Top 7 Characters Created By Quentin Tarantino We start the Top 7, you finish the Top 10.
Complete coverage of Inglourious Basterds
Scorecard Review by Nick Allen - 9/10 Scorecard Review by Jeff Bayer - 10/10 (His first 10 of the year) Top 7 Characters created by Quentin Tarantino Interviews with Laurent, Roth, and Kruger Interviews with Tarantino, Myers, Waltz, and Novak
With his Inglourious Basterds opening Friday, it is surprising that Quentin Tarantino has such a mainstream following. His movies are often loaded with fanboy tributes to films one would hardly consider recognizable to the regular movie-going crowd. On top of that, he prefers to watch his characters, most of them born out of some sub-genre from the 1970’s, small chat or even discuss their own fate before exploding into a type of shootout fit for a modern western that is over in a flash. As with his new film, he wrangles in viewers with the promise of special Tarantino-violence, but once he has everyone in their seats, he prefers to talk first and foremost.
That being said, why do Tarantino movies work so much? One easy explanation is his characters. With his slightly fantastical worlds he tends to give us equally colorful characters, but does so with a certain touch. They rarely need an introduction, they don't need any background, and the amount of words they speak simply does not matter. They are already wanderers of a sort in a warped world - they only need characteristics that can match such conditions. Such is the case with The Gimp, Stuntman Mike, and other characters created by Quentin Tarantino (Jackie Brown will not be included on this list because technically it was adapted from an Elmore Leonard novel).
Sticking with us as much as the moments that rollick us in a Tarantino movie are his performers, whose bits of dialogue tend to be more memorable than their brief “bad-ass” moments of violence. The following is a list of the top 7 characters given to us by Tarantino’s brain, with special focus going to those who were able to make the most out of the writer/director’s knack for winding dialogue.
This list only considers films that Tarantino has directed.
7. The Gimp (Stephen Hibbert) in Pulp Fiction - The background of this chained, leather-wearing sex slave is completely unknown. In fact, The Gimp may not even have an identity or background to begin with. But what he does have is a legacy, as he is a key figure in one of the most notorious scenes in the already uncivilized Pulp Fiction. The Gimp sleeps (lives???) in a chest in the basement of a pawn shop, and is talked about with such mystery that he might as well be the second coming of Return of the Jedi's Rancor. He is a perfect example of Tarantino not needing to provide background or reason for a character's existence to explain why he/she is so great. Quote: Aside from screaming, none.
6. Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) in Death Proof - In classic Tarantino form, Stuntman Mike is a talker, and a smooth one at that. Quoting Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," like if it were an 18th century pick-up line, he is another completely mysterious character from Tarantino. The murderous Stuntman Mike is played with an awesome craziness by Kurt Russell, who relishes in every moment to spoil our previous visions of him ever being the good guy. Using his car as a murder weapon, he is one of Tarantino's more original concoctions, and his memorability as a character is boosted by his surprising and wonderful "reversal of attitude" seen in Death Proof's final moments. Quote: "Well, damn if you ain't so sweet you make sugar taste just like salt."
5. Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) in Reservoir Dogs - Half his time spent wallowing in agony of being shot, Roth helped mke this rat of a character one of Tarantino's most cool and iconic. While the film is loaded with extraneous dialogue bits and monologues, Mr. Orange's are the ones that are supported most by the film, a tactic that would be echoed in all Tarantino movies to come. As for his character, the idea of an inside man is slightly cliche, but Roth's terrific performance keeps his character fresh, even when he's rotting away in his own dry blood, struggling to maintain his cool and cover up to the very last moment. Quote: "You're not blind. You've just got blood in your eyes."
4. Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) in Inglourious Basterds - Evil grins are easy to pull off, but Waltz has one of the best I've ever seen. When it comes to wickedness, he can stand next to the Tarantino classics like Mr. Blonde. Col. Landa is so well composed with his brilliance, he's part deliciously evil and part a "basterd" in his own right. His methods are clear, but his way of carrying them out is done with such patience that every move of his is wonderfully mysterious. Even the "simple" chast that Landa has while snacking make for an incredibly magnetic performance and subsequently a wonderful contribution to the QT character legacy. Quote: "That's a bingo!"
3. Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) in Pulp Fiction - She may have killed Bill in the two-part martial arts epic, but Uma Thurman was still not able to make us forget her wild character in Pulp Fiction. In the film, she is the wife to key figurehead Marcellus Wallace, and is put under the care of one his “employees,” Vincent Vega (played by John Travolta). In one night, she snorts coke, dances at a 50’s style diner, snorts more coke, overdoses on heroin, and caps it all off with a corny joke that partially indicates why she never succeeded as an actress. Thurman does an incredible job in making her character as important to the hip momentum of the Pulp Fiction experience as Samuel L. Jackson’s Jules. Having said that, she is also one of Tarantino’s incarnations that is more obviously made from his fanboy blood – her hair style is even a direct rip-off/homage to Anna Karina, who was once Jean-Luc Godard’s muse. Quote: "I have to go powder my nose."
2. Mr. Blonde AKA Victor Vega (Michael Madsen) in Reservoir Dogs - Tarantino's debut film was certainly a group effort, but special recognition is reserved for the iconic character who forever changed the way I will hear Steeler's Wheel's "Stuck In The Middle With You." The true odd ball of the crew, Mr. Blonde is the kind of nutcase who will unnecessary kill civilians during a disastrous robbery attempt, but has undying loyalty to his employer. Eerily, he stands patiently in the back of the room while his cohorts try to figure out their next move. When he is left to watch over a kidnapped cop, he cuts the officer's ear off, simply to make his revenge against authority fun. Such is the style of Mr. Blonde - a believable weirdo from Tarantino that is not easily forgotten. (Special mention goes to Madsen's character Budd in Kill Bill, who was almost as bad-ass as Mr. Blonde). Quote: "Are you gonna bark all day, little doggy, or are you gonna bite?"
1. Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) in Pulp Fiction - It doesn't take one piece of brain to know that the most quotable of all characters from the QT universe is Samuel L. Jackson's Jules. In fact, though Jackson has played 2,356 roles before, he may be remembered most for his performance as the Jheri-curl wearing, foul-mouthed hitman. Of all characters to bounce from a Tarantino script to the big screen, Jules makes the absolute most out of the writer/director's random dialogue, making his discussions about foot massages as entertaining as his rare moments of extreme violence. But when Jackson does flare up, gun in hand, he's ferocious, his eyes bulging out while he recites Scripture for his newest victim. Adding to Jules' undeniable coolness is his vernacular. While it seems that everybody swears in movies these days, only the masters can make the same four-letter words seem like their own. That being said, Jackson should (and deserves to) trademark the term "mother-f***er." Quote: "I'm a mushroom cloud layin' mother-f***er, mother-f***er. I'm Superfly T.N.T, I'm the GUNS OF THE NAVARONE!"
That's our Top 7, now what should be in the Top 10?