Quentin Tarantino is a master director and writer who knows how to create unique scenes and dialogues. The other thing he does best is get great performances from his actors. Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi and Margot Robbie have all featured incredible characters in his films. Here are the best performances in any Quentin Tarantino movie, ranked.
10 Kurt Russell as Stuntman Mike – Death Proof
.jpg)
A scarred stuntman chases groups of women and kills them using his ‘death-proof’ car. Kurt Russell plays Stuntman Mike in Dead Evidence, and the brilliance of his performance is how it changes throughout the film. It begins as the menacing villain in the slasher movie and ends as a pathetic little man defeated by a group of young, brave and resourceful women. It’s not easy to show the evolution from the novice bravado to the scared man, and Russell sells the transformation. Not many famous actors would love to play these kinds of characters, and Russell does it in an excellent way, making one of Tarantino’s least successful films an entertaining one.
9 Samuel L. Jackson as Stephen – Django Unchained
Django (Jamie Foxx) learns how to be a bounty hunter when Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) frees him from slavery. Wanting to find his wife, Django will go anywhere to get her back, even to the home of slave owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). In Django unleashed, the best rendition is from one of Tarantino’s favorites: Samuel L. Jackson as Stephen. He is the worst character in the movie (and that’s saying something) when he joins his master and against the other slaves, because he knows it’s the most beneficial for him. He’s a madman with Stockholm syndrome? Not really, Stephen knows what he’s doing is bad, but he only takes care of himself, and Jackson sells it like crazy and gives the most intense performance, even if DiCaprio literally shed blood for his character in the movie.
8 David Carradine as Bill – Kill Bill: vol 2
.jpg)
The Bride (Uma Thurman) continues her revenge tour, scratching the names of everyone who has wronged her, especially Bill (David Carradine). Let’s start by saying if it was just one movie Thurman would be our pick, but since we have two movies we’ll say David Carradine has the best performance in Kill Bill: Vol. 2. Bill is a terrible person who created the revenge machine that is The Bride in the two films. But in the latter part of the film, Carradine instills dignity in Bill, even as he knows his life is over and he is going to die, he decides to spend his last hours with the love of his life and their daughter, thus making their final meeting. a lot more meaning and grace, as if it had been an incredible battle; and that is only possible through the chemistry of Carradine and Thurman.
7 Jennifer Jason Leigh as Daisy Domergue – The Hateful Eight
During a snowstorm in the West in the 19th century, eight hateful, suspicious characters wait in a lodge for the weather to improve and they can continue on their way. One of them is the murderer on death row, Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Leigh is a hurricane like Domergue, because our eyes cannot escape her attraction and wickedness. A woman in a world of men, she is beaten up more often than necessary, but she never seems scared as she is already making plans and trying to work her way out of an unfortunate situation. Leigh plays all those notes brilliantly in a movie with lots of great performances. As a bonus, she also literally plays the notes on the guitar. Tarantino told Entertainment Weekly on casting Leigh: “In the ’90s, she (Jennifer Jason Leigh) was like a female Sean Penn. You didn’t just cast her in girlfriend roles; you cast her in movies the whole movie was about hair performance. So it got me really, really excited when I saw a performance-dominated Jennifer Jason-Leigh movie.”
6 Michael Madsen as Mr. Blonde – Reservoir Dogs
A jewelry heist goes awry and every criminal in the gang is suspicious of the rest. Reservoir Dogs was Tarantino’s first film and had all his voice and ideas. The film is full of great performances: from Steve Buscemi to Harvey Keitel and Tim Roth, but the best performance is that of Michael Madsen. If mr. Blonde Madsen displays many levels of menace and madness. From the start, it looks like something isn’t right with this character, until he decides to torture a cop just for fun. The scariest part is that he does this while joking and having fun; as if this moment is just a normal Tuesday for him, to show that his evil has no end, and his dancing is a lot better than his moral code.
5 Christoph Waltz as Hans Landa – Inglorius Basterds
It is Nazi-occupied France during World War II, and a group of soldiers plans to kill Hitler. They are not alone. Inglorious Basterds has great performances throughout, especially by Mélanie Laurent as Shosanna, but the best is Christoph Waltz as Hans Landa. Who would have thought that in a Nazi movie in which Hitler appears, he wouldn’t be the scariest character? Waltz’s Landa is pure evil. He loves to torture his Jewish prey. Waltz (who was a Hollywood stranger before this film) shows how the character enjoys each of these moments; have the time of his life scaring and ending the lives of his victims. The actor obviously won his first Academy Award for this incredible achievement.
4 Leonardo DiCaprio as Rick Dalton – Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), an actor whose fame is fading every day, and his stunt double (Brad Pitt) try to land new jobs in the late 1960s, while Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie)’s career is just getting started. Once upon a time… in Hollywood gives us one of DiCaprio’s best performances ever. Rick Dalton is usually insecure and drunk, and knows that his best days as an actor are almost over. You can see all those feelings in every interaction DiCaprio has, because the character loses all his power and influence, even if he’s still a great actor in his better days, like in the scene with young actress Trudi (Julia Butters) .
3 Uma Thurman as the Bride – Kill Bill: Vol 1
After awakening from a four-year coma, an ex-murderer, known to us as The Bride (Uma Thurman), will take her revenge on the people who tried to kill her. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 is Uma Thurman’s movie, as her performance as The Bride is the entire movie. The Bride is one of Tarantino’s greatest characters ever. Even when everything is violent and stomach cramping, we are with her and her physical and emotional journey. Thurman shows every emotion in the book during the film: heartbreak, pleasure, love, hate, disgust, sadness, admiration and all those feelings follow her character and where she is on her journey to put an end to the killers who kill her. almost killed.
2 Pam Grier as Jackie Brown – Jackie Brown
Jackie Brown (Pam Grier) is a flight attendant caught smuggling by the ATF. Both ATF and her drug dealer boss pressure her to make deals that will likely leave her dead. So Jackie makes her own plan. As he did with John Travolta, Tarantino saved Pam Grier from the hell of actors and gave her the lead role in Jackie Brown, and she seized that opportunity and earned gold with it. Grier is excellent; she’s tough, she’s scared, she’s flirty, she’s smarter than she looks, and she’s resourceful and shows her charisma at every moment. Especially in all of her scenes with a career-changing performance by Robert Forster. Together, they make each other better as their characters discover a middle-aged romance they’ve been looking for. Maybe it’s because the script is based on a book by Elmore Leonard (Rum Punch), but Jackie Brown has more romance, intimacy, and low-key love than any of Tarantino’s other films, and both actors nail that part of the story. Grier told The Guardian from the first time she walked into Tarantino’s office: “Quentin had my posters on the wall,” she says. “I was honored to see them because what I was part of was a female film revolution.”
1 Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winnfield – Pulp Fiction
Many criminal lives are intertwined in four tales of violence and redemption in 1990s Los Angeles. Pulp Fiction is still Tarantino’s best. It’s the best action movie of the ’90s and one in which each character is spectacularly written, thoughtful and specific. Those magnetic characters bring out the best performances from the actors who play them. Therefore, we could only make a whole list of performances from this film; be it Bruce Willis, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Christopher Walken, Ving Rhames or, in particular, Harvey Keitel as The Wolf. There is one performance that tops them all; one fusion of actor and character, creating one of the most iconic combos in movie history: Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winnfield. Ezekiel’s monologue made the careers of both Jackson and Tarantino. The whole performance is great, but in that simple scene, Jackson shows all sides of his character, as he is playful with his friend Vincent, menacing with the guys they are going to kill, and scared if they survive, and his crisis has faith. Samuel L. Jackson’s performance as Jules Winnfield will be remembered forever, which is why it is the best performance in a Quentin Tarantino film.