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Critics are often praising the incredible ear for dialogue of writer/director Quentin Tarantino (and his new film, Inglourious Basterds, is certainly one of the best screenplays of the year to date) but his body of directorial work is just as notable for the amazing performances he has guided in the last twenty years in only six (and-a-half if you count Four Rooms) films. His characters have become so iconic that their names have become cultural reference points – Mr. Blonde, Vincent Vega, Jackie Brown, Marsellus Wallace, The Bride, and Stuntman Mike to name just a few. And no one will forget the names Hans Landa, Shosanna Dreyfus, or Aldo Raine after they see Inglourious Basterds.
All of these memorable characters and the performances that brought them to life got the list-making section of our brains working on all cylinders. Looking at only the films Tarantino's directed (sorry fans of True Romance, From Dusk Till Dawn, and even Natural Born Killers) and only full-length features (counting Death Proof, which was released on its own DVD, but excluding Four Rooms and his scene in Sin City), what are the best performances from the QT filmography? Let's rank....
Runner-ups (in chronological order): Michael Madsen, Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, and Chris Penn in Reservoir Dogs; John Travolta, Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames, Christopher Walken, and Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction; Samuel L. Jackson, Robert De Niro, Bridget Fonda, and Michael Keaton in Jackie Brown; Daryl Hannah in Kill Bill; Zoe Bell in Death Proof; and Diane Kruger and Til Schweiger in Inglourious Basterds.
In the early-to-mid 1990s, Tim Roth was one of the most consistent actors on the scene, delivering again and again with great art movie performances like Vincent and Theo and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. As great as Keitel, Madsen, Buscemi, and Penn are in Reservoir Dogs, Roth is our key to the film. Assuming you're not an ear-slicing lunatic, Mr. Orange is the average viewer's most identifiable character. He's the guy who could be you caught in a really dangerous situation. While Madsen and Buscemi get the lines most quoted in drunken frat houses, Roth grounds the film in the believability that truly makes it work. If all the characters were ranting about "special service" and dancing to Stealer's Wheel, Reservoir Dogs would be like the dozens of awful Tarantino rip-offs that followed his first few films that mistakenly assumed it was only the flashy characters from QT's movies that had an impact. From the gut-wrenching opening scene through the final shot, Roth's work in Dogs is some of the most underrated of the QT filmography.
The twelve years since Jackie Brown was released has had an interesting impact on Tarantino's third film, kind of leaving it as the least heralded work in Tarantino's career. Of course, you can't go in a movie poster store without seeing a dozen options for Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Kill Bill and Death Proof was recent enough that it still has people talking (usually yelling at me for how much I like it). Except for a few people who like to embrace the cinematic runt of the litter and will tell you that JB is Quentin's best film, the Pam Grier comeback vehicle has largely slid under the radar. It's a damn good movie but I think anything would have been a disappointment after Pulp Fiction and it derailed what should be a more widely beloved comeback performance from Pam Grier, perfectly cast and wonderfully directed as the title character.
The lovely Laurent plays the emotional core of Inglorious Basterds (even if you'd never know it from the amount of press that Brad Pitt is getting for what is essentially a supporting role), a Jewish woman looking to avenge the murder of her family by the Nazis years earlier. But Shosanna is not your typical heroine (if there is such a thing in the Tarantino world). She's planning to fight murder with mayhem. Laurent has the difficult task of taking the viewer from seeing her as a survivor to seeing her as the most righteous Nazi killer in the film. Her character is the emotional face of Basterds and Laurent is perfect in every scene, keeping more secrets than any character in the film and playing them just below the surface, ready to boil over in an orgy of Nazi death.
By the time Jackie Brown came out, Tarantino was already well-known for reviving relatively dead careers, something he had done with John Travolta in Pulp Fiction, had gotten a lot of press for attempting by casting Pam Grier as a lead, and would do again with David Carradine in Kill Bill. Grier got a lot of the pre-release attention for Jackie Brown, but when people saw it, much of that switched to one of the best performances of the year in Robert Forster's turn as the bail bondsman who falls for Ms. Brown. Forster has the perfect mix of aged toughness and vulnerability that makes him likable. The star of Medium Cool had been largely forgotten by the time Jackie Brown went into production (and has been largely forgotten since then with a series of very bad career decisions including Like Mike and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle), but he'll always have Max Cherry and the Oscar nomination that came with him. Forster's mini-comeback with Jackie Brown is further proof of one of the great rules of cinema – you never know exactly where the next great performance could come from. No one would have guessed that Robert Forster would have the words "Oscar Nominee" next to his name by the end of the 1990s. After the movie, no one can argue that he doesn't deserve the title.
Talk about underrated performances in Tarantino films. When those of us who were raised on Escape from New York and Big Trouble in Little China heard that Kurt Russell was going to play the lead in Tarantino's half of Grindhouse, it was the best casting news of the year. Snake Plissken in a Tarantino grindhouse movie? Just writing it now makes me smile. And, as fans of his knew he would, Russell completely, totally delivered. Stuntman Mike could have been a caricature, a freakish creation like something out of Sin City, but Quentin and Kurt knew that the only way to make Mike scary was to play him straight. Actors in grindhouse movies don't know they're in "bad movies." Too many actors in intentionally cheesy films (including most of them in Planet Terror) wink and smile at the camera, as if they need to make sure you know they're in on the joke. There's a difference between an actor who is having fun, as Russell clearly is with this juicy role, and one who is TRYING to have fun and making sure you know it. That's just annoying.
The first of two performances from "Quentin's muse" that you'll find on this list is the one that really propelled her into the spotlight. If someone is doing a montage of Thurman performances, half of it will be of her in Jack Rabbit Slim's, eating and dancing with John Travolta. From the way she sashays across the room to the strains of "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" to the way she sips a shake to even the way she plays an overdose, Thurman is the epitome of the movie star in Pulp Fiction. She's so iconic that she became the image on the poster that hangs in thousands of dorm rooms around the world right this minute. Tarantino wrote a great, recurring line for Patricia Arquette in True Romance – "You're so cool." She could have been talking about Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction.
Please don't let the salacious details of his passing or even the relative insanity of a few of his public appearances in his final years diminish the legacy of David Carradine and don't let it cloud the way you approach the Kill Bill movies. Carradine was ROBBED of an Oscar nomination for his work in Kill Bill, Volume Two, one of the biggest Academy snubs of the last several years. He's perfect in this film, not hitting one wrong note as the most important character in the history of The Bride. Carradine handles some of the most dialogue-heavy, drawn-out sequences in both Bill films perfectly, adding shade and nuance to a character with only a few lines. He does more to define the back story of Bill in the viewer's mind with just a look or a glance than most actors would do with another half hour of screen time. We believe Bill. We believe that he is a complete character with a detailed back story. Of course, that's partially due to Tarantino's incredible writing, but that just provides the structure and Carradine fills in the details.
Most of you probably haven't seen Waltz before, but you will not soon forget him after seeing Inglourious Basterds. It's one of the most daring, complex performances in years, a rare turn that honestly merits description as a tour de force. There are still a few months left in the year, but I find it hard to believe that there will be five better supporting actor turns by the time the calendar switches to the new decade and I would wager a day's pay that Waltz hears his name on Oscar nomination morning. If he doesn't, I know who will make several "Snubs of 2009" lists. Waltz plays Hans Landa, the character that parallels Shosanna Dreyfus with the most prominent character arc of the film. It is Landa who has a much more definable arc than any of the actual Basterds. The genius of Waltz’s performance is similar to what Anthony Hopkins did with Hannibal Lecter, making a character both terrifying and riveting. He may be absolutely despicable, but he's undeniably intelligent and even socially engaging. You want to rip his head off, but you can't tear your eyes away. Just the way he fills an over-sized pipe or puts whipped cream on a piece of strudel indicates a man (and an actor) obsessed with the details. Waltz is perfect. It's remarkable that there are two performances that anyone could call "better" in the history of one director. For a lot of filmmakers, directing a turn like what Waltz delivers here would be a career best.
There were two Oscar snubs in the Kill Bill franchise. We've already covered Carradine. Thurman was just as screwed over by a voting body that rarely recognizes physically demanding performances like the one she delivered in Kill Bill. With all the flash of the style of Kill Bill, audiences and far too many critics failed to recognize the beating heart of the film in Thurman's amazing performance. She's the driver of this rollercoaster of a film, the person who represents the director's journey through the genres that inspired him from blaxploitation to kung fu movies to the spaghetti western. Thurman doesn't miss a single beat, note, or line delivery in either film but what truly impresses me is how completely she throws herself into the role. She is physically fearless, conveying both The Bride's tremendous abilities as a killer and the vulnerability needed to make her quest for vengeance so emotionally powerful.
Like a lot of timeless roles, this one was reportedly written for the actor who brought it to life. Isn't it funny how often that happens? And can you imagine anyone else in the part? Think about it. The part is so defined by Jackson that it's impossible to think of anyone else playing it. In any bar in any city, ask a stranger to name the origin of the following sentence – "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men." Eight out of ten will NOT say Ezekiel 25:17. They will say Pulp Fiction. (One will get it right and the other will quote the entire piece, yelling at you as he says "VENGEANCE" and asking for a sip of your tasty beverage.) The point is that Jules in Pulp Fiction isn't just a part or a character. He's an icon. He's not just cool. He's Kool & the Gang. He's not just a role. He's a legend. And Jackson is absolutely perfect. I love Martin Landau's work in Ed Wood, but winning the Oscar over Jackson? History has already proven that to be incorrect. We've talked about snubs already in this piece, but nothing beats Jackson not winning the Oscar for this work, one of the best supporting turns EVER.
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