Quentin Jerome Tarantino (March 27, 1963) is an American filmmaker and actor. His films are characterized by nonlinear storylines, aestheticization of violence, extended scenes of dialogue, ensemble casts, references to popular culture and a wide variety of other films, soundtracks primarily containing songs and score pieces from the 1960s to the 1980s, alternate history, and features of neo-noir film.
He began his career as an independent filmmaker in 1992 with the release of Reservoir Dogs (with Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, and Lawrence Tierney), which was funded by money from the sale of his script True Romance (directed by Tony Scott). Empire deemed Reservoir Dogs the “Greatest Independent Film of All Time”. His second film, Pulp Fiction (with John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Christopher Walken, and Bruce Willis), a comedy crime film released in 1994, was a major success both among critics and audiences. He also wrote the screenplay for and starred in the vampire film From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), with George Clooney, Keitel, Juliette Lewis, and Salma Hayek. He paid homage to the blaxploitation films of the 1970s with Jackie Brown (1997), an adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s novel Rum Punch, starring Pam Grier, Jackson, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton, and Robert De Niro.
Kill Bill (with Thurman and David Carradine), a highly stylized “revenge flick” in the cinematic traditions of kung fu films, Japanese martial arts, and spaghetti westerns, followed six years later, and was released as two films: Volume 1 in 2003 and Volume 2 in 2004. He next directed the exploitation slasher film Death Proof in 2007, as part of a double feature with Robert Rodriguez, released in the tradition of grindhouse cinema of the 1970s under the collective title Grindhouse. His long-postponed Inglourious Basterds (with Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger and Mélanie Laurent), which tells an alternate history of Nazi Germany, was released in 2009 to critical acclaim. After that came the critically acclaimed Django Unchained (2012), with Jamie Foxx, Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, and Jackson; a western film set in the Antebellum South. His eighth film, The Hateful Eight (2015), was released in its roadshow version in 70 mm film format, with opening “overture” and halfway-point intermission. His ninth film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, an alternate history of the Tate–LaBianca murders, was released in 2019. It featured DiCaprio, Pitt, Margo Robbie, and Al Pacino.
Tarantino’s films have garnered both critical and commercial success as well as a dedicated cult-following. He has received many industry awards, including two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globe Awards and the Palme d’Or, and has been nominated for an Emmy and five Grammys. In 2005, he was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. Filmmaker and historian Peter Bogdanovich has called him “the single most influential director of his generation”. In December 2015, Tarantino received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the film industry.
Each review will be linked to the title below.
(*seen originally in theaters)
(**seen rereleased in theaters)
- My Best Friend’s Birthday (1987) – partially lost, actor
- Reservoir Dogs (1992)** – actor
- True Romance (1993) – directed by Tony Scott – writer
- Pulp Fiction (1994)** – actor
- Natural Born Killers (1994) – directed by Oliver Stone – story
- Four Rooms (1995) – directed with Allison Anders, Alexander Rockwell, & Robert Rodriguez – anthology
- From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) – directed by Robert Rodriguez- writer, actor
- Jackie Brown (1997)
- Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)*
- Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)*
- Sin City (2005)* – directed by Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller – guest directed one scene
- Grindhouse (2007)* – double feature, directed and photographed Death Proof, actor in both films
- Inglourious Basterds (2009)*
- Django Unchained (2012)* – actor
- The Hateful Eight (2015)* – narrator
- Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood (2019)*
That Geek With The Clip-Ons 