Quentin Tarantino says Death Proof was his worst movie

quentin-tarantino-and-kurt-russell-in-grindhouse-large-picture

Probably the best Tarantino picture ever.

The big story going around today is that Quentin Tarantino called Death Proof his worst movie, which is true, both that he said it and that it’s his worst, but it’s not quite the whole story. Here’s the full quote, from a director roundtable Tarantino did with The Hollywood Reporter.

“I’m really well versed on a lot of directors’ careers, you know, and when you look at those last five films when they were past it, when they were too old, and they’re really out of touch with the times, whether it be William Wyler and ‘The Liberation of L.B. Jones’ or Billy Wilder with ‘Fedora’ and then ‘Buddy Buddy’ or whatever the hell. To me, it’s all about my filmography, and I want to go out with a terrific filmography,” he said. “[2007's] ‘Death Proof’ has got to be the worst movie I ever make. And for a left-handed movie, that wasn’t so bad, all right? — so if that’s the worst I ever get, I’m good. But I do think one of those out-of-touch, old, limp, flaccid-dick movies costs you three good movies as far as your rating is concerned.”

So, yes, he said Death Proof is his worst, but still pretty decent, and that he hopes it will go down as his worst movie. All of which I agree with. But there are a lot of factors at play – getting the right budget, casting who he wants, the coke wizard showing up at the right time, Alan Ball’s noisy minah birds shutting up – God only knows what else. Nonetheless, I wish him luck.

Interestingly, he also says he hates digital movie making and digital projection, so much that it’s part of the reason he wants to retire:

His comments on film vs. digital are nearly scathing too. He says digital is part of the reason he wants to retire, and it’s “not what I signed up for.” The filmmaker clearly loathes digital projection, calls it “television in public” and says because of DP, “it’s over.”

Ouch, harsh words. Reached for comment, digital responded “MEEP MORP I AM NOT PROGRAMMED TO FEEL FEELINGS MEEP MORP DARKNESS CLOSING IN 00011011011101111011010101101010111…”

[thanks to ThePlaylist for the video transcription - I couldn't get it to work - and the picture]

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41 comments

Vince Mancini posted

"Quentin Tarantino says he hopes Death Proof will be the worst movie he makes"

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11.28.12 at 4:20 pm
jeremyhyler
with his editor dead django could be bad???
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11.28.12 at 4:22 pm
st8CHILL
i liked death proof better than jackie brown, but i def see where he is coming from. he still has a pretty excellent catalog and having death proof as his worst isnt a terrible thing.
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  11.28.12 at 5:02 pm
  Alcoholics Gratuitous
  I agree. Jackie Brown is probably considered better because of it’s cast, but I enjoyed Death Proof more.
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  11.28.12 at 5:18 pm
  kazoshay
  I agree, too. I tried re-watching Jackie Brown a while back and was very bored. Needs more Kurt Russel and feet.
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  11.28.12 at 7:10 pm
  JohnnyHex8
  What you guys said.
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  11.28.12 at 7:49 pm
  dissident
  Crazy talk. Jackie Brown is his best for my money. Very rewatchable and fun.
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  11.28.12 at 9:57 pm
  Homo_Erectus
  I liked Jackie and found DP underwhelming. And that’s last part is a phrase never before uttered.
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11.28.12 at 4:23 pm
Baginaface
Seriously they are signing a fucking Mac?
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11.28.12 at 4:27 pm
Torgo
You can actually tell how aroused QT is by bare feet based on the rigidity of his chin protuberance.
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  11.28.12 at 7:38 pm
  Rawhead Wrecks
  It’s his unique physiological reaction.
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11.28.12 at 4:31 pm
choad
Tarantino might be my favorite director, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut if he gets the chance to make something, say a 6-hour miniseries, COMPLETELY unfiltered, I’m not sure if that’s exactly a good thing. Though I could be wrong and would watch the fuck out of it anyway just to see if unabridged Tarantino is just as great as him having to actually trim his shit down a few billion notches.
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11.28.12 at 4:35 pm
Speckinzeedouche
I’d like to see him use Kurt Russell in a better movie.
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11.28.12 at 4:44 pm
Agent M
I remember QT’s Pulp Fiction commentary, that he edited out of the script too much overly-hipsterish dialogue because “It didn’t sound like me, but somebody trying to imitate me.” That came to mind when I saw Death Proof.
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  11.30.12 at 12:57 am
  dhcguy
  yeah that was so offputting.
  That actually felt like someone other than tarantino trying too hard to be tarantino.
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11.28.12 at 4:50 pm
Jessolido
Foot-boners : Commonplace.
DP : Bad.
Just when you think you’ve got a stranger’s freaky sex stuff all figured out…
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11.28.12 at 5:06 pm
TommyFromAcrossTheSea
Tarantino hasn’t made a decent movie since Jackie Brown.
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  11.28.12 at 5:23 pm
  DeFrank
  Shut up, TommyFromAcrossTheSea.
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  11.28.12 at 11:10 pm
  Agent M
  you could offer a counterpoint. or, you could just say “shut up.”
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  11.29.12 at 9:20 am
  DeFrank
  We can counterpoint?
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11.28.12 at 5:10 pm
FastInAtl
I’m ahhhh, I’m assuming he’s not considering “4 Rooms” a movie he made? Cause seriously, other than the Rodriguez bit, that’s freaking terrible.
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  11.28.12 at 5:16 pm
  Agent M
  I had repressed that memory! QT couldn’t resist starring in his own segment, which didn’t help.
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  11.28.12 at 7:32 pm
  Karribiner
  I’m sure Tarantino forgot about that movie… like everyone else.
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11.28.12 at 5:24 pm
relaxok
I have nothing funny to say,but I loved Death Proof.
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  11.28.12 at 7:07 pm
  Shadowtag
  Same here, but then again it had Kurt Russell and Mary Elizabeth Winstead in a cheerleader outfit.
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  11.28.12 at 9:53 pm
  The Surly Badger
  And hot damn can that girl sing.
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  11.28.12 at 9:59 pm
  Homo_Erectus
  And how he got both Kurt and Mary Elizabeth to fit in the same outfit is an fx secret.
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11.28.12 at 5:32 pm
The White Beaner
Death Proof worked a lot better as part of the whole Grindhouse event than as a a standalone movie. Planet Terror come off more favorably.
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  11.28.12 at 6:47 pm
  Bebop
  +1
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  11.28.12 at 8:28 pm
  The Surly Badger
  I was lucky enough to see them as the double feature they were intended to be and I thought the intended grindhouse-in-the-multiplex experience was great. On its own I can definitely understand it’s detractors. Also, Eli Roth’s trailer for Thanksgiving was amazing.
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  11.28.12 at 9:23 pm
  choad
  Agreed @ Surly
  I saw it twice in theaters, though one had way less attendees. It was perfect for theaters. Watching it uncut alone on DVD was somewhat of a chore. And the Grindhouse double-feature blu ray is nice, but isn’t the same experience.
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  11.28.12 at 9:42 pm
  The Surly Badger
  It’s Tarantino’s propensity for dialogue-porn. It was fine in the shorter version, the full one was a bit much.
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  11.29.12 at 9:43 am
  Iron Mike Sharpie
  I thought they were both equally not good.
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11.28.12 at 7:50 pm
dissident
I’m sure Tarantino has enough clout to keep working with film if he wants to. He needs to stop being such a pussy about it.
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  11.29.12 at 9:44 am
  Iron Mike Sharpie
  No, no, he can use film to record all his movies, that’s not the issue. But movie theatres only project in digital now. So any film that’s actually filmed using a film camera has to be converted to digital anyhow so it can be projected at your local theatre.
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  11.29.12 at 1:12 pm
  dissident
  ignorant question, how is that different than movies shot in film being on High Def Blu-Ray discs and HD TV’s and whatnot? i mean, he has to let go at some point in the distribution anyway right?
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  11.30.12 at 3:29 pm
  Iron Mike Sharpie
  I guess he’s saying that making a film is still really all about showing the film in theatres. I mean, no matter how badass someone’s home theatre system is it’s not going to be bigger or sound better than an actual theatre. So if you go in to making a film with the intention of making something awesome for theatres then that’s the end goal. Home-market DVDs (even super HD Blue-Ray etc.) would just be marketing add-ons to boost revenue but aren’t really something the person creating the art thinks about. Like, if you’re painting you’re thinking about someone viewing the canvas while it hangs on a wall. But if the painting gets popular enough they start cranking out t-shirts with your painting on it. The Mona Lisa is the obvious example, yeah? It’s painted on a relatively small piece of wood and most people know what it looks like even though they’ve never actually seen it. Which seems odd, of course, because you know Da Vinci wasn’t thinking about selling screen-printed t-shirts and keychains when he painted it.
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  11.30.12 at 4:52 pm
  dissident
  While I understand what you’re saying, i don’t think that analogy really works. a movie on a decent sized HD TV isn’t nearly as neutered of an experience as a painting on a printed screen T-shirt. Basically, I stand by my Quentin’s being a pussy stance and would like to expand it to he’s just being an old fart now which i know would offend him greatly.
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11.28.12 at 8:03 pm
giantcowofdoom
This is unrelated, but whatever happened to commenter DonkeyHowdy? He was awesome.
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11.29.12 at 3:33 pm
JTRO
His biggest problem and his best asset is that he does everything himself. The good side we are all aware of. The real problem is that there isn’t anyone around to say, “No, we aren’t going to do another 17 minute interlude centering on the cast talking about obscure movies. We are going to do some more violent action with funny/awesome dialogue.”
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11.29.12 at 8:16 pm
Topanga
No more Kill Bill. No more.

Quentin Tarantino says he hopes Death Proof will be the worst movie he makes

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