Quentin Tarantino's Ultimate Movie List: The 6 Films He Thinks Are Perfect
He's never been shy about bashing movies he hates, but Quentin Tarantino is just as willing to talk about movies he loves.
Last October, he made an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live to talk while promoting his new book Cinema Speculation, described as a mix of memoir, film history, and film theory.
In the book, he referred to the 1974 cult classic slasher Texas Chainsaw Massacre as "one of the few perfect movies ever made."
Kimmel brings up that point in the interview, leading Tarantino to list the following six movies that he thinks are perfect:
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
- Jaws
- The Exorcist (1973)
- Annie Hall
- Young Frankenstein
- Back to the Future
Tarantino also began to include the 1969 western The Wild Bunch, but quickly rescinded it. He made sure to say he wasn't disparaging the film, as its "imperfections are part of its glory."
Young Frankenstein was seemingly the closest to not making the cut. Tarantino said some would include it in their list of perfect movies, an inclusion he could understand.
He explained that to be "perfect," you have to take every audience's aesthetics into account.
A perfect movie will appease all aesthetics in some way. Even if one isn't a fan of these six perfect movies, there's no denying their greatness. He added that the low number of "perfect movies" is evidence of the difficulty filmmakers face in their craft.
While the horror genre takes up half of his list, there's a decent mix of different film styles included. Different forms for different tastes, but the two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker believes each of these films is perfect in its own way.
He'd previously called Jaws the best movie ever made. It was a "natural born filmmaker genius" [Steven Spielberg] who would do anything to bring his exact vision of the film to the screen.
Tarantino had previously gone on Kimmel to dazzle the audience with his knowledge of film history. Kimmel read the VHS box description of a movie and Tarantino would guess the title. He didn't get every one right, but the clip is still incredible. He'd rattle off directors and casts and logically go through the possibilities, showing the deep mastery of his craft's history.
The cinephile worked at a video store before he began creating his own films, reportedly only hired because of that extensive knowledge of film history. If anyone's list of "perfect movies" is to be trusted, it's from the likes of Quentin Tarantino.