If You Haven't Seen These 20 Tarantino Picks, You're Watching Movies Wrong
If you want to know as much about film history as Tarantino, these are the 20 movies you need to see.
Whether you like Quentin Tarantino 's wild and idiosyncratic approach to filmmaking or not, it's hard to deny that his work has made an immeasurable contribution to the development of pop culture as we know it today. But none of this would be the case if Tarantino weren't arguably one of the biggest movie buffs in the modern film industry. So if you haven't seen these 20 movies personally recommended by Quentin Tarantino, we suggest you do so as soon as possible!
20 Great Movies Tarantino Recommends Watching
20. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948, Dir. Charles Barton, IMDb rating: 7.3/10)
19. Apocalypse Now (1979, Dir. Francis Ford Coppola, IMDb rating: 8.4/10)
18. The Bad News Bears (1976, Dir. Michael Ritchie, IMDb rating: 7.3/10)
17. Black Sabbath (1963, Dir. Mario Bava, IMDb rating: 7.0/10)
16. Dazed and Confused (1993, Dir. Richard Linklater, IMDb rating: 7.6/10)
15. Deep Red (1975, Dir. Dario Argento, IMDb rating: 7.5/10)
14. Easy Rider (1969, Dir. Dennis Hopper, IMDb rating: 7.2/10)
13. Enter the Void (2009, Dir. Gaspar Noé, IMDb rating: 7.2/10)
12. Frances Ha (2012, Dir. Noah Baumbach, IMDb rating: 7.4/10)
11. The Great Escape (1963, Dir. John Sturges, IMDb rating: 8.2/10)
10. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015, Dir. George Miller, IMDb rating: 8.1/10)
9. Rio Bravo (1959, Dir. Howard Hawks, IMDb rating: 8.0/10)
8. The Skin I Live In (2011, Dir. Pedro Almodóvar, IMDb rating: 7.6/10)
7. The Social Network (2010, Dir. David Fincher, IMDb rating: 7.8/10)
6. Sorcerer (1977, Dir. William Friedkin, IMDb rating: 7.7/10)
5. There Will Be Blood (2007, Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, IMDb rating: 8.2/10)
4. Top Gun: Maverick (2022, Dir. Joseph Kosinski, IMDb rating: 8.2/10)
3. Toy Story 3 (2010, Dir. Lee Unkrich, IMDb rating: 8.3/10)
2. Unfaithfully Yours (1948, Dir. Preston Sturges, IMDb rating: 7.5/10)
1. West Side Story (2021, Dir. Steven Spielberg, IMDb rating: 7.1/10)
The filmmaker's oeuvre is characterized by a reflection on American and global entertainment, and as a result, his films are built on crowd-pleasing formulas, full of both classic movie tropes and recognizable references to iconic films.
As we can see, while Tarantino does not hide his passion for the classic cinema of the last century, with films directed by Howard Hawks, John Sturges, Dennis Hopper, Francis Ford Coppola and others, he also does not shy away from some modern works.
From Paul Thomas Anderson's old-fashioned western There Will Be Blood to one of the best biopics of our time, David Fincher's The Social Network, from Gaspar Noé's philosophical and surreal Enter the Void to Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig's comedy-drama Frances Ha, from the relatively recent West Side Story to Top Gun: Maverick. All of these films from the last two decades are considered true masterpieces. It was also a pleasant surprise that Tarantino even included an animated film, Toy Story 3, one of Pixar's most successful projects ever.
Also, among all the genre diversity that Quentin Tarantino presents in his list of favorite movies, there is a huge amount of horrors: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, the giallo films of Dario Argento and Mario Bava, modern experimental horror movies. Mario Bava's Black Sabbath, by the way, is revered not only by Tarantino, but also by another equally famous cinephile, Guillermo del Toro.
Gaspar Noé is considered one of the most controversial and bizarre directors of our time, and you'll likely agree with this description if you've seen his movies. Technically, Noé's works are not horror movies, but what the narrative often leads to, complete with graphic scenes, is well within the boundaries of the genre, delving into the nature of the human psyche and transcendence beyond our physicality. It is not an easy, but definitely rewarding watch.