Brian De Palma’s five greatest movies, according to Quentin Tarantino
You don’t have to be a particularly big fan of Quentin Tarantino to recognise his style, which he has honed over several decades to great success. It’s violent yet witty, aesthetically-driven but laden with action and drama, and you’re likely going to see some of the same actors pop up, from Leonardo DiCaprio to Samuel L Jackson.
One of the biggest hallmarks of the filmmaker’s work, however, is his frequent references to other movies. As a dedicated cinephile, Tarantino takes every opportunity to slide some of his niche cinematic knowledge into his films, allowing his own creations to pay rich homage to the work that gave him his artistic education and inspired his passion for filmmaking.
Tarantino has many favourite movies and directors, but there’s one whose influence is strikingly clear – Brian De Palma. The New Hollywood icon emerged among a new crop of filmmakers in the 1960s alongside the likes of Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, and he even gave Robert De Niro some of his most significant early roles in movies like Hi Mom!.
Like Tarantino, De Palma often explores violence with a unique and stylish lens, with the latter typically using distinctive techniques like split diopter shots and close-ups. You can certainly see how Tarantino has been inspired by De Palma, who made some of the most compelling Hollywood movies of all time, blurring the lines between commercialism and artistry.
Naturally, Tarantino once revealed the five De Palma movies he believed to be the greatest in his book Cinema Speculation, and his picks are hardly surprising. The filmmaker highlighted Carrie as one of “the top five movies in De Palma’s canon,” the 1975 horror film based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name (which became the first ever adaptation of his work). It’s an iconic movie, and that blood-soaked prom scene, which has been parodied and referenced countless times, is enough to cement it as one of De Palma’s most impressive cinematic feats.
Tarantino also loves Blow Out, which was inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 classic Blow-Up, believing it to be John Travolta’s finest performance. In fact, it’s Tarantino’s love of Blow Out that led him to cast Travolta in his 1994 movie Pulp Fiction.
In an old interview in which Tarantino visited Video Archives, where he worked before he hit the big time as a filmmaker, he picked out Blow Out, calling it “one of the greatest movies ever made.” He added, “It’s Brian De Palma’s finest film, alright? Which means, it’s one of the finest movies ever made because, as we all know, Brian De Palma is the greatest director of his generation.”
Of course, Scarface also makes it onto the list, which is perhaps De Palma’s best known movie. Charting the rise and fall of Al Pacino’s Tony Montana, the film is a staggering tale of greed and excessive violence, taking the original 1932 movie and amping it up to new heights.
Released a few years before Scarface, Dressed to Kill is also one of Tarantino’s favourites. The Michael Caine vehicle, which also stars Angie Dickinson and Nancy Allen, is a suspense-laden erotic thriller full of plot twists and carefully executed scenes, like the museum sequence, in which a flirtation is carried out over a long and tense take. It’s scenes like these, evocative and gripping, that prove De Palma’s genius.
Hi, Mom! makes it into Tarantino’s canon, too, although it’s considerably less known than the rest of the films he considers to be De Palma’s best. With De Niro starring as an adult filmmaker who takes voyeurism to the next level with some Peeping Tom-esque ideas, it was praised for its dark humour, so it’s no surprise that Tarantino considers himself a big fan.
Quentin Tarantino favourite Brian De Palma movies:
- Hi, Mom! (1970)
- Carrie (1975)
- Dressed to Kill (1980)
- Blow Out (1981)
- Scarface (1983)
Never Miss A Take
The Far Out Quentin Tarantino Newsletter
All the latest Quentin Tarantino content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.