Quentin Tarantino is an American film director and screenwriter known for his nonlinear storytelling and eclectic film references. He began his career working in a video store and writing scripts. His directorial debut was 1992's Reservoir Dogs, which helped establish his reputation. His next film, Pulp Fiction, was a major commercial and critical success, winning the Palme d'Or and Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Tarantino is known for directing films featuring nonlinear storylines and eclectic genre mixtures, including Kill Bill, Inglourious Basterds, and Django Unchained.

1. Quentin Tarantino
Director Case Study
Hayat Chehab

2. Early Life
• Quentin Tarantino was born on March
27, 1963, in Knoxville, Tennessee. He is
the only child of Connie McHugh and
actor Tony Tarantino, who left the family
before Quentin was born. Moving to
California at the age of 4, Tarantino
developed his love for movies at an
early age, choosing to spend his time
watching movies or reading comics
rather than studying.
• He worked at an adult film theater after
dropping out of high school, while also
taking acting classes. He eventually
landed a job at Video Archives in
Manhattan Beach, California.

3. Early Films
• During his time at Video Archives,
Tarantino worked on several
screenplays, including True
Romance and Natural Born Killers. In
1990, Tarantino left Video Archives to
work for Cinetel, a production
company. Through one of the
producers there, he was able to get his
script for True Romance in the hands
of director Tony Scott, who bought the
rights to it.
• Working with producer Lawrence
Bender, Tarantino was able to secure
funding for his directorial
debut Reservoir Dogs (1992), for which
he had also written the screenplay.

4. Reservoir Dogs
• In 1992 Quentin Tarantino releases his written
and directed independent film, Reservoir
Dogs at the Sundance Film Festival. It was
thought of as one of the best independent
films of all time. When Tarantino was able to
get the script to actor Harvey Keitel, he signed
on as actor and producer for the project.
• He drew inspiration for the project from such
classic heist films as Rififi and City on Fire.
The independent film helped to make
Tarantino one of the most talked-about figures
in Hollywood. While not a big hit in the United
States, it became a popular title on video and
did well overseas.

5. Pulp Fiction
• With Pulp Fiction (1994), Tarantino created an
unpredictable thrill ride filled with violence and pop
culture references.
• Pulp Fiction was both a commercial and critical
success. In the United States, it earned over $108
million at the box office, becoming the first
independent film to do so. Pulp Fiction won the
prestigious Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film
Festival in 1994 and received seven Academy
Award nominations, including Best Picture and
Best Director. For his work on the film, Tarantino
took home the award for Best Original Screenplay,
an honour he had to share with former collaborator
Roger Avary. The two had a falling out over the
writing credits for the film.

6. Criticism and Success
• Known for his temper, Tarantino got into a public
disagreement with director Oliver Stone. Stone
directed Natural Born Killers (1994) and rewrote
parts of Tarantino's script. Enraged by the
rewrites, Tarantino fought to have his name taken
off the film. Stone told the press that the changes
were an improvement over the original, which
had poor character development.
• In a related incident, Tarantino slapped one of the
producers of Natural Born Killers when he ran
into him at Los Angeles restaurant.

7. Collaborations
• In 1995, Tarantino wrote and directed one of the
four stories featured in Four Rooms. The other
three were handled by other rising independent
filmmakers Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell,
and Robert Rodriguez.
• After the release of Four Rooms, Tarantino and
Rodriguez collaborated on From Dusk Till
Dawn (1996). Tarantino wrote the screenplay for
the film and starred opposite George Clooney,
playing criminals who end up battling vampires.
Rodriguez directed the film, which received
negative reviews from critics.

8. Jackie Brown
• Tarantino soon tackled Jackie Brown (1997), a crime thriller starring Pam
Grier as a stewardess who gets caught smuggling money for an arms
dealer. The film was adapted from an Elmore Leonard novel.
• The film was well received,
with many calling it a more
mature work for Tarantino
although not everyone loved
the film and even received
criticism for Tarantino's
overuse of a derogatory
term for African-Americans
in Jackie Brown.

9. Kill Bill
• After taking a break from filming, Tarantino jumped into the
world of martial arts films. The idea for Kill Bill was formed by
Tarantino and Thurman in a bar during the filming of Pulp
Fiction. For this film, Tarantino learned on the fly how to make
a kung fu film, working and reworking the sequences as he
went along.
• The plot focused on revenge, as a female assassin known as
the Bride played by Uma Thurman seeks to kill those involved
in the savage attack on her and her wedding party.
• Running over budget and over schedule, Tarantino persevered
with the project, shooting so much that he eventually had to
create two films. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 was released in fall of 2003
with Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) following a few months later.

10. Recent Work
• After Kill Bill, Tarantino experimented in television. He
wrote and directed an episode of the drama CSI:
Crime Scene Investigation (2005), for which he
received an Emmy Award nomination.
• Tarantino teamed back up with Director
and friend, Robert Rodriguez to help
direct the comic book adaption Sin City,
which was his first attempt at digital
filmmaking. The duo collaborated again
to make a double feature called
Grindhouse (2007), which consisted of
Death Proof, Directed by Quentin
Tarantino and Planet Terror, Directed by
Robert Rodriguez. Critics and movie-goers
alike were not quite certain what to
make of this collaboration, and it flopped
at the box office.

11. Inglorious Basterds
• Tarantino finally returned to work on his
World War II script. In 2009, he released
the long-awaited Inglorious Basterds,
which focused on a group of Jewish-
American soldiers out to destroy as many
Nazis as possible.
• Some of the reviews
were mixed, but
Tarantino seemed
unfazed by any
negative comments.
The film was nominated
for eight Academy
Awards, including two
for Tarantino for best
director and best
original screenplay.

12. Django Unchained
• Tarantino went on to meet with both commercial
and critical success with his action western Django
Unchained, released in late 2012. At the 85th
Academy Awards in 2013, Tarantino won an
Academy Award for best original screenplay
for Django Unchained. The film received several
other Oscar nominations, including for best picture,
cinematography and sound editing.
• In the film, Jamie Foxx starred as Django, a freed
slave who teams up with a bounty hunter
(Christoph Waltz) to search for his wife, played by
Kerry Washington. Django then has to face off
against his wife's plantation owner, played by
Leonardo DiCaprio in the film. Other cast members
include Samuel L. Jackson and Jonah Hill.