Quentin Tarantino picks Bruce Willis’ “best performance”
When Bruce Willis appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s smash hit Pulp Fiction in 1994, it was regarded by critics and audiences alike as an incredibly rejuvenating step that brought the actor’s career out of a slump.
Playing the ageing boxer Butch Coolidge who refuses to ‘go down’ on a rigged fight and subsequently runs up a debt to a local gangster, Willis’ decision to join the film was somewhat risky; despite leading critical and commercial flops in the years prior, he was nonetheless a star, and Pulp Fiction meant the A-lister taking a step back from the limelight and performing as part of an ensemble piece.
In the end, Willis’ choice paid off. The film was an unprecedented success, winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes and gaining Tarantino a ‘Best Screenplay’ Oscar, and Willis, alongside all his other co-stars, got to reap the rewards for many years to come of participating in what is considered by many to be one of the greatest motion pictures ever made. Tarantino, not necessarily known for his modesty when it comes to speaking about other pictures, would be the very first to declare a performance in one of his films as the greatest of whichever actor. Except, when it comes to Willis, Tarantino reckons another director has him trumped.
Back in 2009, ahead of the release of his World War II epic Inglorious Basterds, Tarantino listed his top 20 films that had been made during the course of his own career as a director. Recounting in alphabetical order rather than preference, save for the very top of his list, which was reserved for Kinji Fukasaku’s live-action adaptation of Battle Royale in 2000, the director reached his final and 20th movie: Unbreakable by M. Night Shyamalan.
Touching upon the merits of the 2000 science fiction thriller, Tarantino admitted with rare humility that the Shyamalan-helmed picture contained his favourite performance of Willis. “It has Bruce Willis’ best performance on film that he’s ever given,” the director says before adding: “He’s absolutely magnificent in the film.”
Unbreakable stars Willis as the unwitting ‘hero’ named David, a man who miraculously survives a catastrophic and fatal train accident that kills every other passenger on board, only to be pursued by someone who is convinced – and tries to convince David – that his escape from death is actually the result of superhuman abilities. Strangely melancholic for a film of that genre, the role sees Willis’ giving a wonderfully understated performance.
For Tarantino, the film offers more than just the best Willis role to date. “It also is a brilliant retelling of the Superman mythology,” he said. “You can break down what the film is about in one sentence: what if Superman was here on Earth, but didn’t know he was Superman.”
Shyamalan has since expanded the world of Unbreakable further, with Split coming 16 years later and introducing additional characters with possible powers, followed by the final in the trilogy, Glass, which completed the saga in 2019.
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