The surprising movie Quentin Tarantino called “a masterpiece of our time”
No one in the history of cinema does it quite like the American director Quentin Tarantino. Reputed for being a true cinephile, Tarantino worked at a video store before deciding to enter the world of cinema, building up an encyclopaedic knowledge of the industry in the process. Actively working to introduce American audiences to foreign films, ranging from the works of the Korean auteur Bong Joon-ho to the magical oeuvre of Hong Kong pioneer Wong Kar-wai, he has been known to recommend fans a range of obscure flicks.
Such has been the case since the very start of his career, too, with the Akira Kurosawa movie Rashomon inspiring the making of 1992’s Reservoir Dogs and Jean-Luc Godard’s Bande à part inspiring his 1994 Palme d’Or winner Pulp Fiction. Forever inspired by other industry creatives, Tarantino is careful not to copy anyone else’s work, crafting unique cinematic visions that merely pay homage with clever callbacks through soundtrack cues or visual references.
While each and every one of his films takes aspects from countless other movies, no release better encapsulates his love for other people’s projects better than his 2003 Kill Bill saga. Conjured as a tribute to the artistry of martial arts cinema, Tarantino took aspects from the works of Toshiya Fujita, Osamu Dezaki and Bruce Lee for his gory revenge flick starring Uma Thurman at the helm.
But, while some Tarantino films have obvious influences, others aren’t as clear, especially considering the director’s own tendency to declare his love for the most obscure modern releases. No moment better captures this than when Tarantino surprised everyone by naming an M. Night Shyamalan film as one of the best cinematic experiences of our time, diverting from his usual praise for obscure Hollywood flicks.
Over the course of his career, Shyamalan’s divisive figure has made a lot of errors, but it is generally agreed upon that the 2000 neo-noir thriller Unbreakable is one of his finest works. It stars Bruce Willis as a security guard who finds out that he has superhuman abilities after making it out of a train accident alive. Unbreakable has become a cult classic in recent years, especially after Tarantino included it among the 20 best films that have been released since 1992.
Tarantino explained: “The final film on my Top 20 list is M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable, which… not only has Bruce Willis’ favourite performance on film that he has ever given – I think he is absolutely magnificent in the film – [but] also is a brilliant retelling of the Superman mythology. To me, the film was very obscure when it came out as far as what it was about”.
Continuing, he added: “I actually think that they did themselves a disservice because you can actually break down what the film was about by one sentence. I think [it] would have proved far more intriguing than their ad campaign which is basically: ‘What if Superman was here on Earth and didn’t know he was Superman?’ [That’s] what the film is about but you don’t know that until you actually see the movie. Unbreakable is one of the masterpieces of our time”.
Despite the high praise, Shyamalan felt he never gave the celebrated film his all, deciding to step back from the world he had created following the release of the movie. But, despite his initial disappointment, Shyamalan would later see the value in the series, returning to continue the story with 2016’s unlikely sequel Split and 2019’s Glass, which brought Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson’s old characters back into focus.
Although Tarantino has never commented about Split or Glass, one can only assume, based on his love for Unbreakable, that Shyamalan’s series continuation greatly pleased the Oscar winner.
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