The “gigantic failure” that inspired Quentin Tarantino to greatness
When it comes to film, Quentin Tarantino has seen it all. From the heist-drama of Reservoir Dogs to the alternate history of Inglorious Basterds via the blaxploitation homage of Jackie Brown and the spaghetti western-influenced Django Unchained, there isn’t a genre that Tarantino hasn’t turned his attention to during his career in one way or another.
Of course, now, Tarantino is one of the biggest names in the film industry and arguably the most influential filmmaker of his generation. However, it was not always that way, and the Los Angeles native had to diligently work his way into the stature by which we know him today.
During a panel talk, Tarantino once opened up on the first film he ever made and how realising it wasn’t any good didn’t stop him from pursuing his dream of becoming an acclaimed director. “One of the things I’m most proud about is that I didn’t go to film school,” he began.
“But I did try to make a movie when I was 26. I thought I was going to be the next Jim Jarmusch. I thought it was going to be this really cool independent movie. I would play the festivals and would be this, like, critical darling or something.”
However, the final footage of the film was less than impressive for Tarantino. He continued: “But then, finally, we processed the footage, and I looked at it, and I realised I didn’t have what I thought I had. Not only is it not that good, it’s not worth any more of my time. As you can imagine, naturally, I was a little depressed.”
As Tarantino notes, anyone in their right mind would be disappointed with putting in so much effort for such little return. But any old person Tarantino was not. He went on, “After that, I was like, ‘Okay, we’ll just treat that like that was your film school’. After spending three years on something and having it turn out to be a big, gigantic failure, most of the people I know that would have been that. They’d be like, ‘Oh, okay, well, I guess this is just not for me, you know’, and they’d get a job or something.”
The legendary director then explained his point and urged the mantra of essentially, “try and try again.” He concluded, “And this is the point I’m trying to get at, maybe you try it, and maybe you’re not right, maybe it doesn’t work. But that doesn’t mean you’re faulty. That just means that this idea wasn’t so correct. Or maybe you didn’t know what the fuck you were doing when you were doing it. But in doing it, you now know more!”
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