The only thing Quentin Tarantino likes about The Beatles: “I had tremendous affection”
The Beatles changed everything, and not just in a musical context. From the release of their debut single back in 1962, to the acrimnously break-up in 1970, the Fab Four completely altered the cultural landscape of the world, redefining expectations of pop culture and inspiring multiple generations of creatives in the process. Still, there are a few contrarians who have never been particularly convinced by the creative genius of the ‘Mop Tops’, and one such person is director Quentin Tarantino.
Tarantino has always tended to go against the grain, so it shouldn’t come as a total surprise that he isn’t as convinced by The Beatles as everyone else. Nevertheless, the director has repeatedly showcased his extensive and impressive music taste through his filmography, with works like Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill almost as celebrated for their masterful soundtracks as for the actual stories themselves.
What’s more, music seems to be a recurring theme of discussion for Tarantino’s characters. From dissections of Madonna in Reservoir Dogs to Mia Wallace’s take on the Beatles-Elvis rivalry in Pulp Fiction, the director has often reflected his deep interest in music during his directorial work. During that infamous scene in Pulp Fiction, Wallace dictates that there are two types of people in the world: Beatles people and Elvis people. While there can be some crossover between the two, nobody can love the two artists equally.
That discussion might as well have been lifted straight from Tarantino’s day-to-day thoughts, and he has always been an Elvis Presley man rather than a Beatles man. This probably doesn’t come as a surprise; Presley was much more flashy and raucous than the British invasion outfit. Still, there was one aspect of The Beatles’ existence that even Tarantino could not deny the excellence of, and that was their film work.
Partly inspired by Elvis Presley, ironically enough, The Beatles began to star in films, beginning with A Hard Day’s Night in 1964. In contrast to other pop-star films, however, the Fab Four tended to play themselves in these films, with stories based loosely on their real-life antics. Both A Hard Day’s Night and Help! were fairly revolutionary for their time period, but it was the band’s 1968 film Yellow Submarine which particularly endeared itself towards Tarantino.
When asked to cite his favourite films from the late 1960s during a 2021 interview, Tarantino subverted expectations by highlighting, “Head, starring The Monkees — Jack Nicholson co-writes the script! And Yellow Submarine.” Both of these are fairly strange picks for Tarantino, but Yellow Submarine is notably odd. “I’m not a big Beatles fan; you’re either an Elvis man or a Beatles man, and I’m an Elvis man,” Tarantino admitted.
“But sometime in 1999, my then-girlfriend and I watched Yellow Submarine, and we loved it. After seeing Yellow Submarine, there finally was one thing about The Beatles that I had tremendous affection for.”
An animated psychedelic fantasy film, of which The Beatles themselves had very little creative control, it is difficult to imagine the man famed for his gritty, intensely violent action movies sitting down to enjoy Yellow Submarine. Then again, at least his love for the film reflects the fact that even a colossal contrarian cannot wholly denounce the brilliance of The Beatles.
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