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Quentin Tarantino names his three favourite westerns of all time: “The single greatest storyteller”

Sat 19 October 2024 17:37, UK

Quentin Tarantino is no stranger to the aesthetic principles of various film genres. From heist movies to historical epics, Tarantino has navigated various forms of postmodern genre hybridity while working on some of the most acclaimed additions to his illustrious filmography. The director has lent his hand to almost all of the genres he has seen fit, imparting his own unique sense of style to every new facet of film he attempts to dominate.

As rumours continue to swirl around his impending retirement, fans have wondered about the subject matter of his final film, especially following his trashing of the predicted finale, The Movie Critic. While some believe it will be Kill Bill 3, others have pointed out that Tarantino has always wanted to work with science fiction. Due to this omnipresent interest, many interviewers have asked Tarantino about his future.

The director has remained tantalisingly ambiguous but has hinted that he wants to tackle something new. On one occasion, he even claimed that he plans to make a multilingual comedy western. Still, he has contradicted his own statements by telling other sources that he might make a film adaptation of a novel instead.

In the early ’90s, Tarantino was even approached to adapt The Moviegoer, but he turned it down. The director explained: “I liked it a lot, but I told him, ‘I’m not mature enough to make this movie right now.’ Not that the work I’m doing is immature, but I’m still on my own road. Eventually, I’ll want to do somebody else’s work. As far as a period piece is concerned, I want to do a western.”

He did venture into the western genre with The Hateful Eight, following in the footsteps of his favourite directors like Howard Hawks and Sergio Leone. The Hateful Eight devoted itself to the genre that has long inspired the director in question. Fuelled by the unmistakable atmosphere of the late Ennio Morricone’s fantastic score, the film becomes a microcosm of the genre itself, set within the restricted confines of a wood cabin in the dead of winter.

Distrust and deceit run riot through the cold, desolate pines and the bleak interior of the cabin itself, inhabited by a bounty hunter, his prisoner, and six other untrustworthy characters. What the film may lack in story, it makes up for in atmosphere, creating a palpable sense of unease. But while it is not without its own merit, Tarantino himself would admit that it hardly matches up to the greats of the genre.

Sergio Leone is routinely thought of as one of the filmmaker’s favourite directors, but it is Howard Hawks whom Tarantino most routinely admires. Tarantino once said of Hawks, “He is the single greatest storyteller in the history of cinema, probably the single most entertaining filmmaker in the history of cinema.”

Although he denied being greatly influenced by Sam Peckinpah, Tarantino has always admitted that Howard Hawks and Sergio Leone were pivotal to his film journey, citing the latter as one of the most influential directors of all time. Two of those movies are included in the list of Tarantino’s favourite Westerns of all time. Ever unpredictable, he also included Marlon Brando’s 1961 directorial effort One-Eyed Jacks on his list of favourites.

The celebrated filmmaker does not hesitate to list his preferences when it comes to westerns. He answered: “If I had to pick my three favourite Westerns, they would be Rio Bravo, number one; The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, number two; and One-Eyed Jacks, number three.”