Quentin Tarantino has been by far, the most popular filmmaker of the 21st century, and his films appeal at so many different levels that we as fans and students of Cinema can’t stop discussing it. It comes as little surprise that Tarantino has studied the significant moments of cinematic history with an unrelenting thirst to quench his artistic desire. When he was asked to pick 11 Films which he considered to be Greatest Films of All Time, his choices came as a little surprise for many.
See the list of his most favorite films below.
1. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is an Italian western film, released in 1966, that was the third and arguably best installment in director Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy, which starred Clint Eastwood as the iconic Man with No Name. The movie is widely regarded as the definitive “spaghetti western.”
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly received mostly negative reviews at the time of its release, the film was a box-office hit, and it came to be considered a masterpiece and thus one of Tarantino’s Greatest Films of All Time.
2. Rio Bravo (1959)
Rio Bravo, American western film marks one of the most enduring collaborations between director Howard Hawks and star John Wayne. The film centers a small-town sheriff played by John Wayne in the American West, who takes the help of a cripple, a drunk, and a young gunfighter to keep the brother of the local bad guy inside the jail.
You could actually call Once Upon A Time in Hollywood a kind of Rio Bravo tribute.
Rio Bravo‘s two main characters are John Wayne’s a Texas sheriff and Dean Martin‘s young drunk man who is an ace Shooter. In Tarantino’s film, Brad Pitt‘s Cliff Booth is a vaguely Wayne like stunt man who resembles Dean Martin’s character. Don’t forget Cliff’s inclination towards the “yellow roll.” John Wayne’s Character has also acted as an outline for Leonardo’s Rick Dalton, who is a washed-out Tv Star famous for his Western Series.
3. Blow Out (1981)
Blow Out is a conspiracy-theory thriller which is a tribute to Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up (1966). It featured John Travolta as a sound-effects mixer who inadvertently records a car accident that seemingly causes the death of a politician. However, the audio suggests that the man was actually shot. Although Travolta gave one of his best performances and Allen was disarming as a helpful prostitute, the nihilistic conclusion might explain why it fared poorly at the box office.
In an interview with Manohla Dargis, Tarantino applauded Travolta’s performance in Blow out, calling it as one of his most favorite performances of all time.
4. Taxi Driver (1976)
Taxi Driver directed by Ace Filmmaker Martin Scorsese revolves around a disturbed Vietnam veteran’s peculiar madness. De Niro gave what is regarded as his definitive performance as the pathetically alienated but dangerously unhinged Travis Bickle, and Keitel exuded menace in the small but key role of the seductive pimp Sport, who keeps the 12-year-old Iris (Jodie Foster) in thrall.
Taxi Driver is considered one of a few movies he saw Keitel in as a teenager that eventually led him to cast the actor in Reservoir Dogs.
Not only Tarantino’s but Taxi Driver is on the list of every Cinephiles’ being one of the Greatest Films of All Time.
5. His Girl Friday (1940)
His Girl Friday is a screwball comedy film by director Howard Hawks which is a remake of 1931 film The Front Page. The lightning-fast repartee and prickly courtship of the film’s two leads made it a classic in the genre.
Tarantino’s own film Pulp Fiction’s first page describes Pumpkin and Honey Bunny as conversing in “rapid-fire motion,” which is an inspiration from Howard Hawks classic, His Girl Friday.
6. Five Fingers of Death (1972)
Five Fingers of Death is the story of a humble martial artist whose master promises he can marry his daughter if he wins an upcoming tournament. But things are not easy as it sounds, as the rivalry schoolmaster will go to any extent to help his Punk Son win the tournament.
According to a 1996 interview with Don Gibalevich, this Kung-fu film had a very formative influence on Tarantino’s younger self when it played at Carson Twin Cinema.
7. Pandora’s Box (1929)
Pandora’s Box is a German silent drama film directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, that narrates the story of Lulu, a seductive, thoughtless young woman whose raw sexuality and uninhibited nature bring loss and destruction to herself and those who love her. The film is based on Frank Wedekind’s plays Erdgeist (1895) and Die Büchse der Pandora (1904).
8. Carrie (1976)
Carrie directed by Brian De Palma is an American supernatural horror film adapted from Stephen King’s 1974 novel of the same name.
The film is about a diffident 16-year-old who is consistently mocked and bullied at school. Her bullies and friends are unaware that she possesses telekinetic powers.
Carrie is one of the horror films that Quentin has references in his own work in terms of the sheer amount of blood-drenched viscera on display, famously portrayed in films like Kill Bill and Django Unchained.
For the kind of grotesque it set in motion pictures, the film indeed deserve to be among the titles of Greatest Films of All Time.
9. Unfaithfully Yours (1948)
Unfaithfully Yours directed by Preston Sturges is a dark comedy that defied Hollywood conventions for the genre and failed commercially as a consequence.
It is a story of a symphony conductor who suspects his wife of cheating on him, and as he is conducting, he imagines three scenarios in which he exacts his revenge upon her.
According to the internet, this is one of Quentin Tarantino’s favorite movies, and whether that’s a recommendation or not I’m not sure, but I can see how it would appeal to him. There are definite homages to this film in his works and his scripting is very much in this style.
10. Five Graves to Cairo (1943)
Five Graves to Cairo directed by Billy Wilder is a suspenseful tale of wartime espionage. It was one of the most searing of the early films noir and, in the eyes of many historians, the apotheosis of the genre.
The film narrates the story of a jaded insurance salesman who conspired with the sexy wife of a prospective client to insure her husband, kill him, collect the money, and spend it together.
In one of the interviews, Tarantino mentioned that Five Graves to Cairo is, “One of my favorite war stories, hands-down,”
Tarantino further said that “Billy Wilder and (co-writer) Charles Brackett wrote their own story for it. It doesn’t follow history. They came up with their own way. It’s not even a very credible version of Rommel, either, but it’s a fantastic version of Rommel.” This kind of method of creating a new fiction from the already existing history is seen in many of Tarantino’s films, especially Once Upon a Time, which portrays the story of The Manson Family case.
11. Jaws (1975)
Jaws directed by Steven Spielberg established him as a leading director, and it was one of the highest-grossing films ever.
It tells the story of the police chief of a resort town who battles a man-eating white shark.
Tarantino has been a fan of the films of his peers and Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece Jaws is surely one of them. He definitely adores Spielberg’s resilience and artistry towards film making and thus considers his film as one of Greatest Films of All Time.
So here it ends, Greatest Films of All Time of Quentin Tarantino.
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