Director Quentin Tarantino has named Ridley Scott’s “Black Hawk Down” the best film of the 21st century, calling Scott’s “directorship extraordinary.” The Oscar-winning filmmaker revealed his top 10 picks in an interview on the Bret Easton Ellis podcast (via World of Reel).
The list includes Lee Unkrich’s Toy Story 3 (2nd place), Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation (3rd place), Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk (4th place), Paul Thomas’ Also included are Anderson’s There Will Be Blood (5th place), David Fincher’s Zodiac (6th place), Tony Scott’s Unstoppable (7th place) and George Miller’s Mud. Max: Fury Road” (8th place), Edgar Wright’s “Shaun of the Dead” (9th place), and Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris” (10th place).
“I liked it the first time I saw it, but I think it was actually so intense that it didn’t suit me. It didn’t carry me the way it should have,” Tarantino said of choosing Black Hawk Down as his top choice. “I’ve seen it not just a few times since then, but I think it’s a masterpiece, and one of the things I really like about it is (…) I think this is the only movie that really fully pursues the sense of purpose and visual effects and feeling of Apocalypse Now, and it keeps up the intensity for 2 hours and 45 minutes or whatever it is.I watched it again recently and my heart was pounding throughout the entire runtime.I hadn’t seen it in a while, but the director’s feat was extraordinary. ”
Director Tarantino described Toy Story 3, which he chose as second place, as “an almost perfect movie”, adding, “The last five minutes broke my heart. If I tried to explain the ending, I’d start crying and choke (…) It’s just amazing.”
In an even more surprising revelation, Tarantino said he actually didn’t like Nolan’s Dunkirk when he first saw it. The movie became his fourth favorite of the century.
“What I love about it now is that it feels like there’s a real mastery to it, and I’ve watched it over and over and over again to get to that point,” he said. “The first time I saw it, I didn’t get chills. It was so shocking that I didn’t really know what I saw. It was just too much. Then the second time I saw it, my brain was able to accept it a little more. Then the third time, the fourth time, it just kind of blew me away.”
Tarantino has previously announced films that ranked No. 11 to No. 20, including Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story (No. 20), Eli Roth’s Cabin Fever (No. 19), Bennett Miller’s Moneyball (No. 18), Pracha Pingaew’s Chocolate (No. 17), and Rob Zombie’s The Devil. Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (15th), Richard Linklater’s School of Rock (14th), Jeff Tremaine’s Jackass the Movie (13th), Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushad’s The Big Bad Wolves (12th), and Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale (11th).
During this segment of “The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast,” Tarantino drew attention to the similarities between “Battle Royale,” which he picked at number 11, and the “Hunger Games” series.
Tarantino said, “I don’t understand why the Japanese writers didn’t sue Suzanne Collins for everything she owned.” “They just ripped off a shitty book! Stupid book reviewers aren’t going to go see a Japanese movie called Battle Royale. That’s why the stupid book reviewers never criticized her. They were talking about how this was the most original shitty book they’d ever read. As soon as the movie critics saw the movie, they said, ‘Oh my god, it’s just Battle Royale, except it’s PG!'”
Tarantino has shared variations on his list of favorite movies over the years. In 2020, he named David Fincher’s The Social Network the best movie of the 2010s, saying in an interview with Premiere (via IndieWire): “It’s definitely The Social Network. It’s number one because it’s the best. That’s it! It blows away all the competition.”
Listen to Tarantino’s interview on the Bret Easton Ellis Podcast here.
