Quentin Tarantino loves countless old movies, but he has admitted that he is not a fan of one of cinema’s master filmmakers, calling one of his best movies “mediocre.” Tarantino got his start as a video store clerk, a job that not only increased his love for genre cinema but also helped him master his form when he became a filmmaker himself. He loves everything from Westerns and kung fu movies to blaxploitation films and horror cinema. However, he said he isn’t a fan of one of the movie industry’s recognized legends.
Usually, when Quentin Tarantino talks about filmmakers or actors, he gives complicates to most people. He will sing the praises of everyone from obscure actors from 70s-era kung fu movies to big-name Hollywood stars, and he seems to have a deep respect for several filmmakers who came before him. However, the one director most people consider one of the best of all time does not make the list of people Tarantino likes. Not only has Tarantino said he is not a fan of Alfred Hitchcock, but he has also called the filmmaker’s masterpiece North by Northwest a “mediocre” movie.
Quentin Tarantino Dismissed Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest As “Very Mediocre”
Tarantino Had Big Complaints About Hitchcock’s Movie
Alfred Hitchcock is widely considered one of the best film directors ever. Everyone from Steven Spielberg to Martin Scorsese sings his praises. However, Quentin Tarantino feels that Hitchcock is highly overrated. Not only that, but he thinks that one of Hitchcock’s best films, North by Northwest, is “mediocre.” He also dislikes Vertigo, despite being named one of the top two movies ever made alongside Citizen Kane. After years of naming Citizen Kane the best movie of all time, Sight & Sound replaced it with Vertigo in 2012 (via BBC).
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Tarantino feels like people see North by Northwest and think it is “wonderful” when it is actually “a very mediocre movie” (via Far Out):
“People discover North by Northwest at 22 and think it’s wonderful when actually it is a very mediocre movie.”
Despite Tarantino’s opinions on North by Northwest, most people disagree. The movie has a 97% fresh Rotten Tomatoes score and a 94% from the audience. The British Film Institute, BBC, Writers Guild of America, and Sight & Sound all list it among the best films in Hollywood history. The Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry in 1995, proving its legacy as a true Hollywood masterpiece.
Tarantino Is Not An Alfred Hitchcock Fan In General
Quentin Tarantino Dislikes Alfred Hitchcock’s Films’ Endings
When talking to Tom Segura on the 2 Bears, 1 Cave podcast, Quentin Tarantino didn’t hold back when explaining his thoughts on Alfred Hitchcock. He calls him one of the “greatest directors to ever live.” However, Tarantino also feels Hitchcock was “held back” by the studio system at the time.” He said that the biggest problem with Hitchcock’s movies is the third acts, although he admitted that Strangers on a Train is an exception to the rule, with a “magnificent third act.”
Tarantino said that Hitchcock’s movies would have been better if he had made them in the 1970s.
Tarantino admits this is just his opinion, but Hitchcock’s movies just “petered” out and didn’t end how he thinks Hitchcock would have liked to end them. Tarantino believes Hitchcock’s movies would have been better if he had made them in the 1970s, saying the Hays Code held him back.The Hays Code included self-imposed guidelines put into effect in Hollywood from the 1930s to the 1960s to create moral standards that made films “safe” for the public, especially for children.
This is especially evident when Tarantino said that he prefers the movies that directors made paying homage to Alfred Hitchcock.
“I’ve always felt that Hitchcock’s acolytes took his cinematic and story ideas further. I love Brian De Palma’s Hitchcock movies. I love Richard Franklin’s and Curtis Hanson’s Hitchcock meditations. I prefer those to actual Hitchcock.”
Brian De Palma riffed on Alfred Hitchcock in Body Double (Rear Window), Obsession (Vertigo), and Dressed to Kill (Psycho). Richard Franklin made the 1983 sequel to Psycho. Curtis Hanson made one of Quentin Tarantino’s favorite thrillers, The Bedroom Window, which Tarantino said was made to be a “Hitchcockian thriller.” None of those movies compare to Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpieces, but for Quentin Tarantino, he still feels disappointed in most of Hitchcock’s filmography.
Sources: 2 Bears, 1 Cave,
Vertigo
10/10
- Release Date
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May 28, 1958
- Runtime
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128 minutes
- Writers
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Alec Coppel, Samuel A. Taylor
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James Stewart
Det. John ‘Scottie’ Ferguson
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Kim Novak
Madeleine Elster / Judy Barton