It’s been over a month since we cranked out an installment of The Lists, but with Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” set for release on Friday, it seemed a good time to cook up a new collective.
When most people praise Tarantino’s skill as a screenwriter, they tend to focus on his well-honed ear for dialogue. But I have always been much more enchanted by his ability to create a wide array of separately interesting characters that are nevertheless of a piece with the filmmaker’s pulp sense of the world.
Each of Tarantino’s films are ensembles of one level or another, usually elevated off the page by the performances he gets out of actor eager to take on something fresh. And no matter the quality of Tarantino’s work behind the camera, the material is always, if nothing else, unique.
So a list of the greatest characters ever conceived by the man seemed to be the best course of action. The list doesn’t merely include characters from Tarantino’s films as a director, mind you. Those he conceived in original screenplays filmed by other directors were considered as well. Eight films are featured on the list, two of them twice.
The only Tarantino-affiliated films that don’t appear are “From Dusk Till Dawn” (a personal favorite that, if I was asked on another day, might show up somewhere) and the “Death Proof” segment of “Grindhouse” (which, if I were feeling particularly generous one day, might yield a mention for Kurt Russell’s Stuntman Mike).
All other Tarantino extravaganzas are well-represented. Let’s dig in here…