Quentin Tarantino’s Top 20 Films of the Past 17 Years
Regardless of whether or not you think Quentin Tarantino is an egomaniac and regardless of whether or not you’re a fan of his films, one of the things you have to love about him is the fact that he’s kind of a fanboy in his own right. Let’s face it: the guy simply loves film, and he’s probably watched more movies (both obscure and mainstream) than just about anyone else on the planet. It’s always interesting to hear him talk passionately about the movies that he loves, as witnessed in the recent Oz-ploitation documentary Not Quite Hollywood, for example.
Recently, as part of the promotion for his upcoming film Inglourious Basterds (which hits theatres this weekend), he recorded a short video for Sky Movies talking about his Top 20 films of the past 17 years — that is, his favourite movies that have been released since he first started directing his own flicks. Any surprises? Well, it’s kind of surprising that he managed to narrow it down to just 20, but beyond that, I certainly didn’t expect him to be a fan of Team America: World Police! Cool. Check out the full list and the video embedded after the jump.
Battle Royale
Anything Else
Audition
Tsui Hark’s The Blade
Boogie Nights
Dazed & Confused
Dogville
Fight Club
Fridays
The Host
The Insider
Joint Security Area
Lost In Translation
The Matrix
Memories of Murder
Supercop (Police Story 3)
Shaun of the Dead
Speed
Team America: World Police
Unbreakable
Comments (31)
Props for picking Shyamalan, massive anti-props for making fun of his name.
Posted by Henrik on August 17th, 2009I finally agree with Henrik! very passive aggressive for old Q-tip-o-re-o
Posted by rus in chicago on August 17th, 2009Yeah, asian movies FTW.
I’ve seen Battle Royale, The Host and Joint Security Area.
The first one is forgetable (in my opinion wich is of course unworthy in comparison) but The Host and espacially Joint Security Area are amazing films.
Other great asian moovies that just randomly come to my mind and were kickass:
Posted by Joe Cock on August 17th, 2009- Bangkok Dangerous (the original one of course)
- Infernal Affairs
- every single Takeshi Kitano Film but espacially
– Brother
– Violent Cop
– Dolls
– Zatoichi-The Blind Samurai
I agree with the choices of “Unbreakable”, “The Matrix”, and especially “The Host”.
Posted by Matt Keith on August 17th, 2009same list as me and im 14. but he forgot twister.
Posted by kris on August 17th, 2009I would have put “The End of Evangelion”, “Gojira”, “Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris”, “Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children Complete”, “Watchmen”, “The Dark Knight”, “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” on my list of top films.
Kris,
I agree. “Twister” was awesome.
Posted by Matt Keith on August 17th, 2009@Matt Keith: T2 came out 19 yrs ago.
Surprised Tarantino didn’t include The Fifth Element or The Professional!!1
Posted by Ryan M. on August 17th, 2009Wow… this has to be some sort of wierd inside joke between him and his friends or something.
Speed? Really?
Posted by Shut-Up Ed on August 17th, 2009Supercop? Come on dude.
Ah, another site reported he said Blade, but I’m glad to see it was actually The Blade. One of my favorite films of the past twenty years as well.
And I hope you guys are joking about Twister.
Posted by Rusty James on August 17th, 2009Ryan,
LOl, my bad I didn’t see that about it being in the last 17 years….oh well That would be my list for best films ever made period.
Posted by Matt Keith on August 17th, 2009here’s mine
the blade – tsui hark
Posted by Rusty James on August 17th, 2009crumb – terry zwigoff
ed wood – tim burton
one false move – carl franklin
violent cop – beat takashi
boogie nights – pt anderson
heat – michael mann
little dieter needs to fly – werner herzog
children of men – alfonso curon
slackers – richard linklater
pulp fiction – quentin tarrantino
thin red line – terrance malik
irreversible – gasper noe
eternal sunshine – michel gondry
big lebowsky – coens
bottle rocket – wes anderson
anchorman – adam mckay
manderlay – lars von trier
assassination of jesse james – andrew dominic
ghost dog – jim jarmusch
Whats with the fucking spaces between words!?!”!?!?!!
Posted by omfg on August 17th, 2009Oh, and ummmm no. The guy has seen a quite alot amount of films, but not more then a normal film lover would do when they were 46 years old.
Posted by omfg on August 17th, 2009Does anyone have a list of his all time favorite movies?
Posted by heydude on August 17th, 2009I know The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is his favorite, but i want to know about his other favorites.
Other films he’s mentioned as his favorites are Blow Out (he’s a huge depalma fan), Taxi Driver, Rio Bravo (which he mentions in the video). He used to mention Chunking Express as one of his favorites but it doesn’t come up in this video so maybe it’s fallen out of favor with him.
For a best of the past 17 years list I can’t help but feel that Battle Royal is a pretty week choice.
Posted by Rusty James on August 17th, 2009Pulp Fiction is the number one film of the past 17 years hands down! revolutionary!
Posted by Rob on August 17th, 2009Snatch and Amelie deserve some props too!
Posted by Rob on August 17th, 2009This is MUCH better: http://www.thelmagazine.com/newyork/quentin-tarantino-in-his-own-words/Content?oid=1243135
Posted by Kurt on August 17th, 2009I like his movies but I want to punch the guy in the face.
Posted by Chris on August 17th, 2009JSA, Audition, Battle Royale, The Host..
NICE
But Lost in Translation was definitely not my thing. big ole meh from me.
Posted by joe on August 17th, 2009ps. Memories of Murder was good, but not deserving in the top 20 IMO
Posted by joe on August 17th, 2009Greeeeat. Another comment section where everyone feels compelled to put together their own list because somebody made their own and it’s all fucking pointless in the end.
Posted by Swarez on August 17th, 2009yayyyy.
Your mom is.
Posted by Shut-Up Ed on August 17th, 2009i’ve been meaning to watch Memories of Murder and Unbreakable, but later forgot about them. looks like i have to watch them now.
Posted by modesilver on August 18th, 2009I’ve seen most of the movies on his list (even the Asian ones) and while I did enjoy them, they wouldn’t even make top 10 of their year as far as I’m concerned, let alone last 17. It’s funny that given all things, I would have definintely nominated Pulp Fiction as one of the stand-out movies of recent history.
The man makes incredibly enjoyable films but his OWN taste is really weird.
Posted by steviebaby on August 19th, 2009Not a fan at all of Tarantino but I’m glad to Dazed and Confused on the list. Such a great nostalgia inducing film with perfect casting.
Posted by Damndirtyape on August 20th, 2009No Star Wars? ugh!
He forgot the #1 film of all time….Commando
Posted by Joe Pug on August 21st, 2009The Host is a terrible overrated film. Aside from the opening scenes where the monster attacks, the rest just awful. I’m very surprised by his choice of that. And Woody Allen’s film. I thought it was so sub-par for what Allen can do. The rest, I completely agree on.
Posted by El Rocho on August 22nd, 2009I totally overlooked Woody Allen’s “Anything Else” in Tarantino’s list until you pointed it out, El Rocho. I enjoyed it when I saw it, and I noticed that people including critics were ignoring it at the time of its release. I didn’t think it was special or much different from Allen’s usual output. I wonder what Tarantino likes so much about it.
As for “The Host,” I like it because it focuses on how a regular family deals with the threat of a monster. The family works together as a team, each using whatever talent each has. The goofiness of the family adds to the charm for me.
Posted by Reed Farrington on August 22nd, 2009Pretty sweet list. I’m glad he mentioned Dogville and JSA though disappointed he left out Oldboy and Chungking Express. Maybe he felt he had too many Asian films? I think I read somewhere he fought for Oldboy in Cannes to win first prize (don’t remember the actual name).
Here’s my list (putting the ones I agree with Tarantino first):
Posted by Dre on August 23rd, 2009Battle Royale
Audition
Dogville
Fight Club
The Matrix
Oldboy
Martyrs
Chungking Express
Ginger Snaps
Dancer in the Dark
Lord of the Rings (trilogy was shot together, so I count it as one)
Pulp Fiction
Happiness
The Sweet Hereafter
Chasing Amy
Hard Boiled
Mulholland Drive
The Dark Knight
Scream
Donnie Darko
Unbreakable and fight club are two of the best movies of all time
Posted by gideon on November 16th, 2009Leave a Reply