Quentin Tarantino is one of the most influential directors since the 90’s. However, recently, it sounds Tarantino may be winding down his career. The man has said that he will direct 10 films and then retire. Hateful 8 was in fact his eighth film, so if he’s good to his word, the man only has two more films left in him.
What does Tarantino’s retirement mean? Quentin Tarantino is a director who does not tackle projects in vein. While some directors seem to crank out a new film every year (at least it feels that way), QT is a man who doesn’t mind pacing himself a little. There was a six year gap between Jackie Brown and Kill Bill, with three year gaps often occurring between films. Tarantino takes his time with filming movies that he actually emphasizes the number of films in the marketing. Hateful Eight was sold as the Eighth film he’s directed. Imagine the pressure if a film were in fact marketed as the final film of Tarantino.
In a way, this may be the reason Quentin Tarantino wants to retire. To paraphrase the Dark Knight, it seems Tarantino wants to die a hero rather than live long enough to become the villain. Many of those directors who make films more often have made mistakes. Woody Allen – who literally has made a film every year since Annie Hall – is extremely hit and miss in his films. Ridley Scott went through a bit of slump after American Gangster before returning to form with The Martian. Steven Spielberg has shown his feet of clay with movies such as Always and Lost World: Jurassic Park. It seems that because Tarantino has been so choosey about his projects, he has very few blemishes on his resume.
Two of the films that are considered his weaker films are the aforementioned Jackie Brown and Death Proof. I actually enjoy both movies, but agree they are not Tarantino’s best. I think they suffer from being weaker for his standards. When a man’s report cards is filled with A’s, a few B’s tend to stand out. Oddly enough, both films suffer from opposite reasons – Jackie Brown was a little too familiar while Death Proof was too different. In a way, that is one of the commendable facts about Tarantino – a lot of directors fall down by doing the same thing over and over, QT fell on his face by at least taking a risk that simply didn’t pay off. Another blemish was the mediocre compilation film Four Rooms – realistically, that also can’t be held against Tarantino since HIS segment was good. We also can’t hold his first film My Best Friend’s Birthday against him since it was a first film – if anything, shades of brilliance were demonstrated early.
So what will Tarantino do after retirement? The man himself once said that he wants to be an eccentric old man who runs a theater. That sounds awesome on certain levels. Tarantino has also said he’s only going to DIRECT 10 films. It is possible he plans to work in other capacities. He has produced films such as Hostel, which has helped up and coming directors make a name for themselves. Tarantino hasn’t written a film he didn’t direct since From Dusk til Dawn in 1996. Tarantino has had a bad relationship with directors working on films he only wrote. Although they were excellent films, Tarantino was unhappy with the way they turned out. Still, times have changed so if Tarantino were to write without directing, he may have more influence. Even if he does not write full screenplays for other directors, he has done script doctoring on films such as Crimson Tide (and you can see his fingerprints in some of the dialogue). So that is one way Tarantino can influence directors if he does not want to direct anymore.
Also, there is another factor. When I think of retirements, I think of another director who never really did a bad thing – Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki also said he was going to retire several times, both before and after his magnum opus Spirited Away. However, his retirement did not seem to stick until The Wind Rises (a good film to go out on). Tarantino does not seem to be the kind of guy who would say he’s retiring just for publicity. Though perhaps if he has anymore ideas, memories of how his other scripts were treated will spark his directing bug again. Either way, Tarantino has won 2 Oscars and directed stone classics such as Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained. So if he does retire in the near future, he is a filmmaker of few regrets.
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