Why the feature Quentin Tarantino called his “best film” and “best movie” is neither
For the most part, trying to argue over the differences between a “film” and a “movie” is about as pedantic as it gets, but Quentin Tarantino happily proclaimed that one of his nine features was both.
In the broadest sense, anyone who buys into the distinction would agree that the main difference – again, splitting hairs here – between a “film” and a “movie” is that the former is more creator-driven, artistic, and prestigious, whereas the latter is focused more on entertainment and escapism. One is for the artists and the other for the audiences.
Six and half a dozen in the grand scheme of things. It would appear that by creating a difference, Tarantino was covering his own backside. There’s also a significant amount of recency bias at play, too, because the two-time Academy Award winner picked his penultimate flick as delivering the best of both worlds.
When Howard Stern asked him to name his best movie, the filmmaker responded, “I really do think Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is my best movie.” However, during an appearance on the ReelBlend podcast, he said something very similar but quite different: “I do think that Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is my best film.”
At first glance, it’s the same comment repurposed twice over. And yet, by applying that very sentiment to not only Tarantino’s filmography but the way he’s categorised and defined it, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is neither the best film nor the best movie he’s ever made.
Having decided that his entire career was going to be interconnected in one form or another, Tarantino has crafted not one but two cinematic universes of his own. There’s the ‘Realer Than Real World Universe’ that includes Reservoir Dogs, True Romance, Pulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, told in a firm reality.
However, there’s also the ‘Movie Movie Universe’ featuring Natural Born Killers, From Dusk Till Dawn, Death Proof, Planet Terror, and Kill Bill, which are the films the characters he’s written would go and see at their local multiplex. By his own definition, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood would constitute a film because it features real people in a real world that’s supposed to be reflective of real life.
On the other side of the coin, anything that exists outside of that is a movie because it’s fiction, fantasy, and unburdened by trying to root itself in at least some semblance of authenticity. Extrapolating from there, there’s one title from each universe that fits the “best” bill much better than his love letter to 1960s Los Angeles.
That’s not to say Once Upon a Time in Hollywood didn’t deserve its flowers because it’s excellent. Ironically, it encapsulates Tarantino as a person and filmmaker better than any of his other credits have ever done, which, by extension, would have made it the perfect vehicle with which to bid farewell to the world of big-screen directing.
Separating his filmography into those two distinct camps of his own making, two clear winners emerge. Pulp Fiction is Tarantino’s best film and also his most important. It elevated his career to the next level, reinvented the face of independent cinema, created a domino effect that seeped into every rung on the industry ladder and remains as timeless and rewatchable as it was almost 30 years ago.
Razor-sharp dialogue, instantly iconic characters, energetic pacing that keeps audiences invested from the first to last minute, all anchored by a writer and director operating with a supreme level of confidence. Tarantino knew he was good enough to make an instant classic, that’s exactly what he did, and at the end of the day the real winner was cinema itself.
Operating at the opposite end of the spectrum, Kill Bill is far and away his best movie. Obviously, it features everything his supporters had come to know and love about Tarantino,. However, the freedom of expression instilled in him by releasing the handbrake, putting the pedal to the metal, and forsaking any sense of grounded reality in favour of an all-out orgy of style, verve, violence, and unrepentant ass-kicking captures the essence of what big screen entertainment was always supposed to be about.
There are films, there are movies, and Tarantino has made his bed on which of his credits cover which. He may have called Once Upon a Time in Hollywood the best of both worlds, but when Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill are right there on opposing sides of a divide he created, it doesn’t hold a drop of water.
Never Miss A Take
The Far Out Quentin Tarantino Newsletter
All the latest Quentin Tarantino content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.