You'll Never Guess Quentin Tarantino's Least Favorite Movie
The phrase "Quentin Tarantino's worst film" may sound like an oxymoron, because what could be more contradictory?
But for one of the best directors of all time, it is a legitimate one.
Tarantino once revealed that there was one film in his career that he felt was the worst, and that film was Death Proof.
"Death Proof has got to be the worst movie I ever made", the director told The Hollywood Reporter during the 2012 annual round table chat that also featured Ang Lee, Tom Hooper, and Gus Van Sant.
"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. But I do think one of those out-of-touch, old, limp, flaccid-dick movies costs you three good movies as far as your rating is concerned," Tarantino concluded.
Death Proof is a thriller about a stuntman who kills young women with modified cars, starring Kurt Russell and Rosario Dawson.
It was released as part of the 2007 double feature Grindhouse, which Quentin Tarantino co-produced with Robert Rodriguez. The general consensus is that Rodriguez's pulp horror Planet Terror, about a group of survivors fighting zombie-like creatures, is much better. Death Proof has a 65% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which may justify Tarantino's assessment of it as his worst film.
Back in 2012, Tarantino stated that he wanted to "go out with a great filmography." It is common knowledge that he only wants to make 10 films, because he believes that the quality of the films one can direct diminishes over time.
If we follow his logic, the older the director, the worse his films become. Tarantino wants to be remembered for his legacy as someone who made good films.
The truth is that he actually has 10 films in his filmography, with the latest, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, being film number 10. But the filmmaker says he has one more to go.
Tarantino only counts 9 himself:
- Reservoir Dogs (1992),
- Pulp Fiction (1994),
- Jackie Brown (1997),
- Kill Bill (2003/2004),
- Death Proof (2007),
- Inglourious Basterds (2009),
- Django Unchained (2012),
- The Hateful Eight (2015) and the one mentioned above.
Bear in mind that from Tarantino's perspective, Kill Bill is one film (and what would he say about the James Bond franchise, eh?).
Quentin Tarantino has recently been in the spotlight after sharing his thoughts on superhero movies. In an interview with the LA Times, he said that filmmakers "can't wait for the day when superhero movies fall out of favour" and described Bambi as a traumatising film that he shouldn't have seen as a child.