The film was originally released theatrically as part of Grindhouse, a double feature that combined Death Proof with Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror. After Grindhouse underperformed at the domestic box office, Death Proof
was released as a standalone feature in other countries and on home
media. It received mostly positive reviews for its stunt sequences and
tribute to exploitation cinema, although its pacing was criticized.
Plot
Three friends, Arlene, Shanna and radio DJ "Jungle" Julia Lucai, drive down Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas, on their way to celebrate Julia's birthday. In a bar, Julia reveals that she made a radio announcement offering a free lap dance from Arlene in return for addressing her as "Butterfly", buying her a drink, and reciting a segment of the poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening". Aging Hollywood stunt double
"Stuntman" Mike trails the women to a bar and claims the lap dance.
Arlene is suspicious, having seen Mike's car earlier that day, but he
convinces her to give him the lap dance.
The women prepare to depart with Lanna, another friend. Pam,
Julia's old classmate, accepts Mike's offer of a ride home. Mike takes
Pam to his Hollywood stunt car rigged with a roll cage
and tells her the car is "death proof", but only for the driver. He
speeds and slams on the brakes, smashing Pam's skull on the dashboard,
killing her. He catches up with the women's car and drives into it at
high speed, killing them. Mike survives with no serious injury. Sheriff
McGraw believes Mike killed the women intentionally, but because Mike
was sober while the women were intoxicated, he cannot be charged.
Fourteen months later, three young women, Abernathy Ross, Kim Mathis and Lee Montgomery, are driving through Lebanon, Tennessee. They stop at a convenience store, where Mike watches them from his car. The women pick up their friend, stuntwoman Zoë Bell, from the airport while Mike photographs them unaware. Zoë tells them she wants to test-drive a 1970 Dodge Challenger, the same type of car from the 1971 film Vanishing Point,
for sale nearby. The owner lets them test-drive it unsupervised after
Abernathy tells him Lee is a porn star and will stay behind.
Zoë tells Abernathy and Kim that she wants to play a game they call "Ship's Mast", whereby she rides the hood
holding belts fastened to the car while Kim drives at speed. Kim is
hesitant, but agrees. The three enjoy the stunt, unaware that Mike is
watching them. He rear-ends them in his car, causing Zoë to accidentally drop one of her and Abernathy's belts. After several more collisions, he T-bones
them, throwing Zoë from the hood. Kim shoots Mike's left shoulder and
he flees in his car. Abernathy and Kim cry over the loss of their
friend, until Zoë emerges uninjured. The three agree to catch up to Mike
and kill him.
The women catch up to Mike as he is treating his wound and ram
him, then Zoë gets out and beats him with a pipe. They continue chasing
him as he pleads for mercy, finally flipping his car off the road. They
drag him from the wreckage, take turns punching him and then finish him
with two kicks to the face.
The story for Death Proof developed from Quentin Tarantino's fascination for the way stuntmen
would "death-proof" stunt cars so a driver could survive horrific,
high-speed crashes and collisions. This inspired Tarantino to create a slasher film featuring a deranged stuntman who stalks and murders sexy young women with his "death-proof" car.[3] Tarantino remembers, "I realized I couldn't do a straight slasher film, because with the exception of women-in-prison films,
there is no other genre quite as rigid. And if you break that up, you
aren't really doing it anymore. It's inorganic, so I realized—let me
take the structure of a slasher film and just do what I do. My version
is going to be fucked up and disjointed, but it seemingly uses the
structure of a slasher film, hopefully against you."[4]
According to Robert Rodriguez, "[Tarantino] had an idea and a
complete vision for it right away when he first talked about it. He
started to tell me the story and said, 'It's got this death-proof car in
it.' I said, 'You have to call it Death Proof.' I helped title the movie, but that's it."[3] Of the car chases, Tarantino stated: "CGI
for car stunts doesn't make any sense to me—how is that supposed to be
impressive? [...] I don't think there have been any good car chases
since I started making films in '92—to me, the last terrific car chase
was in Terminator 2. And Final Destination 2
had a magnificent car action piece. In between that, not a lot. Every
time a stunt happens, there's twelve cameras and they use every angle
for Avid editing, but I don't feel it in my stomach. It's just action."[4]Death Proof marked Tarantino's first credit as a cinematographer.
Tarantino attempted to cast John Travolta, Denzel Washington, Willem Dafoe, John Malkovich, Mickey Rourke, Ron Perlman, Bruce Willis, Kal Penn,[5] and Sylvester Stallone[6] in Death Proof, but none were able to work due to prior commitments. In an interview, Tarantino revealed that he cast Kurt Russell
as the killer stunt driver because "for people of my generation, he's a
true hero ... but now, there's a whole audience out there that doesn't
know what Kurt Russell can do. When I open the newspaper and see an ad
that says 'Kurt Russell in Dreamer,' or 'Kurt Russell in Miracle,' I'm not disparaging these movies, but I'm thinking: When is Kurt Russell going to be a badass again?"[7]Eli Roth, Planet Terror leading actress Rose McGowan, and Tarantino himself appear in the film. Roth flew in from Europe, where he was filming Hostel: Part II, to film his scenes, which took one day.
After being stunned by stuntwoman Zoë Bell, who worked as Uma Thurman's stunt double in Tarantino's earlier film Kill Bill,
Tarantino wrote her the leading female role. This was her first
on-screen acting, which Bell initially thought was going to be a cameo
role. The character Zoë was based on the stuntwoman herself and includes
small stories based around her real life experiences, some with
Tarantino. When her name was featured on the film posters opposite Kurt
Russell, Rosario Dawson and Rose McGowan, she realized how big the role
was.
Death Proof uses various unconventional techniques to make
the film appear more like those that were shown in grindhouse theaters
in the 1970s. Throughout the feature, the film was intentionally damaged
to make it look like many of the exploitation films of the 1970s
which were generally shipped around from theater to theater and usually
ended up in bad shape. A notable example of one of the film's
deliberate jump-cuts is seen at the beginning, when the title Quentin Tarantino's Thunderbolt is shown for a split second before abruptly being replaced by an insert with the title Death Proof, appearing in white lettering on a black background.[8] (Exploitation films were commonly retitled, especially if they received bad press on initial release.)
On the editing of Death Proof, Tarantino stated, "There is half-an-hour's difference between my Death Proof and what is playing in Grindhouse.
[…] I was like a brutish American exploitation distributor who cut the
movie down almost to the point of incoherence. I cut it down to the bone
and took all the fat off it to see if it could still exist, and it
worked."[9] An extended, 127-minute version of Death Proof was screened in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 60th Cannes Film Festival.[9][10][11]
Tarantino is quoted as saying, "It works great as a double feature, but
I'm just as excited if not more excited about actually having the world
see Death Proof unfiltered. [...] It will be the first time everyone sees Death Proof by itself, including me."[9]
The soundtrack for Death Proof consists entirely of
non-original music, including excerpts from the scores of other films.
It was released on April 3, 2007, alongside the Planet Terror soundtrack. Both albums featured dialogue excerpts from the film.
Death Proof was released in the US and Canada alongside Planet Terror as part of a double feature under the title Grindhouse. Both films were released separately in extended versions internationally, approximately two months apart.[12]
The additional material includes scenes that were replaced in the
American theatrical release version with a "missing reel" title card,
such as the lap dance scene. A total of 27 minutes were added for this version. One of the first screenings of Death Proof was made at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on August 20, 2007, with star Zoë Bell attending the screenings.[13]
The Dutch poster artwork for Death Proof claimed that the film would feature "coming attractions" from Robert Rodriguez.[14] In the United Kingdom, Death Proof was released on September 21, 2007, and in Australia on November 1, 2007.[15]
Explaining the split in foreign releases, Tarantino stated, "Especially
if they were dealing with non-English language countries, they don't
really have this tradition … not only do they not really know what a
grindhouse is, they don't even have the double feature tradition. So you
are kind of trying to teach us something else."[16]
Critical reception
Death Proof received generally moderate reviews. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes,
the film holds an approval rating of 67% based on 45 reviews, with an
average rating of 5.6/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Death Proof
may feel somewhat minor in the context of Tarantino's larger
filmography, but on its own merits, it packs just enough of a wallop to
deliver sufficiently high-octane grindhouse goods."[17] The French magazine Les Cahiers du cinéma ranked Death Proof second best film of the year 2007.[18]
Damon Wise of Empire
magazine gave the film four out of five stars and a mostly positive
review, describing the film as "Tarantino driving wildly under the
influence" and "seriously entertaining".[19]
The BBC's Anna Smith said that while there was "fun to be had" with the
film, "its imitation of a defunct, low-budget style of movie-making is
perhaps too accurate when it comes to the genre's flaws",[20] and gave the film three out of five stars. Roger Ebert gave Grindhouse 2.5 out of 4 stars, writing that while Death Proof was the more enjoyable half of the bill, it was still marred by overlong scenes of expository dialogue.[21]
The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw
expressed admiration for the car crash scene, describing it as "a
lethal roar of entertainment", but said that the film was padded with
"long, long, long stretches of bizarrely inconsequential conversation
[...] which are a big comedown from the glorious riffs from Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction", and that overall "Tarantino's twisted genius is there for all to see – but, it must now be admitted, all too briefly".[22] Tarantino said at a 2012 director's roundtable, "Death Proof
has got to be the worst movie I ever made. And for a left-handed movie,
that wasn't so bad, all right? — so if that's the worst I ever get, I'm
good."[23]
In 2022, American writer and critic Nick Newman placed Death Proof on his Sight and Sound list of the greatest films ever made,
calling it "Tarantino's first historical-revisionist movie, whether he
knows or wishes to acknowledge, and one he's disavowed despite how well
it compacts everything at which he's a genius — fitting contradiction
for the most exciting and perpetually underestimated director of my
lifetime. Whatever his reservations, a fan club comprising Claire Denis, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Arnaud Desplechin, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Bertrand Bonello, Claude Lanzmann, and myself simply cannot be wrong."[24]
Home media
Death Proof
was released on DVD in the US on September 18, 2007, in a two-disc
special edition featuring the extended version of the film,
documentaries on the casting of the film, the various muscle cars and Tarantino's relationship with editorSally Menke, trailers, and an international poster gallery.[25] On December 16, 2008, a BD release of identical content followed.
A Japanese DVD release has the films Grindhouse, Death Proof and Planet Terror, with extras and fake trailers, in a six-DVD box set (English with optional Japanese subtitles). Death Proof was also released as a German HD DVD, believed to be the last film published in the now-defunct format.[26]
The Grindhouse double feature was eventually released on Blu-ray Disc in October 2010.
Tarantino's work has been subject to criticism, such as the depictions of violence and frequent inclusion of racial slurs. During Tarantino's career, his films have garnered a cult following;
as well as critical and commercial success, he has been considered "the
single most influential director of his generation". Other major awards
won by Tarantino include two BAFTAs and four Golden Globes.
Early life
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.[2] Tarantino identifies as having Cherokee descent through his mother, who is of Irish descent on her other side; 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]
Career
1980–1989: 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, after which all film shot
was destroyed.[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 but went on to receive about $3,000 in residuals over three years because the episode was frequently rerun due to it being on a "best of..." lineup.[25]
1990–1999: Breakthrough and acclaim
Tarantino has had a number of collaborations with director Robert Rodriguez.
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.[26] Hellman cleaned up the screenplay and helped secure funding from Richard N. Gladstein at Live Entertainment (which later became Artisan, now known as Lionsgate).[27]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.[28][29]
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.[30][31] Tarantino also did an uncredited rewrite on It's Pat (1994).[32][33] Other films where he was an uncredited screenwriter include Crimson Tide (1995) and The Rock (1996).[34]
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.[35][36] Tarantino wrote, directed, and acted in the dark comedy crime film Pulp Fiction in 1994,[37] 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[38] and earned positive reviews.[39][40]
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".[41][42] He joined Rodriguez again later in the year with a supporting role in Desperado.[43][44] 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.[45][46][c] His third feature film was Jackie Brown (1997), an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel Rum Punch. A 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.[49] Leonard considered Jackie Brown to be his favorite of the 26 different screen adaptations of his novels and short stories.[50]
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.[63] 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.[64]
It was originally set for a single theatrical release, but its
four-hour running time prompted Tarantino to divide it into two movies.[65]: 1:02:10 Tarantino says he still considers it a single film in his overall filmography.[65]: 1:23:35 Volume 1 was released in 2003 and Volume 2 was released in 2004.[66][67]
In 2001, he produced the US release of the Hong Kong martial arts film Iron Monkey, which made over $14 million worldwide.[68][69] 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.[70] 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.[71] When he was approached about a documentary about the Blood in the Water match, a water polo match between Hungary and the USSR at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, Tarantino said "This is the best story I've ever been told. I'd love to be involved".[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.[84] 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.[85] Filming began on "Inglorious Bastards", as it was provisionally titled, in October 2008.[86]
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.[87]
For the film, Tarantino received his second nomination for the Academy
Award for Best Director and Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.[88]
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",[89]
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".[89] It was released in December 2012 and became his highest grossing film to date.[90][91] He also received his second Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.[92]
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.[93] On January 11, 2014, it was revealed that the film would be titled The Hateful Eight.[94] The script was then leaked in January 2014.[95]
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.[96] He stated that he had given the script to a few trusted colleagues, including Bruce Dern, Tim Roth and Michael Madsen.[97][98]
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.[99]
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.[100] Filming went ahead as planned with the new draft in January 2015.[101]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.[102] The film received mostly positive reviews from critics.[103]
In November 2022, Tarantino revealed plans to shoot an eight-episode
television series in 2023. No further details were provided.[117]
In 2009, Tarantino said that he planned to retire from filmmaking
when he is 60 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."[118][119]
He said though "not etched in stone" he intends 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."[120]
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."[121]
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.[122] 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.[123]
Film criticism
In June 2020, Tarantino became an officially recognized critic on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes where his reviews are part of the "Tomatometer" rating.[124][125] He has since published over 30 film reviews, including director essays, on his New Beverly Cinema website.[126]
Tarantino praised Mel Gibson's 2006 film Apocalypto, saying, "I think it's a masterpiece. It was perhaps the best film of that year."[131] In 2009, he named Kinji Fukasaku's violent action film Battle Royale as his favorite film released since he became a director in 1992.[132] In 2020, Tarantino named David Fincher's film The Social Network his favorite movie of the 2010s.[133]
Films that Tarantino has commented on negatively include Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy where he remarked, "... might be a piece of crap, but I doubt Alfred was bored making it". He also disliked two Robert Altman films stating, "Brewster McCloud is the cinematic equivalent of a bird shitting on your head ... and Quintet is just terrible, boring, and pointless".[134] Regarding David Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
he said, "... Lynch has disappeared so far up his own ass that I have
no desire to see another David Lynch movie until I hear something
different. And you know, I loved him. I loved him".[135] Whilst not critical of the film Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, Tarantino admitted he was unable to view the Mr. Creosote
scene, "The only time I've ever had to look away, because I couldn't
bear to watch, was ... when that fat bastard keeps being sick."[136][134]
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.[141] The podcast premiered on July 19, 2022.[142]
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),[143][144][145][146] sequels (Kill Bill: Vol. 3),[147] spin-offs of previous works (Double V Vega),[148] crossovers of his own work with other genres (Django/Zorro),[149] literary adaptations of well-known authors (Len Deighton, Bret Easton Ellis),[150][151] and campaigning to direct in major film franchises (James Bond and Star Trek).[152][153]
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.[120] In 2023, Tarantino planned to shoot his last film which was about a movie critic of a fictional pornographic magazine set in late 1970s California. In April 2024, it was reported that he had abandoned the idea.[154]
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.[163] 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".[163]
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."[164]
Style
Tarantino's films often feature graphic violence, a tendency which has sometimes been criticized.[165][166][167]Reservoir Dogs was initially denied United Kingdom certification because of his use of torture as entertainment.[168] Tarantino has frequently defended his use of violence, saying that "violence is so good. It affects audiences in a big way".[169] When questioned in an interview for Kill Bill: Volume 1 why his movies contained so much graphic violence, he responded, "Because it's so much fun!"[170] 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."[171] 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.[172][173]
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.[174] 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.[175][176] Critics have since referred to the use of this shifting timeline in films as the "Tarantino Effect".[177] Actor Steve Buscemi has described Tarantino's novel style of filmmaking as "bursting with energy" and "focused".[178]
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.[179] However, he insists that his films are dramas, not comedies.[180]
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)".[181][182]
Tarantino has said that his films take place in one of two
cinematic universes, one being the more realistically grounded world of
films like Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, and the other
being a meta-fictional narrative which Tarantino says represents the
kind of films the characters in his main cinematic universe would watch,
which separates films such as From Dusk till Dawn and Kill Bill from Tarantino's primary narrative.[183] He also creates his own products and brands that he uses in his films to varying degrees.[184] 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.[185][173] Tarantino is also known for his choice of music in his films,[186] including soundtracks that often use songs from the 1960s and 70s.[187][188][189] In 2011, he was recognized at the 16th Critics' Choice Awards with the inaugural Music+Film Award.[190][191]
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."[192][193]
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."[194]
Appraisals
During his career, Tarantino's films have garnered a cult following, as well as critical and commercial success.[1][195] In 2005, he was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.[196] He was also on The Daily Telegraph list of "Top 100 Living Geniuses" in 2007.[197] Filmmaker and historian Peter Bogdanovich has called him "the single most influential director of his generation".[198][199] Tarantino has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the film industry.[200]
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.[201]
Controversies
Racial slurs in films
In 1997, Spike Lee questioned Tarantino's use of racial slurs in his films, especially the N-word, particularly in Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown.[202] 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."[203] 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.[204]
Tarantino said on The Howard Stern Show that Lee would have to "stand on a chair to kiss [his] ass".[205] 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."[206] 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.[207]
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.[208][209] 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."[210]
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."[211]
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".[212]
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."[213]
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."[214]
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, 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 remainder of the film's production.[216] 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".[217]
Altercations with industry peers
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 resulted in 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."
Tarantino physically assaulted Murphy in the AGO restaurant in West
Hollywood, California in October 1997.[218]
Murphy subsequently filed a $5 million lawsuit against Tarantino; the
case ended with the judge ordering Tarantino to pay Murphy $450.[219][220]
In 1994, Tarantino had an on-set feud with Denzel Washington during the filming of Crimson Tide
over what was described as "Tarantino's racist dialogue added to the
script". A few years later Washington apologized to Tarantino saying he
"buried that hatchet".[221]
In 1997, during the Oscars ceremony, Tarantino was accompanying Mira Sorvino when the then-MTV News host, Chris Connelly, called over to Sorvino from the media scrum. Before she could talk to Connelly, 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.[222][223] 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".[224]
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?!"[225]
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.[226]
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 had commented on the subject many times
before and did not need to explain again, therefore was "shutting [his]
butt down".[227]
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."[228]
In 2019, during the Cannes Film Festival, at the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
press conference, a journalist asked why Robbie had so few lines in the
film. Tarantino responded "I just reject your hypothesis", with no
further comment.[229]
Personal life
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 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."[230] From 2003 to 2005, Tarantino was in a romantic relationship with filmmaker Sofia Coppola. The two have remained friends since their breakup.[231]
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.[232] They married on November 28, 2018, in a Reform Jewish ceremony in their Beverly Hills Home.[233][234] As of January 2020, they were splitting their time between the Ramat Aviv Gimel neighborhood of Tel Aviv, Israel and Los Angeles.[235] On February 22, 2020, their son[236][237] was born in Israel.[238] Their second child, a daughter, was born in July 2022.[239][240]
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.[241]
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."[242][243] In June 2021, Tarantino said he was an atheist.[244]
Views on gun violence and police brutality
Tarantino has said he does not believe that violence in film inspires real acts of violence.[245] 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."[246]
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."[247]
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."[247] 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."[248]
Tarantino's response to this criticism was, "All cops are not murderers ... I never said that. I never even implied that."[247] 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."[249]
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."[250]
Quentin Tarantino at Inglourious Basterds Premiere, Leicester Square, July 23, 2009
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."[251] Tarantino considers Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Kill Bill: Volume 2 to be a single movie.[252]
Tarantino has built up an informal "repertory company" of actors who have appeared in many roles in his films.[253][254] Most notable of these is Samuel L. Jackson, who has appeared in five films directed by Tarantino and a sixth written by him, True Romance.[255][256]
Other frequent collaborators include Uma Thurman, who has been featured
in three films and whom Tarantino has described as his "muse"; Zoë Bell,
who has acted or performed stunts in seven Tarantino films; Michael
Madsen, James Parks and Tim Roth, who respectively appear in five, four
and three films. In addition, Roth appeared in Four Rooms, an anthology film where Tarantino directed the final segment, and filmed a scene for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood before it was cut for time.[256][257][258]
Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt have each appeared in two Tarantino films, the second of which, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, they appear in together.[259][260] Like Jackson, Pitt also appeared in the Tarantino-penned True Romance. Christoph Waltz appeared in two Tarantino films, Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained,
winning a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for each role. Waltz had been
working as an actor since the 1970s in numerous German movies and TV
shows but was a relative unknown in America when he was cast as Hans
Landa in his first film for Tarantino.[261][262]
EditorSally Menke,
who worked on all Tarantino films until her death in 2010, was
described by Tarantino in 2007 as "hands down my number one
collaborator".[263][264]
Tarantino and his films have received numerous nominations for major
awards, including Academy Awards, BAFTA Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Directors Guild of America Awards, and Saturn Awards. He has won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay twice, for Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained. He has been nominated four times for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, winning once for Pulp Fiction in 1994. In addition to his recognition for writing and directing films, Tarantino has received five Grammy Award nominations and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.
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