Why Quentin Tarantino is Among the All-Time Great Directors

[Jason]

[Headhunter]

Talent wise, definitely an all-time great. He runs into problems when he's too into his own weirdness at the expense of shit moving along and being entertaining. But his filmography is tough to argue, closest thing to a bad movie is Death Proof which had some sweet shit in it. I do think he doesn't have the abundance of truly great movies that others have. Because of that, Tier 2 for me.

[Jason]

Tier 2 for me, as well.

[Tiggnutz]

Tier one for me there isn't any criteria for greatness that he hasn't already achieved. Has the pure love of film ever been more apparent in someone's work before.

[Jason]

Tier one for me there isn't any criteria for greatness that he hasn't already achieved. Has the pure love of film ever been more apparent in someone's work before.

I can definitely see it in Carpenter and Hitchcock. In my opinion, I've never seen a director love film more than Hitchcock.

[showa58taro]

Tier 2 works for me. His films are all very good but none of his films are in my top tier absolute fave classics. Which suggests he’s a tier down from the top of the pops.

[zombie]

Tier 2 works for me. His films are all very good but none of his films are in my top tier absolute fave classics. Which suggests he’s a tier down from the top of the pops.

would you say that all of your fave classics are directed by tier 1 directors though? i'm not sure that one has as much to do with the other, as you're making it out.

[Reign in Blood]

Talent wise, definitely an all-time great. He runs into problems when he's too into his own weirdness at the expense of shit moving along and being entertaining. But his filmography is tough to argue, closest thing to a bad movie is Death Proof which had some sweet shit in it. I do think he doesn't have the abundance of truly great movies that others have. Because of that, Tier 2 for me.

Agreed with this, except I don't think Death Proof is the weakest link. If he keeps going he has the chance to easily make it to tier 1 though.

[Reign in Blood]

Tier 2 works for me. His films are all very good but none of his films are in my top tier absolute fave classics. Which suggests he’s a tier down from the top of the pops.

would you say that all of your fave classics are directed by tier 1 directors though? i'm not sure that one has as much to do with the other, as you're making it out.

I liken it to sports, anybody can win a championship, simply winning one don’t make them elite (plenty of classics directed by flash-in-the-pans). But to be elite, you have to win a championship, simply being extraordinarily good doesn’t cut it. Tarantino ain’t won no strap for Seb, and that’s fair enough, thus tier 2.

[DancesWithWerewolves]

Tier 2 works for me. His films are all very good but none of his films are in my top tier absolute fave classics. Which suggests he’s a tier down from the top of the pops.

would you say that all of your fave classics are directed by tier 1 directors though? i'm not sure that one has as much to do with the other, as you're making it out.

I liken it to sports, anybody can win a championship, simply winning one don’t make them elite (plenty of classics directed by flash-in-the-pans). But to be elite, you have to win a championship, simply being extraordinarily good doesn’t cut it. Tarantino ain’t won no strap for Seb, and that’s fair enough, thus tier 2.

John G Avildsen always comes to mind.

[zombie]

Tier 2 works for me. His films are all very good but none of his films are in my top tier absolute fave classics. Which suggests he’s a tier down from the top of the pops.

would you say that all of your fave classics are directed by tier 1 directors though? i'm not sure that one has as much to do with the other, as you're making it out.

I liken it to sports, anybody can win a championship, simply winning one don’t make them elite (plenty of classics directed by flash-in-the-pans). But to be elite, you have to win a championship, simply being extraordinarily good doesn’t cut it. Tarantino ain’t won no strap for Seb, and that’s fair enough, thus tier 2.

tarantino's tier as a director isn't my concern.

[Headhunter]

Talent wise, definitely an all-time great. He runs into problems when he's too into his own weirdness at the expense of shit moving along and being entertaining. But his filmography is tough to argue, closest thing to a bad movie is Death Proof which had some sweet shit in it. I do think he doesn't have the abundance of truly great movies that others have. Because of that, Tier 2 for me.

Agreed with this, except I don't think Death Proof is the weakest link. If he keeps going he has the chance to easily make it to tier 1 though.

If he's true to his word and only has one left in the bag, I still think he falls short. Of course, if he somehow manages to top Pulp Fiction or come close, I think it's a different conversation.

This brings up an interesting point though. How much should we hold actually bad movies against great directors when we do these things? It's very few directors who haven't made 2 or 3 shitty ones. That Tarantino's floor is so high helps him here, and he's similarly said he values the baseline quality of every film more than he does making a lot of movies and having more all-timers.

[Headhunter]

Goes without saying this is all arbitrary bullshit with no meaningful standard from person to person, but for me you need three undisputed CLASSICS to be considered for Tier 1. Hall of Fame level films. And you can't have a surplus of shitty ones either though I don't know quite how to qualify that, which fucks with the Rob Reiners and Ridley Scotts of the industry. Pulp definitely there for QT and I do think Basterds will come to be recognized as that. The rest of QT's stuff aren't quite there for me. Some I would definitely include, beyond some of the obvious in Hitchcock, Scorsese, Spielberg, Wilder.

John Carpenter - at least three classics with pretty remarkable consistency
Francis Ford Coppola - decent amount of crap but the weight of Apocalypse Now and The Godfather films carry him
Sergio Leone - impossible to do more with less films IMO
Howard Hawks - almost all of his movies are entertaining and he made every kind of damn movie at a high level

[Headhunter]

Tier 2 works for me. His films are all very good but none of his films are in my top tier absolute fave classics. Which suggests he’s a tier down from the top of the pops.

would you say that all of your fave classics are directed by tier 1 directors though? i'm not sure that one has as much to do with the other, as you're making it out.

I liken it to sports, anybody can win a championship, simply winning one don’t make them elite (plenty of classics directed by flash-in-the-pans). But to be elite, you have to win a championship, simply being extraordinarily good doesn’t cut it. Tarantino ain’t won no strap for Seb, and that’s fair enough, thus tier 2.

tarantino's tier as a director isn't my concern.

It saddens me that you don’t share our enthusiasm for pointless lists and rankings. :cry:

[zombie]

i love pointless lists and rankings, but maybe not so much of the tarantino variety.

my favorite directors are probably not actually all-time greats. so i bow out of this specific topic.

[showa58taro]

Tier 2 works for me. His films are all very good but none of his films are in my top tier absolute fave classics. Which suggests he’s a tier down from the top of the pops.

would you say that all of your fave classics are directed by tier 1 directors though? i'm not sure that one has as much to do with the other, as you're making it out.

I think there’s room to have faves not directed by top directors. Like The Untouchables is one of my faves but I don’t think De Palma is in those top tiers, neither is Michael Bay but I still love The Rock.

But I think my tier one directors as I see them in my head all have entries in my top faves.

[showa58taro]

Tier 2 works for me. His films are all very good but none of his films are in my top tier absolute fave classics. Which suggests he’s a tier down from the top of the pops.

would you say that all of your fave classics are directed by tier 1 directors though? i'm not sure that one has as much to do with the other, as you're making it out.

I liken it to sports, anybody can win a championship, simply winning one don’t make them elite (plenty of classics directed by flash-in-the-pans). But to be elite, you have to win a championship, simply being extraordinarily good doesn’t cut it. Tarantino ain’t won no strap for Seb, and that’s fair enough, thus tier 2.

Reign nailed it. *high fives*

[Tiggnutz]

Tier 2 works for me. His films are all very good but none of his films are in my top tier absolute fave classics. Which suggests he’s a tier down from the top of the pops.

would you say that all of your fave classics are directed by tier 1 directors though? i'm not sure that one has as much to do with the other, as you're making it out.

I liken it to sports, anybody can win a championship, simply winning one don’t make them elite (plenty of classics directed by flash-in-the-pans). But to be elite, you have to win a championship, simply being extraordinarily good doesn’t cut it. Tarantino ain’t won no strap for Seb, and that’s fair enough, thus tier 2.

Reign nailed it. *high fives*

What's the Championship?

[DancesWithWerewolves]

Tier 2 works for me. His films are all very good but none of his films are in my top tier absolute fave classics. Which suggests he’s a tier down from the top of the pops.

would you say that all of your fave classics are directed by tier 1 directors though? i'm not sure that one has as much to do with the other, as you're making it out.

I liken it to sports, anybody can win a championship, simply winning one don’t make them elite (plenty of classics directed by flash-in-the-pans). But to be elite, you have to win a championship, simply being extraordinarily good doesn’t cut it. Tarantino ain’t won no strap for Seb, and that’s fair enough, thus tier 2.

Reign nailed it. *high fives*

What's the Championship?

Probably subjective person to person.

[Headhunter]

Tier 2 works for me. His films are all very good but none of his films are in my top tier absolute fave classics. Which suggests he’s a tier down from the top of the pops.

would you say that all of your fave classics are directed by tier 1 directors though? i'm not sure that one has as much to do with the other, as you're making it out.

I liken it to sports, anybody can win a championship, simply winning one don’t make them elite (plenty of classics directed by flash-in-the-pans). But to be elite, you have to win a championship, simply being extraordinarily good doesn’t cut it. Tarantino ain’t won no strap for Seb, and that’s fair enough, thus tier 2.

Reign nailed it. *high fives*

What's the Championship?

A masterpiece film.