Quentin Tarantino has revealed which of his films he thinks is his best, which is his favorite and which one he believes he was “born to make.”
During a two-hour appearance on the “Church of Tarantino” podcast, the filmmaker discussed a wide range of topics, including why “Se7en” director David Fincher is directing the “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” sequel he wrote instead of him. He also explained why, of all of his films, he holds “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” “Kill Bill” and “Inglourious Basterds” in particularly high esteem.
“‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ is my favorite, ‘Inglourious Basterds’ is my best,” Tarantino said of his greatest hits. “But I think ‘Kill Bill’ is the ultimate Quentin movie, like nobody else could’ve made it. Every aspect [of] it is so particularly ripped, like with tentacles and bloody tissue, from my imagination and my id and my loves and my passion and my obsession.”
“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,” Tarantino concluded.
Over the course of his 30-year career, Tarantino has won only two Oscars, both of which were Original Screenplay awards for writing the scripts for “Django Unchained” and “Pulp Fiction.” It should, consequently, come as no surprise that Tarantino also has some very specific opinions about his screenplays, which he enthusiastically shared on “The Church of Tarantino.”
“I think ‘Inglourious Basterds’ is my best script, and I think ‘Hateful Eight’ and ‘Once Upon a Time In Hollywood’ are right behind,” Tarantino revealed. “But there’s an aspect of ‘Hateful Eight’ that I actually think is probably my best directing of my material, i.e., the material is written and it’s solid. So it’s not like I have to create it, like ‘Kill Bill,’ it’s solid, it’s right there and I actually think it’s my best servicing [of] my material as a director.”
In the same episode, the writer-director explained why he decided to let Fincher direct “The Adventures of Cliff Booth,” his “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” sequel starring Brad Pitt.
“I love this script, but I’m still walking down the same ground I’ve already walked,” Tarantino revealed. “It just kind of unenthused me. This last movie, I’ve got to not know what I’m doing again. I’ve got to be in uncharted territory.”
That, it turns out, is the same reason why the filmmaker also chose not to make his shelved script “The Movie Critic” his last feature effort as a director. “I wasn’t really excited about dramatizing what I wrote when I was in pre-production,” Tarantino said.
“‘The Movie Critic,’ there was nothing to figure out,” he added. “It was too much like the last one.”
It is, as of this writing, unclear when Tarantino will finally sit down in the director’s chair again for his highly anticipated, planned 10th and final film.
