‘Used Cars’: the Robert Zemeckis movie Quentin Tarantino knows by heart
Regardless of your opinion of Quentin Tarantino, one thing is for sure. The dude knows his stuff about cinema. His uniquely stylised films and considered approach to filmmaking don’t stem from any technical training or family heritage, they come down purely to his love for the craft. This is also clear from the amount of time he’s discussed his long list of favourite films and love of cinema in interviews.
There are a few filmmakers’ names that surface time and again in Tarantino’s many lists of favourites and one that is always featured is Robert Zemeckis. Zemeckis’ legendary Back to the Future has appeared several times, even being one of the films Tarantino called perfect. But there’s one lesser known Zemeckis movie that Tarantino actually claims to know by heart.
“I’ve actually always said that one of my favorite movies of the ‘70s was Used Cars,” Tarantino told The Los Angeles Times, all the way back in 1995. A much less well known film from the director, Used Cars starred Kurt Russell as an underhanded salesman working for an unsuccessful second-hand car dealership. Unshockingly, given Tarantino’s taste in films, it’s a dark comedy with plenty of cynical humour and a little dollop of slapstick.
It didn’t necessarily do well at the box office, but being Zemeckis, it was still well known enough at the time and has garnered a cult status. For Tarantino, he was there when it first came out. “I saw it in a drive-in. I absolutely adored it. It’s one of my favorite comedies of the last 20 years,” he said.
Of course, seeing a film once when it comes out isn’t enough to make you know it off by heart. But, did you know, Tarantino worked in a video shop in LA for five years? Yeah, no shit, he never fails to mention it in an interview or article. So the reason he was able to learn is by heart was due to the frequency with which he put it on at the store, or as he ever so humbly puts it, “you have to understand that when you work at a video store for five years and you have a favorite comedy, you get to know the movie.”
You know as if have a home, a tv and a video player couldn’t produce the same results *rolls eyes*. But I digress. The video shop was clearly seminal to Tarantino’s love of film, allowing him to spend his days watching obscure comedies and the like. And so, Used Cars became one of his favourite background movies, “It was like putting on a record.”
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