The Alfred Hitchcock movies Quentin Tarantino hates
Any fan of the American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino will know just how much he loves the history of cinema. From the western flicks of Sergio Leone and John Ford to the acting performances of such stars as Pam Grier and Meg Tilly, even though Tarantino likes to sing artists’ praises, he usually shies away from criticism, well apart when it comes to his venomous takedowns of British director Alfred Hitchcock.
Known as not only one of Britain’s greatest filmmakers but also one of the very best of all time, Hitchcock made great contributions to the cinematic form, bringing such innovative works as Psycho, Rear Window and North by Northwest. Influencing countless other actors and directors, the work of Hitchcock is elevated as the very best of cinema, yet Tarantino simply isn’t keen.
Voicing his opinion on the director, he surprisingly stated: “I’ve always felt that Hitchcock’s acolytes took his cinematic and story ideas further. I love Brian De Palma’s Hitchcock movies. I love Richard Franklin’s and Curtis Hanson’s Hitchcock meditations. I prefer those to actual Hitchcock”.
Continuing, he explains how he believes that the time in which he was making movies let him down, stating: “The 1950s held him down, Hitchcock couldn’t do what he, left to his own devices, would’ve wanted to do. By the time he could do it in the late ’60s and the early ’70s, he was a little too old”.
As for the titles he isn’t keen on, Tarantino doesn’t hold back, voicing a dislike of 1972’s Frenzy, which he once called“a piece of crap” in a dig at the filmmaker.
Elsewhere, Tarantino also called out two other of Hitchcock’s classics. Although North by Northwest, starring Cary Grant, earned three Oscar nominations, Tarantino isn’t a fan of the film that tells the story of a New York City advertising executive who gets mistaken for a foreign spy.“People discover North by Northwest at 22,” the filmmaker stated, “and think it’s wonderful when actually it’s a very mediocre movie”.
Despite 1958’s Vertigo being one of Hitchcock’s biggest critical hits, Tarantino isn’t a fan of it either. In an interview with writer Bret Easton Ellis, the director stated: “I’m not the biggest Hitchcock fan, and I actually don’t like Vertigo and his 1950s movies—they have the stink of the 50s which is similar to the stink of the 80s”.
Take a look at the full list of Hitchcock movies Tarantino dislikes below.
Alfred Hitchcock movies Quentin Tarantino hates:
- Frenzy (1972)
- North by Northwest (1959)
- Vertigo (1958)
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