Director Case Study: Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino

"To me, movies and music go hand in hand. When I'm writing a script, one of the first things I do is find the music I'm going to play for the opening sequence."

Quentin Tarantino is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, and actor. His films are characterized by nonlinear storylines, satirical subject matter, an aestheticization of violence and gore, extended scenes of dialogue, utilization of ensemble casts consisting of established and lesser-known performers, references to popular culture, soundtracks primarily containing songs and score pieces from the 1960s to the 1980s, and features of neo-noir film.



In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with the release of 'Reservoir Dogs' in 1992; regarded as a classic and cult hit, it was called the "Greatest Independent Film of All Time" by Empire. Its popularity was boosted by his second film, 'Pulp Fiction' (1994), a black comedy crime film that was a major success both among critics and audiences. Judged the greatest film from 1983–2008 by Entertainment Weekly, many critics and scholars have named it one of the most significant works of modern cinema. For his next film, Tarantino paid homage to the blaxploitation films of the 1970s with 'Jackie Brown' (1997), an adaptation of the novel Rum Punch.

'Kill Bill', a highly stylized "revenge flick"  followed six years later, and was released as two films: Volume 1 in 2003 and Volume 2 in 2004. His long-postponed 'Inglourious Basterds', which tells the fictional alternate history story of two plots to assassinate Nazi Germany's political leadership, was released in 2009 to positive reviews. In 2012, he released the critically acclaimed 'Django Unchained', a Western film set in the Deep South. It became the highest-grossing film of his career so far, making over $425 million at the box office. His eighth film, the mystery Western 'The Hateful Eight', was released in its roadshow version December 25, 2015, in 70 mm film format, complete with opening "overture" and halfway-point intermission, after the fashion of big-budget films of the 1960s and early 1970s.

Tarantino often uses graphic violence that has proven seductive to audiences, and he has been harshly criticized for his use of gore and blood in an entrancing yet simultaneously repulsive way. His films have been staunchly criticized and scorned for their use of violence, blood, and action as a "color" within cinema, and rebuked for allegedly using human suffering as a punchline.


Tarantino has built up an informal "repertory company" of actors who have appeared in multiple roles in films that he has directed. Most notable of these is Samuel L. Jackson, who has appeared in six films directed by Tarantino, and a seventh that was written by him, True Romance. Other frequent collaborators include Uma Thurman, whom Tarantino has described as his "muse", and Tim Roth and Zoë Bell.