The genre Quentin Tarantino calls “corrupted cinema”
If there is one thing the world can count on, it’s Quentin Tarantino having strong opinions on cinema. The director has never been one for keeping his thoughts to himself as he’s shared judgements on films, actors and now one genre as a whole.
Tarantino has always fancied himself a movie critic, and he told The Talks, “I used to make a list of every movie I saw in a given year in the theaters, including revival theaters. If it was a new release I circled the number. And I would pick my favorite movies and give out my little awards.” Declaring his best and worst films even back then, the director has never grown out of the habit.
His movie tastes are clear as Tarantino says, “I don’t like everything. I like historical movies, but I am not a fan of the costume drama.” But one genre is always bottom of the barrel for the director, who adds, “Another genre I have no respect for is the biopic.”
He sees the form as nothing but awards season bait, an argument largely backed up by the success of films like Bohemian Rhapsody, Elvis and Maestro. “They are just big excuses for actors to win Oscars,” he says. But it doesn’t stop there.
Tarantino takes it further to argue that biopics are ruining the industry, stating, “It’s a corrupted cinema.”
“Even the most interesting person – if you are telling their life from beginning to end, it’s going to be a fucking boring movie,” he says. It seems to be the wide scope of biopics that bother him, telling a life story rather than a real story.
“For instance, when you make a movie about Elvis Presley, you don’t make a movie about his whole life. Make a movie about one day,” he says. “Make a movie about the day Elvis Presley walked into Sun Records. Make a movie about the whole day before he walked into Sun Records, and the movie ends when he walks through that door. That’s a movie.”
To Tarantino, biopics are nothing more than glorified, regurgitated biographies. They serve no purpose beyond dramatising facts that anyone could read online. He says biopics are essentially “a comic book version of their whole life.”
While it could be argued that to some degree, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood waded into biopic waters as it somewhat told the story of the Manson Family, we’re sure Tarantino would fiercely argue back.
His dislike for the genre goes so deep that he wouldn’t even go see one of his own life and career, stating, “I might be flattered, but I wouldn’t watch it.”
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