Quentin Tarantino Reveals Why ‘Pulp Fiction’ Isn’t His Greatest Movie: ‘I Didn’t Know What I Was Doing’
It’s the discussion that you’d overhear in movie rental stores or on film nerd forums: Is Jackie Brown better than The Hateful Eight? Is Reservoir Dogs a more complete film than Pulp Fiction? Which part of Kill Bill is superior? And, ultimately, what is Quentin Tarantino‘s best movie?
Now Tarantino, 62, has weighed in on the debate. And he doesn’t think Pulp Fiction, the 1994 film that won him his first Oscar and made him one of the most famous directors in the world, is anywhere near his best.
Looking back on his career on the Aug. 15 episode of The Church of Tarantino podcast, Tarantino recalled that “The only thing that bites my a** is just a few little shots in both Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction just because I didn’t know what the f*** I was doing. So there’s just amateur s*** in both of those movies, because I didn’t know what the f*** I was doing. So there’s amateur s*** in there that I feel bad about. Not a lot of it, I think both of those movies are fantastic, obviously, I love them, but I’m just a pro now, and I was just a f******* rookie, and I didn’t know what I didn’t know.”
The director lists equipment in the shot and the shadow of a boom mike as some of the flubs that make those films less enjoyable for him: “It takes you at least two movies to figure out how to do it.”
Miramax Films/Courtesy Everett Collection.
So which of his movies measure up?
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is my favorite,” Tarantino said. The 2019 movie features Leonardo DiCaprio as a former Western TV star, Brad Pitt as an out-of-work stuntman, and Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate. As the title implies, it’s a fantasy with fictional versions of historical figures like Tate, Bruce Lee, Steve McQueen and the Charles Manson family. Pitt’s role won him the Best Supporting Actor award at the 2020 Academy Awards.
While Tarantino said Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is his “favorite” movie, he considered Inglourious Basterds to be his best movie.
“But I think Kill Bill is the ultimate Quentin movie, like nobody else could’ve made it,” he added. “Every aspect about it is so particularly ripped…from my imagination and my id and my loves and my passion and my obsession.”
“So I think Kill Bill is the movie I was born to make, I think Inglourious Basterds is my masterpiece, but Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is my favorite,” he added.
Though the split is not so clean-cut. Tarantino said that while Inglourious Basterds—his historical fictional epic set in World War II—has the best script, he thinks The Hateful Eight and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood are “right behind” in quality. The debate rages on.
There will be a sequel to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood focused on Brad Pitt’s character, dubbed The Adventures of Cliff Booth. Tarantino, who has vowed to retire after making his 10th film, passed on shooting it because he was “unenthused” about his career ending with a sequel. Instead, Pitt will reunite with David Fincher (Fight Club), who will direct the film instead.