Tarantino has been told that Dune: Part 2 is the best movie of the year and that Ripley and Shogun are the best series of 2024, but he is very clear about why he hasn’t watched them and won’t.
A few hours ago, when we recalled Quentin Tarantino’s words about Brad Pitt, we mentioned that the Pulp Fiction director is, besides being a renowned filmmaker, quite a loudmouth. The Californian filmmaker never holds back, and his opinions and ideas are always quite interesting.
As a great cinephile, the director never hesitates to talk about actors, other filmmakers, various movies, and more. This can often lead to complications in an industry where criticism of peers is usually done privately, and only praise is accepted publicly. But not for Tarantino, who earned his place in the Hollywood firmament long ago and doesn’t hesitate to say what comes to mind, even if it’s very current.
During an interview on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, Tarantino made several headlines. The first was his defense of the criticized Joker: Folie à Deux, showing his admiration for a Todd Phillips who took risks at an almost suicidal level, even if the film doesn’t quite work. But beyond the Joker 2 headline, Tarantino offered another bold take on the current state of Hollywood. Tarantino is known as a filmmaker of pastiche, one who can create an entire film out of references to other movies he admires, as seen in Kill Bill. However, referencing and copying are two different things. And what Tarantino also seems unable to tolerate is seeing the same story twice. He doesn’t care how good or different it is; if Tarantino has already seen the story, he won’t watch it again.
According to Variety, which reported on his statements in the podcast, Tarantino said he hasn’t seen Dune: Part 2 and has no intention of watching it, no matter how much he’s told it’s the movie of the year:
“I’ve seen David Lynch’s version a couple of times. I don’t need to see that story again. I don’t need to see spice worms. I don’t need to see a movie that says the word ‘spice’ so dramatically.”
Tarantino clarifies that he has nothing against Denis Villeneuve. He is simply determined not to invest his time in a story with which he is already familiar. And he feels the same way about two of the so-called great series of the year. Yes, Tarantino is also not going to watch Ripley on Netflix because he already knows the story, and the same goes for Shogun, no matter how many years have passed since the 1980s series. In Quentin’s words:
“It’s one remake after another. People ask me if I’ve seen Dune, if I’ve seen Ripley, if I’ve seen Shogun. And I tell them no, no, no, no. There are six or seven Ripley books. If they’re going to do something new, why adapt the same one that’s already been done twice? I’ve seen that story twice before and didn’t like it much either time, so I’m not very interested in seeing it a third time. If they did another story, it would be interesting enough to give it a chance anyway. I saw Shogun in the 80s. I watched the 13 hours. That’s enough. I don’t need to see that story again, I don’t care how they make it. I don’t care if they take me and put me in ancient Japan in a time machine. I don’t care, I’ve seen the story.”
Undoubtedly, it’s a somewhat radical stance in an era of remakes and reboots, which will leave Tarantino missing out on wonders like the Shogun of 2024. However, it will likely also allow him to discover more and more new stories in the limited time we all have in this world.
