Quentin Tarantino’s Flawed 10 Movie Retirement Plan

Quentin Tarantino

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For several years, Quentin Tarantino has insisted that he plans to make just one 10th and final film, which will no longer be available. The film critic. Some of his fans were relieved when this news broke yesterday. The film critic originally, it seemed like a nostalgic character study (“no more epilogue,” as Tarantino once said), while his fans particularly love the director’s pulpier, genre-driven fair. The result would certainly have been great. But would it have been great enough to be Tarantino’s last film?

Further details on this decision will likely still be forthcoming. Still, we wonder: Would Tarantino have abandoned the film if there wasn’t so much at stake in it? His numerous statements about giving up filmmaking suggest that he is extremely focused on protecting his legacy, which seems like a downright masochistic way to put enormous pressure on oneself. A “10th and final film” must not only be good, but also fantastic to cap off a career.

In some ways, the idea of ​​retirement has always seemed ill-fitting. Tarantino is – for all his obvious artistic talent – ​​a crowd-pleasing filmmaker. Still, it’s hard to find a Tarantino fan who likes the idea of ​​him hanging up his hat. Many doubt he will stick to it. If you truly love doing something and are incredibly talented at doing it, would you really leave it forever? Stephen King declared his retirement in 2002 and has since published 26 novels (and apparently billions of tweets).

Many are wondering what film Tarantino will make instead. There are many choices available just from the projects he has already developed. There is this Star Trek film (but should he really end his career with a franchise film?). There is Kill Bill: Vol. 3 (but should his latest film be the third installment of an already satisfying story rather than something new?). You see the problem, don’t you? The “10th and final” label adds so much weight, and when you have a career as stellar as Tarantino’s, what can be enough? “What is my next film?” is a difficult decision. “What is the last film I will make?» is an extremely difficult decision.

Arguably the best way to make 10 films and end your career is to not tell anyone about your project until the film is released. This way you can be sure that the film will be enjoyed and that you won’t need to make another one to try to end your career on a good note. Announcing “10th and Final” before you even have a shooting script, well, that’s a real high-wire act – although, admittedly, it’s brilliant marketing; nothing excites consumers like scarcity. Who wouldn’t line up to see a beloved filmmaker’s latest and final effort?

So that’s a problem with Tarantino’s retirement plan: the unreasonable pressure it adds to everything and to Tarantino especially. But let’s also look at the logic behind Tarantino’s argument: he said that great directors’ films invariably lose quality. “I don’t like working with diminishing returns,” he says. “I know the history of cinema, and from now on, directors don’t get better.” It’s like Sick Boy’s universal theory of life in Trainspotting: “Well, at one point you have it, then you lose it, and it’s gone forever – in all walks of life.” Sick Boy wasn’t wrong. While there are many exceptions, creatives of all stripes generally peak and then decline (example: every band you’ve ever loved).

But Quentin Tarantino shows no signs of decline. In fact, some consider his last film, Once upon a time in Hollywoodto be at your best.

Also, the idea that 10 films is an okay limit is just plain idiotic. If Christopher Nolan had stopped at 10 films, he would never have directed Oppenheimer, which ultimately won him the Academy Award for Best Director and Best Picture. Tarantino seems to consider Martin Scorsese the best living filmmaker. But if Scorsese had stopped at 10, he never would have even made it The Freedmen – leave alone The dead And the wolf of Wall Street. If Steven Spielberg had stopped at 10, he wouldn’t have made his Oscar-winning masterpiece Schindler’s Listand forget the fan favorite jurassic park.

Scorsese, Spielberg and Nolan are arguably three of the best directors in the world. All of them made their best films after their 10th. The same can be said for some of the filmmakers of yesteryear that Tarantino adores – Billy Wilder would never have directed Some like it hot or flat if it had stopped at 10 o’clock.

So, as a number to end your career on before descending into sad hackery, 10 is clearly not a magic number. Tarantino’s age, 61, certainly makes a better argument — and he cited his age as a factor in the decision, saying a 30-year career seemed ideal. Spielberg was relatively a spring chicken, 46, when he directed Schindler’s List. But being in your sixties isn’t what it used to be compared to the days of Tarantino’s heroes Douglas Sirk and Sergio Leone, both of whom had modest numbers of directing credits. And while the ravages of age are a powerful factor that we all must struggle with, it is also indisputable that a filmmaker’s style matures and evolves as they make new films.

All of this is not meant to be a quixotic attempt to get Tarantino to change his mind. OK, that’s probably exactly it. Tarantino rightly said that it was unfair to the industry and fans to have an attitude like, “We’ll tell you when you’re done; you don’t tell us when you’re finished. This man owes us nothing and only he really knows how much gas is left in his tank.

There remains, however, one last point to emphasize, albeit superficial, and it boils down to this: this whole “10” thing. Tarantino is a rebellious filmmaker, and there is nothing rebellious about the number 10. Ten brings to mind the top 10 online rankings, the Ten Commandments and the results of Olympic competitions. Ten is current and conformity. Ten isn’t even the coolest number in its digital neighborhood. Do you know which number is the coolest? Twelve — as in The dirty dozen, one of Tarantino’s favorite films. Or 13, which has a certain dark magic quality to it. Whereas 10 is so… suburban. And when you think about what would have happened to the careers of the great modern filmmakers if they had quit at age 10, it’s like what Sean Connery, as Henry Jones Jr., said to his son, Indiana Jones, in The last crusade: “You left just when you were getting interesting.” A beautiful line, which would not exist if Spielberg had retired at 10 years old.