The master Quentin Tarantino celebrates 60. These are his great characters

10. Lt. Archie Hickox – Dishonorable Bastards (2009)

Well, I don’t really think that this is one of the most memorable characters in Tarantino’s repertoire, but as a film critic I cannot ignore the fact that he incorporated the character of a film critic in his film and, contrary to the usual, characterized him as a cold-blooded warrior. Not only that, he cast the elegant handsome Michael Fassbender in the role. British film critic Archie Hickox, who has written two books on German cinema, joins the dishonorable bastards on German soil, and together they are supposed to assassinate Hitler during a war film premiere. Unfortunately he makes a mistake that arouses the suspicion of a Wehrmacht soldier and ends his life too soon. Tarantino has often said that if he had not become a filmmaker he would have chosen to be a film critic, and recently it was even announced that his tenth (and last?) film will tell about a film critic.

9? Mr. Blonde/Vic Vega – Shelter Dogs (1992)

Vic Vega, Vincent’s brother from “Cheap Literary,” is on this list because of the horrifying scene where he cuts off Marvin Nash’s ear while dancing to “Stuck in the Middle with You,” and sums up the experience with the words: “It was good for you Like it was for me?” This unleashed sadism makes the character played by Michael Madsen unforgettable. I struggled between him and the introverted Mr. White, whose moral struggles give Tarantino’s first film its emotional complexity – what’s more, Harvey Keitel is one of the greatest American actors of the last fifty years – but in the end I chose the extroverted character.

8. Rick Dalton – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

Leonardo DiCaprio is excellent in the role of the neurotic and alcoholic TV star, who finds it difficult to accept that his time has passed, and fuels himself with the fantasy that one day the gate of the neighboring house will open and he will be invited in and meet the man who created “Rosemary’s Baby”. He is pathetic but also funny and evokes a kind of compassion. His intense performance, which culminates in a scene of mental breakdown in the trailer, is balanced by the quiet one of Brad Pitt as his male stunt double, who accepts his role as a shadow with smiling resignation.

7. Aldo Raine – Dishonorable Bastards (2009)

The non-Jewish commander of the group of Jewish Avengers is Hillbilly with basic English and a heavy southern accent, which gives him a stereotypical appearance of being heavy-handed. But as Marilyn Monroe says in “Men Prefer Blondes”, he was smart when it mattered. Aldo came all the way from America to Europe to kill Nazis, and he does it very well. When the film brings him together with Hans Landa, who wants to make a deal with him that will keep him out of prison after the war, it seems that he has no chance against the cunning Nazi. And he does seem lost, but in his stubborn and direct way he finds a perfect solution to beat Landa on his territory. Brad Pitt did win an Oscar for his excellent performance as Cliff Booth, Leonardo DiCaprio’s double in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but Aldo is his Tarantino character that I loved the most.

6. Honey Bunny and Pumpkin – Cheap Literature (1993)

“I’m ready, let’s do it, right here and right now” Honey Bunny says to her partner Pumpkin, then they kiss passionately and rob the diner where they’re sitting as if they’re having sex. This pair of psychopaths are head-over-heels in love and completely in sync with each other, so it makes no sense to separate them. Tarantino wrote the roles for Tim Roth and Amanda Palmer, who plays Honey Bunny like a hot spring, and they burst into the opening scene of “Cheap Literature” as if the movie were their own. Although we don’t see them again until the final scene, where we find out that their real names are Yolanda and Ringo, and that Vincent and Jules are also sitting in the diner, but their record echoes across the film.

5. Jackie Brown – Jackie Brown (1997)

The heroine of Elmore Leonard’s book, which served as the basis for Tarantino’s third film, is a 44-year-old white flight attendant who smuggles black money into the US. Tarantino made her black to match the character to Pam Greer, the star of the 1970s blaxploitation films, who was left behind. Jackie Brown , who smuggles money for the arms dealer Ordell Ruby (Samuel L. Jackson) and confronts him on his turf, is one of the more mature and humane characters in Tarantino’s films, and she is endowed with a quiet strength. This strength leaves a strong impression on the viewers and the bail bondsman Max Cherry (the wonderful Robert Forrester), who frees her from detention and falls in love with her almost at first sight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgw-G8IFAwo

4. Hans Landa – Disrespectful Bastards (2009)

The snaky Jew Hunter, who boasts a magnificent pipe that makes him look like Sherlock Holmes, is one of Tarantino’s most brilliant works. He cast an unknown Austrian actor in the role and made Christoph Waltz an overnight star. Landa enjoys the cat and mouse games he plays with his victims. “I’m a detective, and an excellent detective. Finding people is my specialty. But ‘Jew hunter’? It’s just a nickname that sticks,” he says. He is full of charm and good manners, and even though he is such a terrifying character, he also seduces the viewers. Waltz won an Oscar for his phenomenal performance, and three years later picked up another Oscar for his performance as Dr. King Schultz in Django Unchained. Schultz is also a dubious person and an expert manipulator, only this time he is on the side of the persecuted.

3. Jules Winfield – Cheap Literature (1993)

Most of the time Jules Winfield (Samuel L. Jackson) is “second fiddle”, as they say in English, to Vincent Vega (John Travolta). On their way to various assassinations, Vincent has all kinds of things to say about all kinds of things, and Jules mainly asks and responds. But when it comes time to carry out the tasks assigned to them by Marcellus Wallace, it is Jules who dictates the tone, and Vincent recedes into the background. Before he destroys the one he came to destroy, he switches to the tone of an angry preacher in the church and quotes from the book of “Ezekiel”: “And I took great vengeance on them, with hot rebukes; and they knew that I am Jehovah, I took my vengeance on them.” The connection between being an exterminator in the service of a mobster and his burning faith in God makes him a fascinating psychopath. Jackson also causes chills in the role of the house servant who internalized his definition as a slave in “Django No Holds Barred” – a controversial character that it is assumed that he would not have dared to play if he had not relied on Tarantino.

2. Baatrix Kiddo – Kill Bill (2003-2004)

Uma Thurman in the yellow training and the samurai sword in her hands is one of the most iconic characters in Tarantino’s repertoire. Baatrix Kido changes names and nicknames during the two films – she is the exterminator of Black Mamba (who abandoned a group of assassins led by her lover Bill), the bride (who loses her groom while returning to the wedding ceremony and sets out to take revenge), and in the end also a mother, and it is this dramatic arc that makes her such a strong and moving character .

1. Vincent Vega – Cheap Literature (1993)

Well, the comeback of John Travolta in the role of the exterminator who rolls himself cigarettes and delves into the nuances of differences between America and Europe is a cinematic event that defines an era. Tarantino wrote him so many quotable dialogues, and let him dance with Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman in a black wig), and he does it all with the kind of smiling stoicism of a man who has been through a lot in life, yet has not lost his childlike curiosity.