“I have loved movies as the number one thing in my life so long that I can’t ever remember a time when I didn’t.”
1985
At 22, Tarantino begins working at Video Archives in Manhattan Beach, California. The store specializes in rare and obscure films.
1990
Tarantino writes the first draft of Reservoir Dogs in three and a half weeks.
1991
Reservoir Dogs is filmed in 35 days in locations around Los Angeles.
1992
Reservoir Dogs premieres at the Sundance Film Festival and is nominated for the Grand Jury Prize.
“To this day I actually think that…rather than go to film school, just get a camera and try to start making a movie.”
Quentin Tarantino’s directorial debut, nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival (1992) and awarded the International Critics Award at the Toronto International Film Festival (1992), is raw, violent and unforgettable. Six perfect strangers are assembled to pull off the perfect crime, but when a botched robbery reveals a police informant among them, their simple robbery explodes into a bloody ambush. The gang includes Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), Mr. Blue (Eddie Bunker), Mr. Brown (Quentin Tarantino), Nice Guy Eddie Cabot (Chris Penn) and Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney).
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“A writer should have this little voice inside of you saying, ‘Tell the truth. Reveal a few secrets here.’”
1992
While living in Amsterdam, Tarantino begins writing the screenplay for Pulp Fiction. His experience inspires Vincent Vega’s observations of Dutch culture.
1993
True Romance, written by Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott, is released. Tarantino refers to the screenplay as his most autobiographical to date.
“Sure, James Gandolfini almost beats Patricia Arquette to death and she has to blow him away with a shotgun, but that doesn’t mean it’s not romantic.”
Runaway lovers Clarence and Alabama (Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette) play a dangerous game with a stolen suitcase containing $5 million worth of cocaine. They head for Los Angeles, where they’ll sell the goods and begin a new life, but both sides of the law have other ideas. This dark comic web of crime, murder and mayhem from writer Quentin Tarantino and director Tony Scott (Top Gun, Spy Game), features an ensemble cast including Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini and Christopher Walken.
1994
Video Archives closes after moving to Hermosa Beach, California. Quentin acquires nearly the entire inventory.
“I don’t believe in elitism. I don’t think the audience is this dumb person lower than me. I am the audience.”
1994
Pulp Fiction is unveiled at a midnight screening at the Cannes Film Festival and causes a sensation, winning the coveted Palme d’Or.
1995
Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary win the Academy Award for Best Screenplay. Pulp Fiction’s unique non-linear narrative structure is widely praised as an evolutionary step in filmmaking.
“When it comes to the actual writing of the piece… it’s about character. I don’t lead the characters, I let the characters lead me.”
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Pulp Fiction has been hailed by critics and audiences worldwide as a film that redefined cinema. A skeptical hit man (John Travolta), his philosophical partner (Samuel L. Jackson), a drug-addled gangster’s moll (Uma Thurman) and a washed-up boxer (Bruce Willis) converge in four tales of violence and redemption. The film was honored with an Academy Award® for Best Original Screenplay (1994) and earned seven total nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. It has also been listed as one of the best films of all-time by Time and Entertainment Weekly.
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1995
After completing Pulp Fiction, Tarantino directs and makes a cameo in the final segment of Four Rooms, “The Man from Hollywood.”
1995
Tarantino acquires the film rights to Elmore Leonard’s novel Rum Punch and begins adapting it into his screenplay for Jackie Brown.
“My movies are painfully personal, but I’m never trying to let you know how personal they are.”
1995
Tarantino creates Rolling Thunder Pictures to release exploitation classics including Switchblade Sisters, Detroit 9000 and Mighty Peking Man.
1996
From Dusk Till Dawn, a horror-crime-action-thriller written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Robert Rodriguez, is released.
1996
Jackie Brown opens in theaters on Christmas Day. The tagline for the film is, “This Christmas, Santa’s got a brand new bag.”
“Ordell was all my mentors as a young man growing up. Ordell was who I could have been…if I didn’t have artistic ambitions. That was it. If I hadn’t wanted to make movies, I would have ended up as Ordell.”
Quentin Tarantino’s acclaimed adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s Rum Punch follows a cash-smuggling flight attendant (Pam Grier) who is busted by an ATF agent (Michael Keaton) and a cop (Michael Bowen). When pressured to help with their investigation, she agrees to do one last run for a ruthless arms dealer (Samuel L. Jackson). Mistrust and suspicions arise when Jackie plays the opposing forces against each other in an effort to walk away with the dough. Robert Forster earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar® nomination for his role as Max Cherry, a bail bondsman who falls for Jackie and becomes embroiled in the scheme.
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2000
Tarantino offers Uma Thurman the Kill Bill script and the role of “The Bride” as a 30th birthday gift.
2001
Iron Monkey is released in the US, marking Tarantino’s first professional involvement in a martial arts film.
2003
Eight months before his personal homage to Kung Fu bows at the box office, Tarantino presents Hero to American audiences.
2003
Kill Bill is split into two separate films after Tarantino’s original version clocks in at more than four hours.
2003
Kill Bill: Volume 1, Tarantino’s over-the-top chick-ninja bloodfest, is released in theaters.
“I want to top expectations. I want to blow you away. It’s that kind of movie.”
In the first volume of this gritty revenge saga, an assassin (Uma Thurman) is shot at the altar by her ruthless employer, Bill (David Carradine), and other members of his Deadly Vipers Assassination Squad. The Bride then sets out to bring justice to all those who wronged her, including a reformed suburban mother (Vivica A. Fox) and the Japanese Yakuza crime-lord (Lucy Liu).
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“I’m the orchestra conductor, the audience’s reactions are my orchestra, and the sounds you make… and your feelings are my instruments.”
2004
At the first test screening for Kill Bill: Volume 2 in Austin, Texas, the audience gives the film a five minute standing ovation.
2004
Kill Bill: Volume 2 hits theaters, completing The Bride’s bloodsoaked revenge saga.
“I’m a big fan of action and violence in cinema. I always said that it’s almost as if it’s one of the reasons Thomas Edison invented the camera was to film violence, because it is so good.”
The murderous Bride (Uma Thurman) mercilessly continues her vengeance quest against her ex-boss, Bill (David Carradine), and his two remaining associates: Bill’s degenerate younger brother (Michael Madsen) and a vicious one-eyed swordswoman (Daryl Hannah).
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2005
Tarantino directs a scene in Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller’s neo-noir film adaptation of Sin City. His fee — $1.
2005
Tarantino directs the two-part season finale of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. His work on the episodes, “Grave Danger: Volumes 1 and 2″, earns him an Emmy nomination.
“When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them ‘No, I went to films.’”
2007
The American Cinema Editors society honors Tarantino with the prestigious ACE Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award.
2007
Death Proof is released alongside Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror as part of the Grindhouse double feature. Tarantino receives his first credit as cinematographer.
“I don’t consider this a movie-movie… This is not fantastical. You could get a car to do this. You could meet a guy like Stuntman Mike. And if you do, you’re fucked.”
Kurt Russell stars as a tough-talking, psychotic serial murderer who transforms his stunt car into an indestructible killing machine, then climbs behind the wheel to stalk and terrorize a group of women on the road. What he doesn’t realize is that he’s picked the wrong babes to mess with.
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2008
Empire Magazine names Reservoir Dogs the “greatest independent film of all time,” cementing its status as a modern cult classic.
“Movies are my religion and God is my patron… When I make a movie, I want it to be everything to me; like I would die for it.”
2009
Inglourious Basterds debuts at the Cannes Film Festival. When asked about the unusual spelling of the film’s title, Tarantino says, “I’m never going to explain that.”
2009
Inglourious Basterds receives eight Oscar nominations — including best picture, best director and best original screenplay.
“I enjoy the war-mission subgenre but I want to forward it, make it bigger, broader, more artistic…
I got to write a war film and a love letter to cinema.”
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A Jewish cinema owner in Nazi-occupied Paris is forced to host a movie premiere for the Third Reich, where a radical group of American soldiers, The Basterds, led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), plan to roll out a score-settling scheme. The film was honored with an Academy Award® for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (2009, Christoph Waltz) and earned seven total nominations, including Best Motion Picture of the Year for Lawrence Bender and Best Writing, Original Screenplay for Quentin Tarantino.
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2009
Roger Ebert names Kill Bill one of the 20 best films of the decade, saying “Put the two parts together, and Tarantino has made a masterful saga that celebrates the martial arts genre while kidding it, loving it, and transcending it… This is all one film, and now that we see it whole, it’s greater than its two parts.”
2012
Tarantino receives the Hollywood Screenwriter Award for Django Unchained at the Hollywood Film Awards.
Oh, I’m sorry, did I break your concentration?
Bring home the
20th Anniversary
Blu-Ray box set!
“I was always talked about for my first two films like I was some sort of flash in the pan. Now, at the end of two decades in the business… I am here to stay.”
