Cinema isn’t dying, but Quentin Tarantino’s courage might be
I know what you’re thinking: Seriously? Quentin Tarantino afraid to make a movie? The man who pioneered modern independent cinema and made some of the greatest films of the past three decades? And yes, I hear you. The man has more than proven himself as a filmmaker. Even if he’d stopped at Pulp Fiction, he would still be one of the most respected auteurs of his generation. But as much as film fans have worshipped at the altar of Tarantino, the director himself has been building his own mythology too, and it seems that it might be coming back to haunt him.
For years, Tarantino has maintained that he will only make ten films. Depending on how you choose to count, he has already broken this rule several times over. Since the 1980s, he has directed a short film, multiple segments within feature-length movies, two movies that he considers one (Kill Bill: Vol 1 and 2), and was the “special guest director” of Sin City. All told, this adds up to more than a dozen directorial credits, but as far as Tarantino is concerned, only nine of them count.
For him, the self-imposed 10-film limit is about the integrity of his filmography as a collection rather than the quality of the final film itself. “I am all about my filmography,” he told Playboy in 2012 (via The Hollywood Reporter), “And one bad film fucks up three good ones.” He would rather go out on a high, he insisted, than become one of those sad octogenarians muscling through passion pieces.
Now in his sixties, Tarantino still has plenty of time to make his magnum opus, but he has backed out of multiple opportunities to do so ever since the release of his self-described ninth film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, was released in 2019.
The first attempt at a tenth film was The Movie Critic. Set in Los Angeles in 1977, the story supposedly followed a film critic working for a porno magazine. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly. Brad Pitt was set to star, and Sony was set to produce. But in early 2024, Deadline broke the news that the director had scrapped the project. There was no drama about it. He just changed his mind.
He’s thrown out plenty of projects before, but yesterday, Tarantino cast further doubt on his future as a filmmaker. Speaking to film critic Elvis Mitchell at The Elvis Mitchell Suite presented by Darling&Co at the Sundance Film Festival, he announced that his next project would be a theatre production and that he had no plans to get behind the camera any time soon.
“When it comes to being a filmmaker,” he said, “I’ve pretty much done everything I’ve wanted to do… I don’t reallyhave any more mountains to climb in that respect. I’ve planted my flags – I’m proud of my achievements.”
Throwing even more cold water on the future of his filmography, he lashed out at the current state of cinema writ large. “Making movies now. What the fuck is that?” he said. “For a token release for four weeks and in two weeks you can watch it on any TV in America. Fuck that.”
There are many reasons to be concerned about the state of cinema and the increasingly shortened window between theatrical release and streaming release, but refusing to make movies isn’t going to fix the problem, and if anyone has the sway in Hollywood to secure an exclusive theatrical run for as long as he damn well pleases, it’s Tarantino.
But his comments hint at something a little more personal. The director burst out of the gate with one of the greatest films of the ’90s, Reservoir Dogs, only to follow it up with an even more impressive feat, Pulp Fiction, two years later. People can quibble over precise rankings, but he’s hardly put a foot wrong over the past three decades, Death Proofaside.
In doing so, he has put an enormous amount of pressure on himself to make his final film live up to the rest of his filmography, and did himself no favours by making Once Upon a Time in Hollywood one of his best yet. It is a tough act to follow, especially considering how perfectly it brought his life full circle to the place and period in which he first fell in love with cinema. What could he possibly make to outdo it?
There is no question that Tarantino is one of the most important auteurs of the 21st century, and many film fans would love it if he pulled a Clint Eastwood or a Ridley Scott and kept churning out movies well into his 80s and 90s. But he has laid a trap for himself. Pretty much everyone can identify with that feeling of standing on the precipice of a majorchallenge and finding it harder to dive in the longer you wait. Based on his most recent comments, Tarantino may be so paralysed by the enormity of his final film that he will never actually start it.
If that is the case, might I suggest a painless solution? Redo the math. There are two Kill Bill movies, plain and simple, adding up to a total of – you guessed it – 10 films. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is already the perfect capstone to a near-perfect career. The filmography is complete.
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