Quentin Tarantino on why Robert Altman created “the worst film ever made”
Quentin Tarantino is currently dishing out some headline-worthy opinions through his new book ‘Cinema Speculation’. The filmmaker’s debut work of nonfiction reads as a collection of essays organised around the “key American films from the 1970s” that inspired him in his youth.
The director takes the time to communicate his outlook on many films and tropes in filmmaking as a whole. One of the most outspoken and scathing passages involves two films by the late American director Robert Altman. Tarantino is far from kind to Altman as one filmmaker to another: “Brewster McCloud is one of the worst movies to ever carry a studio logo, and that’s fully acknowledging Altman also made Quintet for a studio as well,” he writes.
Brewster McCloud was released in 1970, a satirical fantasy black comedy about an introverted outcast who dreams of taking to the sky. His mysterious guardian angel leads him on his journey. Quintet, meanwhile, is a little more gloomy as it’s about survivors in a frozen wasteland fighting for survival. Tarantino describes the latter as “just terrible, boring and pointless.”
This review mirrors those given by general critics upon the film’s release, which was also a financial disaster. However, he emphasises clearly, and in a very effective choice of words, how “Brewster McCloud is the cinematic equivalent of a bird shitting on your head.”
Brewster McCloud garners a niche audience and understanding as is experimental in its style and plot. A representative example is its opening with the usual MGM logo, but instead of the lion’s roar, there’s a voice-over by René Auberjonois saying, “I forgot the opening line”. This blurring of lines in film material is brought full cycle in the closing, where a ringmaster announces the names of each cast member.
The film is also piled high with cultural references. The most famous one is cast member Margaret Hamilton (The Wicked Witch of the West) wearing sparkling red shoes like the Witch wants to take from Dorothy during her death scene.
As a fellow auteur filmmaker who is all about showing film’s physicality with intertitles and pop culture references, it’s odd to initially find out Tarantino doesn’t approve of Altman’s film. However, Brewster McCloud is intense in both dialogue and actions, meaning it can be a hard viewing to get through.
Tarantino is coming to the UK next year on his book tour. He will be discussing Cinema Speculation at The London Palladium on March 25th and 26th.
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