Tarantino Movies, Ranked!

[Sepulchrave II]

I'm not sure how I feel about Tarantino anymore; I used to love him, but I fear I'm getting old and he speaks less to me now.

Reservoir Dogs was the most impactful for me. I saw it in the cinema when it came out and it was a true WTF moment; completely blown away. Taught, slick, minimalistic.

Jackie Brown was my favourite for a long while, but I'm a huge Delfonics fan so I might be biased. But I haven't seen it for 20 years and I'm not sure how it would hold up. Spike Lee's critique of the film may have coloured any future viewing.

Pulp Fiction is a cultural icon at this point, so it's beyond sane and reasonable critique to a certain extent.

Inglorious Basterds was fun. as killing Nazis never gets old (I'd recommend Sisu, btw, if you haven't seen it). But I don't think it rose to the level of his other work.

Kill Bill was great - I'm not sure I'd split them, but I agree with the general sentiment that the second volume lags behind the first. I haven't watched them back-to-back, and I probably should.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I resisted watching this for a while, as I was down on Tarantino and felt he had said everything useful he was going to say. I was pleasantly surprised by how mature, reflective and really quite poignant this movie was.

I've seen most of the others, but can't say they left a lasting impression on me.

 

[Omak Darkleaf]

I enjoy Tarantino’s films and think he’s had a greater impact on pop culture than any other director of his generation. I know nothing about film criticism and I’m not a Tarantino aficionado—two of these films I’ve seen only seen once and two I’ve seen a disproportionate amount of times—but, of his films that I have seen, these are my personal favorites, presented without explanation, justification, or apology. Infer from my rankings what you may about my defective character.



8 Jackie Brown
7 Kill Bill I & II
6 Django Unchained
5 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
4 The Hateful Eight
3 Inglourious Basterds
2 Pulp Fiction
1 Reservoir Dogs

What I admire most about Tarantino isn't his stories or his characters but his craft, the genius of which is on display from the start of his oeuvre. Reservoir Dogs is a lean film and a tight one too, not just despite its talkative characters but because of them. It is a heist film with little action. Instead of action, the bulk of the film’s tension is generated by dialogue—dialogue that the characters use to tell stories to each other. What may be its most impressively crafted sequence is a ten-minute meditation on the nature of narrative itself.

After Mister Orange empties a clip into Mister Blonde to save Marvin Nash from immolation, we enter the titled “Mr. Orange” flashback. Just as there have already been titled flashbacks for Misters White and Blonde that show their relationships with Joe Cabot, Mister Orange’s will too; but Orange’s begins not with him and Cabot in Cabot's office but with Orange and Holdaway in a diner. Orange tells Holdaway that he’s gained Cabot’s trust and has been recruited for a robbery. Holdaway congratulates Orange and asks him if he used the “commode story.”

The flashback flashes back farther in time to when Holdaway first gave Orange the script to the commode story—a fictitious anecdote intended to inspire trust in its listener—and Holdaway advises Orange to focus on details and make the story his own—to treat it as if he were telling a joke.

We leave this flashback and flash forward, but not farther than the meeting in the diner that began the flashback proper. Orange paces in his apartment, rehearsing the story, molding it. We jump forward in time again, and now Orange is performing for Holdaway, the story morphing further, and, once again, we jump forward to see Orange selling the story to Cabot, White, and Nice Guy Eddie in a nightclub.

We know that Orange has already won Cabot’s trust. Winning it is not the source of the driving tension. What we don’t know is how the fictional commode story will end. The next flashback takes us all the way back to the imagined 1986 of the commode narrative when Orange—transporting a brick of weed—walks into a train station men’s room and finds four sheriff’s deputies and a German Shepherd. The silent deputies all stare at Orange and the dog barks.

The film cuts back and forth between the men’s room and the nightclub while Orange narrates his internal panic, reinforcing that this is just a story even while the tension builds. The metanarrative finally subsumes the actual narrative as Orange, in the men’s room, begins to narrate the story directly to the sheriff’s deputies: Tarantino's story has become that of Mister Orange telling a tale not just to his fellow characters, but to characters of Mister Orange's own creation.

Orange talks himself through his fear and moves to a urinal, his metadiscourse with the deputies over. While Orange relieves himself, the first deputy spins a tale for his fellows. He tells a story about warning a driver at a traffic stop to stop reaching for the glove box or be shot in the face. The casual menace of the deputy—which is lost on the driver in the deputy’s story—is lost neither on Orange nor the audience. The climax of the commode story comes when Orange defuses the tension by hitting the button of the hand dryer, silencing the deputy's story with the dryer's white note, punctuating the end of the commode story like a punchline caps a joke, and winning over his audience.

Exposition is generally best limited if not entirely avoided in narrative because it more often than not grinds the pace of the story to a halt. Flashbacks are a common device used to circumvent exposition because it puts backstory in scene. Instead of being told something about the character(s) in question, the audience can see it in scene and infer meaning through active viewing. But Tarantino doesn’t use Orange’s flashback to convey action: instead, we have two guys in a diner talking about a story about a story about a story. For ten minutes, nothing drives the forward action but for the telling of these embedded narratives. In the hands of most writers and directors, breathing pathos into this type of material would be nigh impossible. In only his first film, Tarantino makes it look effortless.

 

[messy]

10. Hateful- complete waste of time.
9. Once- better after a Youtube video explained the parts I didn’t understand, but still not very good.
8. Django- mediocre.
7. Kill2- fun parts make up for the dull parts.
6. Kill1- too much, with often irritatingly-deliberate dialogue.
5. Death- grew on me as much as any movie I can think of, going from terrible to great.
4. Reservoir- excellent.
3. Inglourious- had to watch it a few times to get over the shock, then realized how brilliant it is.
2. Jackie- initially a let-down after Pulp Fiction, soon realized how good it is.
1. Pulp- my favorite movie ever since I first saw it, still boggles the mind thirty years later, has so many strengths (writing, acting, dialogue, comedy, surprises, music, message), and has only one weakness (Tarantino's acting).

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Having not posted a pop-culture thread in a little while, and having a short period of time on my hands, I thought I'd put up the following for discussion and/or debate! This was caused by a comment in another thread about Tarantino, and I realized ... I have done Cronenberg. I have done Wes Anderson. I have done the Coen Brothers.

But I have never done Tarantino. Yes, he is well-known for his quirks. Rob "Pouches Everywhere" Liefeld is so terrible at drawing feet, even Quentin Tarantino is like, "Naw, I'll pass."

That said, his movies tend to be ... if nothing else ... violent. So they aren't for everyone. And if they aren't, that's cool! Just like not everyone loves Wes Anderson. But for those who appreciate his work, he has an incredibly solid oeuvre.

As a general rule, I have found that people either love, or hate, Tarantino ... with few people falling into the "meh" category. I am one of those people that definitely fall into the "love" category. In my opinion, he is one of the few directors working that I make sure to see every single new release; simply knowing that he was the director of a film is enough to make me go and see it. In addition, he famously cares about his movies and his overall work- he has said that his next movie will be his last, so he ends with ten (which may or may not be correct, depending on how you count movies).

While I normally have "rules" for these types of things, this is very simple- it has to be a Tarantino movie. It cannot be a commercial. It cannot be a short. It cannot be a very special episode of ER. All movies are included.

Edge cases-
Movies that are anthologies (such as Four Rooms) are excluded. Death Proof, which was originally released as half of Grindhouse, is included, because it stands on its own.
Kill Bill will be treated as two separate movies (Vol. 1 and Vol. 2).
That's it.

This will include all ten of his feature length films, from Reservoir Dogs to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and will be listen in order of awesomeness, with #10 being the least awesome. That said, it gets really hard after the last three; all of the movies are good, and most are great.



10. Death Proof. The chase scene is amazing. This isn't a bad pulp film, in fact, it's a great pulp film. But ... it's little more than the lurid tropes that you see.

9. Kill Bill Vol. 2. As a complete movie, Kill Bill is amazing. But compared to the first part, the second suffers. It's good.

8. The Hateful Eight. A movie that is enjoyably, but doesn't demand repeat viewing.

7. Kill Bill Vol. 1. A controversial ranking; perhaps the most thrilling grindhouse film Tarantino has made. Honestly, from this point on it gets really difficult.

6. Reservoir Dogs. No notes. A movie that helped break the indie movement of the 90s, and for good reason.

5. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Tarantino is clearly wrestling with the passage of time, and what it means to make a movie.

4. Jackie Brown. A movie that seems to be about a heist, but is really about the struggles of people that refuse to acknowledge they are getting old.

3. Inglorious Basterds. If this movie did nothing other than introduce America to Christopher Walz, then that was enough. A movie set in war, but not about war.

2. Django Unchained. A Western that was outrageous in so many ways, it somehow made circled around to being almost responsible.

1. Pulp Fiction. It is hard to explain what an incredible seachange this movie provided; simply put, there was Hollywood before this movie, and Hollywood after it. A movie that opened the door for people to re-examine their taste in movies, and realize the Out of Africa is not what "good filmmaking" looks like.


That's it! Feel free to add your own comments below.

This is a really good arrangement. I'd personally put Jackie Brown at #2 but otherwise I don't think I'd change it. 100% agree re: Pulp Fiction. It was absolute pivotal and you put it really well. I saw it at 16 and it changed me on a variety of levels and blew like a blast-wave through the tastes of people I knew at that age (not just young people either!). When there was a school trip the soundtrack was one of the two main CDs we were playing in the bus (the other being the Cranberries lol). TV and movies today would not be the same way without it (for better and worse).

 

[Stalker0]

For me, Hateful 8 and Once upon a time were one and dones. I enjoyed them fine enough, but I have no interest in seeing them a 2nd time. I certainly don't think Once upon a Time was the hollywood cultural icon that some have propped it up to be.

Pulp Fiction has to be the top. Its honestly not my favorite QT movie, but I can't disagree its the most cultural icon of his movies.

I think Inglorious Basterds would be my 2nd, its the most rewatchable for me and likely my personal favorite. There are certain scenes in that movie that are just so damn intense. Kill Bill would follow that (I treat them together, though if I have to judge 1 is better than 2). Django immediately after that. I haven't seen Jackie Brown so can't speak to that.

 

[Islayre d'Argolh]

10. Death Proof.

9. Inglorious Basterds.

8. Kill Bill Vol. 2.

7. Django Unchained.

6. The Hateful Eight.

5. Reservoir Dogs.

4. Pulp Fiction.

3. Kill Bill Vol. 1.

2. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

1. Jackie Brown.


FMPOV all the most recents Tarantino movies were "minor ones", higly enjoyable but not great movies.
But then came "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood".
The man still Got It (tm).
This is not a wide audience entertainment movie, this is more of a "scholar movie" but when you have the keys to understand the project, it's a masterpiece.
I put it second but for me it's very close to a tie with my all time favorite Jacky Brown.

(I also must say i always consider True Romance and From dusk till Dawn as part of Tarantino's work.)

 

[Bedrockgames]

These can definitely change over time. I generally base this on how much I rewatch the movies, so some peoples favorites may be in the higher ranks.


10. Death Proof: Reserving right to shift my view on this one but I just couldn't sink into this one the way I did with his other movies

9. Django Unchained: I enjoyed it but I have only ever wanted to see it once.

8. Jackie Brown: Arguably this could be higher, even number one, I just don't like rewatching it much, and it is so outside of his normal style). To be clear, I could put this close to the top three if I were just basing the list on craft, performance and Tarantino stretching himself as a director. But it would be dishonest of me to put it there because I just don't feel a need to watch it again anytime soon.

7. Inglorious Basterds: This was a great film. It could be higher on a different day but I just haven't seen it as much as the other ones below

6. Hateful Eight: This one could be lower, maybe it should be, but I always find it a fascinating watch. I think this is his greatest mood building and atmosphere film. I like movies with despicable characters. It reminds me of a great film called Duel for Gold in that respect.

5. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: I was surprised how much I liked this movie. Ultimately his films tend towards being hangout movies, and I think that is one of the things that really makes this one work. Also the way he recreated that time and place as brilliant. And that he managed to sustain my attention and interest with seemingly mundane dialogue (like listening to Al Pacino talk about watching Rick Dalton movies) was surprising. A lot of his later movies are quite long, and most of them, even Hateful Eight or Inglorious Basterds are a little harder for me to sit down for a rewatch with as a result. But I don't mind how long Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is.

4. Reservoir Dogs: This movie has a ton of rewatch value for me. It is also very stripped down compared to the other films, and relies almost entirely on the dialogue (which I think has always been his strong suit). This one is more like a chamber piece

3. Pulp Fiction: Again the rewatch value is big on this one, plus you really notice more and more each time you watch it. This was the first Tarantino movie I saw, as I didn't see Reservoir Dogs until after this one was released.

2. Kill Bill Vol 1: Without question my favorite movies are the kill bills. I love martial arts films, I think he added something very interesting to the genre, but also created a brilliant homage to classic movies in it (and he introduced many people to those classic movies through it). These movies also straddle a really fine line in terms of tone. It makes a lot of choices that could have gone sideways for me as a viewer (whether it is the humor, the styling, and even things like the decision to include an extended animation sequence). But I find the Kill Bill's deeply immerse me in this martial world he has created

1. Kill Bill Vol 2: This is absolutely my favorite Tarantino film. I could watch it all day long. I love the shift in pacing and focus on character from the first movie to this one. You need both for that to work and the moment I noticed that shift, I fell in love with this movie. And the ending is just wonderful.

 

[Bedrockgames]

.... okay. This cannot be left unremarked upon.

There's a story I use. I was eating at a Japanese restaurant on a date; at another table was a boisterous group of younger individuals. At one point, one of the individuals who was loudly trying to impress the rest of the table about his knowledge of Japanese cuisine (which seemed to go a little further than the California roll, but not as far as sashimi or udon) started talking about how much he loved sushi and Japanese food, and how much better it was than the terribly pretentious food at other places.

At that point, he said, "What have the French ever done for world cuisine, anyway?" Not with irony, either.

That's become kind of an joke with people I know moving forward- the idea that people get so enthusiastic about something that they don't realize the things they still don't know.

I think that food (like most tastes) has both a subjective and an objective component, but we tend to confuse the two things. For example, a dish can be made well or poorly, the ingredients can be fresh or off, the price is what it is and so on.

It's the same with film. A person can like, or dislike, Wes Anderson, or P.T. Anderson, or Kubrick, or Tarantino. Heck, a person can watch Citizen Kane and say, "Eh, I don't get the fuss. What has Orson Welles ever done for cinema, anyway?"

And that's fine! But I have to draw the line when people say that they aren't good filmmakers. They may not be to your taste, but there is a reason that they are so important. Tarantino's movies are amazing in many ways, and I could write (OH I CAN WRITE!) about the dialogue, the music, the cinematography, the playful homage, the deeper themes, and the postmodern use of low and high culture. I can wax eloquently about how some of it is so smart, and some of it is so dumb that it actually circles back to being smart.

But in the end, if it's not for you, it's not for you. That doesn't mean that it's not important, and that Tarantino is not one of the best and most important directors of our lifetime.

I am very much with you here. I get why some people might not like him. There are great directors I am not that into. But the man literally changed cinema. There is a bright red line of pre-Tarantino and post-Tarantino, and you can visibly tell the difference. And he is a craftsman, he makes well crafted films, his dialogue is extraordinarily good (and people can check out breakdowns of his scene on youtube where this explored in terms of the techniques he is using). The music that you hit on is also key. He makes it look easy but so many other film makers get this wrong. It isn't for everyone. His tone is often on the comedic side. And again that is really hard to do. He is threading a very fine line there. Just look at other movies from the 90s with any amount of goofiness to them and compare them to Tarantino films. His stand out as particularly well crafted. And if you have familiarity with the movies he is drawing on, the homage aspect is quite interesting (he is doing it in a very artful way). Also he continued to be relevant.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Pulp Fiction has to be the top. Its honestly not my favorite QT movie, but I can't disagree its the most cultural icon of his movies.

I didn't put it as my number one, but I agree in terms of impact it isn't a question

 

[MGibster]

I rarely see movies more than once but I went to see Pulp Fiction in theaters twice. The second time I went, there was a couple in front of me, and as we were sitting waiting for the lights to grow dim another couple walked down the aisle to the seats below us with their 3-4 year old little girl in tow. The couple in front of me observed this, and the woman turned to me and asked, "This is Pulp Fiction, right?" I looked past them at the couple with the kids, shrugged, and just said, "Yeah."