I got the idea for this on the Frostitution/Peggster boards, where we got into a debate on Jackie Brown earlier. I think it's his best for a number of reasons and I know I'm in the minority, but also that I'm not alone on that, either. (I gave the analogy that the Jackie Brown fans are like the Romero fans whose favorite is Day of the Dead - in the minority, but fierce about their opinion. )

I put Kill Bill as a single option since it was originally intended as one film.

I love them all. I'd have to say Pulp Fiction though if only to hear Samuel L Jackson say "Royale with Cheese" and of course "Ezekiel 25:17".

See, he has all my favorite lines in Jackie Brown, too.

"Damn, girl...I bet you come in here on a Saturday night, you need nigga repellant to keep them mo'fuckas off yo ass!"

As much as everyone goes on about Kill Bill and Resevoir Dogs, I think they are overated.
But, on the other hand, I flippin love Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown and they are both equally as brilliant as each other. Can't choose...

Wha...? No True Romance?

No True Romance, etc. - this is of films that he's directed only.

(If we're talking scripts, then yes....True Romance is a serious contender for the prize. :-D But there's where it gets tricky...original vs. adapted, you can't quite compare it to Jackie Brown on equal terms.)

Very, very tough choice. I'll have to think about this one. I almost lost the power to speak after seeing Reservoir Dogs and Pulp FIction for the first time, I was so blown away by them. They still stand up very well. I didn't really get Jackie Brown when I first saw it, but on repeated viewing I find it his most mature, human and affecting film. I do like Kill Bill, but it's not really in the same league.

But if thats true wouldn't that be the case for the others, too?

I would have liked to have seen True Romance in the list as I count it as my favourite Tarantino film, but I appreciate the fact that this is a DIRECTED by list only.

In which case ... I can't decide. Had you have posed this question a couple of months ago, I probably would have said Kill Bill (mainly v1) as I went through a period of wathcing that around once a week.

I guess it depends on what I'm looking for ... I love the slick action of Kill Bill, but character wise I would probably have to say Pulp Fiction.

So ... i've not voted yet, and will ponder further.

I meant to vote for Pulp Fiction, not only because it's a very good film, but it was my introduction to Q-ball. I voted for Resevoir Dogs, because I am a sleepy tard. Could I, I'd have given each a vote, though - it's difficult to qualify his films against each other, each being as they are fantabulous.

One of the most difficult polls ever.

PULP FICTION is great - was so looking forward to it I planned a holiday to New York so I could see it a few months before it came out over here

JACKIE BROWN - the most un-Tarantino of Tarantino films. Benefits from the fact that it was based on someone elses writing. Great film

KILL BILL - I personally still find it hard to believe that it really was meant to be one film, the tone of the 2 differ so much. Vol 1 is a fantastically, stupid, over the top, entertaining movie. Vol.2 a slightly disappointing.

RESERVOIR DOGS - voted for this because of the impact it first had on me - I was blown away. I must have gone to see this film about 7 times at the cinema over a period of 2 years.

As far as I am concerned he has yet to make a dud, and is one of the few, maybe even only, directors, who could sell a film on his name alone.

Have to say, I think TRUE ROMANCE is the "Tarantino" film that stands up to the most repeated viewings.

"Sicilians, were spawned by niggers."

That's pretty much my answer.

I love that whole scene in his trailer. In fact, there is nothing I DON'T love about that film!!

Do we know WHY Tarantino didn't direct that one?

Reservoir Dogs,

im glad to see no ones voted for kill bill, its so rubbish

Nah

It's not his best film but it's far from rubbish. I loved it.

I agree with Whitey - its definitely not rubbish in my opinion. I could quite happily watch it at any given moment.

I was torn between Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs but I went for the latter, possibly because I was young when I first saw it and had never really seen anything like it. Jackie Brown just didn't grab me as much as either of them and I wasn't a massive Kill Bill fan but I didn't think it was rubbish either.

Reservoir Dogs for me, with Kill Bill a very close second.

I guess what I love about RD is the fact it`s so...simple. Heist goes wrong, the bad guys panic, and try to find out who ratted them out. I love that. It harks back to 1940s films, albeit with a heck of a lot more violence, and swearing.

It's between Pulp Fiction and Resevoir Dogs for me.

Fiction wins because I've always felt that Dogs has a slightly stagey edge to it.

Tempted as i am to go for Jackie Brown just to be different i know deep down i love Pulp Fiction more.

Being a huge Tarantino I agree that all of hims films are watchable at any time. I am rarely not in the mood for any of his films. However I am including some of his other projects:

Four Rooms
True Romance
From Dusk Till Dawn

et al.

Oooh, splitta hair! You know what I mean. (i.e. having a very specific source material, i.e. the Elmore Leonard book.)

(looks at results thusfar) My theory proven...

I didn't include the non-directorial efforts because I wanted to see what everyone's opinion was of the core films, the ones he's well and truly got his name on. In many ways, True Romance is pure Tony Scott, even though the script is pure QT and like I said before, possibly his best.

No, I think i'm just confused. I thought Jackie Brown was the only adapted one and that you didn't want to compare orginal and adapted, but it's included... oh, I think it'll just be best if i shut up now...

"He ripped it off"

I've read Leonard's book, but i thought Jackie Brown was the only one of Tarantino's movie to have been adapted from another soure, and therefore would be the odd one out.

I'll never tire of hearing that.

It could be argued that RESERVOIR DOGS was adapted as well, seeing that its resemblence to the Hong Kong film City On Fire is a little more than uncanny.

On the subject of KILL BILL, I know a lot of people that hate it, and I can understand why. Its one of those "love it or hate it" films. One reason I love it is because it subscribes to the following equation

WOMEN + SWORDS + KUNG-FU = GOOD


No mention of NATURAL BORN KILLERS. It gets a slagging (mainly by Tarantino), but I think its a great film. After reading the original screenplay, I think its much better than it would have been if it stayed close to the source material. Worth seeing for the breakneck editing. And the Trent Reznor soundtrack is one of the best.

I'd say all of his films have some degree of unoriginality to them; his "references and homages" to both cult and popular films often tend to be more integral and widespread than they would in most films.

I can't say I've read Rum Punch, so I don't know to what degree he changed it, but Jackie Brown tends to be ascribed status of more "original adaptation" than the standard "screenplay" credit given to most adaptations. Tarantino gets the writing credit for JB, so I'd say it's as original as his others, which are the products of the mind of a film geek who worked in a video store.

I forget my point.


EDIT: The heat slows my typings...

And on NBK, I've been working up the courage to see that again since I watched it when I was very, very stoned, and it absolutely terrified me to the point of curling into a ball and screaming into a cushion.

That one with the blood, you know, and the gun . . .

Yeah, that's a good one...

Yeah, that's pretty true, actually. Basically he took the central premise and the caper and transplanted it to his world; moved it from Florida to the South Bay region of LA (justified as "I don't really know anything about Florida, but I know my home"....and boy does he. OK, find, it's my home too, so I'm partial. Meh!) Also, Jackie in the book is Jackie Burke, and she's white; Quentin made the switch in order to make it a vehicle for Pam Grier. (Funny trivia: he had previously almost cast her in Pulp Fiction in the Rosanna Arquette part. But Eric Stoltz was already cast and "nobody bought the idea of Pam taking any shit from Eric." LOL)

Oh yeah! In fact I feel that a lot of his work is more a collage made from other people's work. It's a art form that become quite popular.

i want to vote for the itchy and scratchy episode he guest directed

I say Pulp Fiction, mainly due to the contribution of Christopher Walken. "This watch....my ass". Classic

I voted for Kill Bill, just to be awkward. But I also felt it deserved a vote - I really enjoyed it, despite the varied reception it had from critics and fans alike. It was a bold move splitting it into two radically different films, and I also didn't go along with the 'style over substance' viewpoints that were banded about upon its release - I thought it was just a superb cinematic experience. And the soundtrack was cool, too.

All of Tarantino's films are brilliant in my opinion, so it was a damn tough call. I'm sure I may regret making the decision in due course, though... I so very nearly picked Pulp Fiction.

Had to add my vote for Reservior Dogs... sheer genius!

Very nice to see Pulp Fiction inching ahead. Although it was definitely going to be my #1 I was convinced that Reservoir Dogs was going to be more popular on this forum.

I had real trouble choosing between them. I watched Reservoir Dogs more recently (and it is a work of brilliance), but I felt that on general calibre Pulp Fiction edges it. Mainly, as I said, for Walken and 'the Bonnie situation' with the Wolf and QT talking funny ("Do you see a sign on the front of my house that says 'Dead Nigger Storage'?", the coffee speech). That may also be because I think the charcter of Jimy is fantastic.

There is a lot to weigh up. On one hand you have the films openings, both in diners and both with some very witty dialogue. One ends on a high (Pulp Fiction), the other closes smoothly and leads into one of the most memorable opening credits of all time (Reservoir Dogs). Then some excellent film making ensues with plenty of great lines on both sides. I'd probably pick either the classic Buscemi scene, where he refuses to be Mr Pink, or the Madsen "stuck in the middle with you". From Pulp, there are far too many... but that's only my opinion.

Walken and the watch.
Ezekiel.
Royale with Cheese.
Foot Massage/We Should have shotguns for this shit.
Zeds dead.

etc.

I voted for pulp fiction - because it was the first one i saw and it set me off to see the rest of tarantino's films (which are fantastic ), and gave me a real love of cinema and an admiration for the way films are directed.

*feeling vulnerable, yet cocky about still being the only Jackie Brown vote*

Great film, but I would really like to hear the argument for it being better than Pulp Fiction, or ever Reservoir Dogs, - something which it really isn't in my mind.

Because as Chap Bax said so well, it's his most mature, human and affecting film. He takes a wonderfully written character, reshapes her for Pam Grier and refrains from making her a caricature of Pam Grier's film roles that he grew up with. Jackie is a very real, older, struggling woman with real problems and the way she deals with an extraordinary opportunity is conistently surprising and riveting. The same goes on every level for Max Cherry. (Robert Forster is brilliant.) Also, the fact that though it might not hit home the first time out, on subsequent viewings you really realize what he's doing taking his sweet time setting everyone and everything up. While his previous films are paced back and forth between thrills and lulls, this is a slow burn. The scene where Ordell deals with Beaumont might on the surface seem a mite pointless and an excuse to have Chris Tucker doing his...well, his Chris Tucker thing. But it's so very important, because after watching him comically going on and on about how much he knows about guns while Melanie takes the piss out of him, it's setting you up to be terrified of Ordell for the rest of the movie, as Jackie is though she tries not to show it. She's tough, but does she really have what it takes to try and cheat someone SPOILER: who would spend $10,000 to bail out a guy just so he could put a bullet in his head and make sure he doesn't talk? All the players, their motives and their agendas are painstakingly built up so that when the shit hits the fan, if you've been observing them closely, it really hits home. (SPOILER: The scene were Melanie badgers, needles, badgers, needles Louis until he finally shoots her made me fly three inches off my seat. "I'm sorry, Louis..."... BANG! Jesus. .)

And that's another thing: Louis. My GOD. Possibly DeNiro's last great performance, and certainly one of his best.

ETA I'm not saying I don't love Res Dogs and Pulp Fiction for their own merits. I just prefer Jackie Brown. ;-)

*feeling slightly less vulnerable about no longer being the only Kill Bill vote...*

So who else put their neck out? Come on, own up!

Only one vote doesn't make it unliked though. I think its a fantastic film.
But I think True Romance is more a Tarantino film, than Jackie Brown is.
I think JB has the elements that make Tarantino films so recogniseable, but more understated. Its a good film for those that think he's all gimmick...its his "straightest" film.

When I first saw it I just thought "that was a great film", mainly because he took me by surprise by it.

Fave bits - "Across 110th street" and DeNiro - even when not doing much he is brilliant - felt more for that character than the one's with so many more lines and screentime.

Exactly. He's like a child, after being in the joint for four years he's discovering the world all over again. And most of the time, he really has no fucking clue how to deal with it. Poor sod.

"Across 110th Street" is glorious. As is The Delfonics; Max singing along in his car makes me smile like a loon.

I already fessed up that all the very specific LA/South Bay references make me a smidgen impartial, too, right? Not to mention having the Cockatoo Inn in Hawthorne preserved on film for all time. (That really was a swank li'l watering hole. I only got go to there once before they went under.)

'Reservoir Dogs' by a country mile.

That is all.

Hmmm tough one this.... Guess ill go for Pulp Fiction because of the coolness of it all.