Quentin Tarantino Has Decided The Best Movie Ever Made
Quentin Tarantino is not one to mince words when it comes to how he feels about cinema, and now the director has chosen the best movie ever made.
Quentin Tarantino is one of the most well-informed voices on what makes a good movie. Throughout his illustrious career, he has flexed his filmmaking muscles, producing violently eccentric odes to several genres, be it Samurai films with Kill Bill or Westerns with Django Unchained. So, when Quentin Tarantino makes a statement about what the best movie ever made is, it is important to take note and according to Cinemablend, Quentin Tarantino has decided the best film ever made is Steven Spielberg’s Jaws.
Quentin Tarantino made his Jaws declaration on the Cinemablend podcast Reel Blend. Tarantino was on Reel Blend promoting The Video Archives Podcast – which sees Tarantino and co-host Roger Avary delve into their love for films via the VHS tapes within the video rental store the pair used to work in and Tarantino now owns. The Reel Blend discussion came around to what Tarantino saw as the greatest movie ever and this is what he had to say; “I think Jaws is the greatest movie ever made. Maybe not the greatest film. But it’s the greatest movie ever made. And then there are other movies that can get in its rarefied air. But as far as a movie, there’s no making it better than Jaws. There’s no ‘better’ than Jaws. It is the best movie ever made.”
Jaws was one of Steven Spielberg’s earliest works, released in 1975 it was considered one of the first-ever summer blockbusters thanks to the film’s strong performance at the US Box Office ($260 million domestic gross). Jaws is based on the novel of the same name by author Peter Benchley, it stars Roy Schneider as Sheriff Martin Brody, a new resident at Amity Island who despite his fear of the water, is tasked with hunting and killing a Great White Shark that is terrorizing holidaymakers in the build-up to the 4th of July weekend. Scheider’s Brody enlists the help of Robert Shaw’s shark hunter Quint and Richard Dreyfuss’ marine scientist Hooper to track down the man-killing beast. It is no wonder that Quentin Tarantino sees Jaws as the greatest movie ever made given Spielberg’s incredible direction, John William’s iconic score, and the amazing performances from the three leading men. Jaws won three Oscars, Best Sound, Best Editing and Best Music, and Original Dramatic Score, it was also nominated for Best Picture, losing out to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
It is interesting that Quentin Tarantino names Jaws the greatest movie ever made, but makes a distinction between movie and film and that Jaws may not be the greatest film ever. A confusing distinction, movies, and films are regarded by many as one and the same, but according to Tarantino, they are different labels with different definitions. Given the fact that Jaws was one of the original blockbusters, one could assume that movies are often put in the blockbusters category, whereas perhaps a film is something that is less concerned with putting bums on seats and more concerned with the artistic message that is being conveyed.
Is Quentin Tarantino correct when saying Jaws is the greatest movie ever made? The beauty of movies is that they are subjective, everyone has an opinion, so the answer to that question is infinite with possibility. The same could be said for the question, is there a difference between movies and films? Perhaps only an eccentric mind like Tarantino’s can truly know the answer to that question.
