Legendary auteur Quentin Tarantino is known for his two primary fetishes: feet and films. A true lover of cinema, Tarantino has become a phenomenon in his own right, having won various awards and accolades due to his unimaginable impact and contribution to cinema.
However, the auteur still considers himself “a student of cinema” and has equated his graduation day to “the day [I] die”. Quirky, unapologetic and unabashed in his works, he is the king of violence, bloodshed and controversy. His oeuvre is a focal point of study among cinephiles and some of his most famed works include Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Django Unchained, Kill Bill, Jackie Brown and more.
A fanboy of iconic filmmakers like Sergio Leone and Martin Scorsese, Tarantino’s most recent release, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, was his romantic and nostalgic homage to the cinema industry he adores. With Tarantino suggesting it may be his penultimate film, it is a perfect curtain call to his illustrious career.
A film fanatic, Tarantino has always appreciated the works of his contemporaries, namely Bong Joon-ho, Christopher Nolan and more.
If you are looking for film suggestions, then let the poster child of filmmaking and cinephilia guide you! On the auteur’s birthday, let us take a look at five of his favourite films on Netflix.
Watch 5 of Quentin Tarantino’s favourite films on Netflix
Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, 1993)
Tarantino called Linklater’s coming-of-age comedy one of the top ten films of all time that abounds in goofs and nostalgia of the bygone times. Now a distinguished cult classic, the film has a massive fanbase who revel in the idiosyncratic humour of the diverse group of Texan high school students in the film as they lead their lives with fun and frolic, indulging in weed, romance and more.
The film’s brilliant cast featured Ben Affleck and Matthew McConaughey among others. McConaughey, in particular, rose to prominence with Linklater’s masterpiece, becoming an iconic figure as the sleazy sideman whose popular one-liner “Alright, alright, alright!” transcended the film to become an essential part of pop culture.
Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999)
The depressed and insomniac Narrator meets the enigmatic Tyler Durden on a plane and moves into the latter’s dilapidated house after his residence is destroyed in an explosion. Together, they start an underground fight club where men fight away from their frustration and woes. However, with the arrival of the beautiful Marla, their brotherhood comes to a disastrous end.
Provocative, feral and unsettling, the vivid narrative of Fincher’s classic uses a thorough satire as it scandalously suggests violence as an escape from the daily grime. A celebrated cult classic, Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter deliver brilliant performances in this searing critique of capitalism, anarchy, castration and social morality.
Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
Tarantino is a self-proclaimed Martin Scorsese fanboy. However, can we really blame him for drooling over Scorsese’s magnificent masterpiece, Taxi Driver, starring Robert De Niro at his absolute best? Tarantino even said that the character of Travis Bickle is “the greatest first-person character study ever committed to film.” we cannot help but agree as we revel in the brilliance of this jarring and nightmarish masterpiece that saw intense dialogic exchanges and sublime cinematography.
Vietnam war veteran Travis Bickle leads a lonely and desolate life as a taxi driver in morally bankrupt New York City. Disgusted by the moral degradation amidst forced prostitution, corruption and general dysfunction, Travis’ descent into madness, frenzy and violence marks the beginning of a harrowing film.
The Host (Bong Joon-ho, 2006)
Bong Joon-ho and Tarantino have had an amicable understanding of one another. Tarantino was mindblown by Joon-ho’s sci-fi film which managed to become a social critique. Via the film, Bong raises pertinent questions about the position of the financially weak who are devoid of power and their position in society in the wake of disastrous calamities.
Tarantino summed up the film and showered it with praises, talking about how the South Korean filmmaker had recreated the genre. “In the U.S., scientists, soldiers and muscular superheroes fight against monsters, but in [The Host] a Korean family, a messed up, really idiotic one at that, fights the monster”, Tarantino said. “It’s funny because the whole idea that a family, not just any family, but a weird, fucked up family like in The Host would be the stars is unfathomable in the U.S. or any country. That is recreating the genre.”
There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)
Quentin Tarantino said that this was “one of the best movies made in this decade”. This Academy Award-winning film is Paul Thomas Anderson’s magnum opus as it takes the viewers on a harrowing and remorseless journey that is made further daunting by Johnny Greenwood’s haunting original compositions in the backdrop. The film is a brilliant and intimate exploration of ambition and extreme hunger for success.
Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Dillon Freasier and others, the film is based on Upton Sinclair’s 1927 Oil!. Day-Lewis portrays a ruthless mercenary oilman whose relentless drive for success compels him to move forward. He does not stop his quest to become an oil mogul on anything, even at the cost of manipulating his own adopted son.
