks. After showings at the Sundance and Cannes film festivals, the movie received widespread critical praise. Although it enjoyed only a short theatrical release, the film gained a cult following and made Tarantino a pop culture icon.

With Pulp Fiction, Tarantino became the most recognizable independent filmmaker in the United States. More ambitious than its predecessor, Pulp Fiction followed three interwoven plotlines through the crime underworld of Los Angeles. Grossing over $100 million in the United States and over $200 million worldwide, the film was an enormous success and established Miramax as one of the premier movie studios. The film was also critically acclaimed and won numerous awards, including the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. At the 1995 Academy Awards, Pulp Fiction earned seven nominations, including Best Picture, and won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

Beginning in 2003, Tarantino wrote and directed some of his next most acclaimed works, two films about a woman (played by Uma Thurman) seeking revenge—through brutal martial-arts-style killings—on those who betrayed her. Convinced to split the story into two films, he released Kill Bill: Vol. 1 in 2003 and its sequel, Kill Bill: Vol. 2, the following year. Over the next several years, he also wrote and directed Death Proof (2007), Inglourious Basterds (2009), the critically acclaimed and Academy Award–winning Django Unchained (2012), and The Hateful Eight (2015).

Tarantino's next film, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, was released in 2019. The movie follows an aging actor and his stunt double as they try to remain relevant as the Golden Age of Hollywood comes to an end. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, and was released to critical acclaim. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood garnered ten Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Directing, and Writing for Tarantino. It also won an Oscar Award for Production Design. In 2021, Tarantino wrote his first book based on the film. In 2022, he published his second book, Cinema Speculation, which reached fifth on the nonfiction New York Times best seller list. In the same year, he began producing a podcast with Roger Avary, Video Archives.

Tarantino has said that he will only direct ten films. The Movie Critic, a film about a writer working for a porn magazine, was to be his tenth. Brad Pitt, who had starred in Upon a Time... in Hollywood, had agreed to star in this film as well. However, Tarantino was not satisfied with the screenplay and kept rewriting it, eventually scrapping the project in 2023 when filming was about to begin.

Impact

Following the success of Pulp Fiction, Hollywood produced a number of “Tarantino-esque” films imitating Tarantino’s plots, dialogue, and overall style. Moreover, large studios began to look for independent films that could duplicate Tarantino’s box-office success. The triumph of Pulp Fiction also helped Miramax become a powerhouse within the film industry, producing numerous commercially and critically successful movies. The lasting effect of Tarantino’s work on American cinema has also been appreciated by film scholars. In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked Pulp Fiction as ninety-fourth on its list of the one hundred best American movies of all time.

Bibliography

Biskind, Peter. Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.

Easton Ellis, Bret. "The Gonzo Vision of Quentin Tarantino." The New York Times, 12 Oct. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/10/12/t-magazine/quentin-tarantino-bret-easton-ellis-interview.html. Accessed 22 May 2024.

Kit, Borys, Pamela McClintock, and James Hibberd. "How Quentin Tarantino’s ‘The Movie Critic’ Fell Apart." The Hollywood Reporter, 23 Apr. 2023, www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/quentin-tarantino-movie-critic-what-happened-1235879479/. Accepted 22 May 2024.

Levy, Emanuel. Cinema of Outsiders: The Rise of American Independent Film. New York UP, 1999.

"Quentin Tarantino." IMDb, www.imdb.com/name/nm0000233. Accessed 22 May 2024.

Tarantino, Quentin. "Quentin Tarantino Says to Expect Just Two More Films." Interview by Elsa Keslassy. Variety, 12 July 2016, variety.com/2016/film/festivals/quentin-tarantino-hateful-eight-inglourious-basterds-jerusalem-1201812560. Accessed 22 May 2024.

Waxman, Sharon. Rebels on the Backlot: Six Maverick Directors and How They Conquered the Hollywood Studio System. Morrow, 2014.