The one scene Quentin Tarantino regrets cutting
Quentin Tarantino made his feature debut in 1992 with the jam-packed 99-minute Reservoir Dogs. Since then, the beloved director seems to have developed a love for a lengthier runtime. The Hateful Eight has a runtime of between 168 and 210 minutes, depending on where you watch it, while the director’s most recent offering, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, came in two hours and 40 minutes.
Despite his penchant for long features, Tarantino is also a master of pace. With a filmography characterised by snappy, snarky dialogue and vengeful violence, he’s one of the most stylistic directors working today. Accordingly, he’s not afraid to get rid of scenes that don’t work in the final cut.
With a runtime that almost rivalled that of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Jackie Brown was Tarantino’s 1997 ode to the blaxploitation films of the 1970s. Starring Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson and Robert De Niro, the film follows the title character through tales of money smuggling and murder.
Though Jackie Brown had a runtime of two hours and 34 minutes, there were still some scenes that Tarantino decided to cut. In an introduction to the deleted and alternate scenes for the film, Tarantino shared his regrets about cutting one scene in particular.
The scene features Jackson and De Niro entering the Cockatoo Lounge, and Tarantino dubs it his “favourite” of the deleted scenes. He also suggests that it’s one of his favourite pieces of dialogue and names it “the only scene… maybe I should’ve left in.”
It’s a simple scene in which we follow Jackson and De Niro from behind as they walk into the Cockatoo Lounge. Ordell Robbie, played by Jackson, complains about the downfall of cocktail bars. When they enter the bar, he states, “But this motherfucker here. Now this is a bar. When I go to a bar, I wanna go in a bar”, before shouting to the bartender, “Let us get our drink thing on!”
The director is so passionate about the scene that he even suggests that audiences should insert it into the final cut themselves: “So, actually, if you wanna take this scene and cut it into your video copy of the movie, feel free, alright. The rest of the scenes can stay out, but that one, kind of, would cut in pretty good with the video copy.”
While that’s a length few fans are likely to go to, it’s not one that would go amiss. Between the snappy dialogue delivered by Jackson and the beautiful cinematography, it’s easy to see why Tarantino regretted cutting the scene.
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