My definitive (Kind of) list of The 10 Best Tarantino Characters of All Time.

It’s hard to guess exactly where Quentin Tarantino’s legacy will land amongst the great directors of all time, even harder to gauge what that legacy will be if you’re asking for any consensus. Im not. I do however, aim to have some fun with what I feel will inevitably be part of his legacy - that is his ability to craft characters. Whether he has borrowed these characters or not, whether they adhere to strict definitions of character development or not, is irrelevant to me. What is relevant to me is that all of these characters are memorable, severely quotable, and indelible. From Headliners like the Murderous leader of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad Bill, to cameos, and one scene players like Brett in Pulp Fiction, Tarantino’s dialogue, camera, and set ups ensure almost no character is left behind. I don’t think there is a director or writer in History who could boast so deep a roster of characters as commonly quoted, or easily recognized as Tarantino and that alone is a testament to the man doing a whole lot of something right. Hate all you want on Tarantino, ( and honestly Tarantino has given us plenty of reason to ) but any criticism, (or hatred if that's your flavor) is incomplete without including the fact that this white male, (out of nowhere) with no pressure from any outside forces, made a whole ass career of making movies that made bad asses out of some of the least recognized people in Hollywood. Not only as actors but as people. Black men,Asian men, white women, black women, asian women, bringing back, reminding us of their genius, or making the careers of actors like Pam Grier, Ving Rhames, Lucy Lui, Robert Forster, Daryl Hannah, or Gordon Lui. In the spirit of acknowledging that particular form of genius I attempt what in actuality was a pretty tough assignment for me. To compose a list of my 10 favorite Tarantino characters all time. I did considerable damage to my brain cells trying to dig deep for academic reasons behind what I would ultimately deem a definitive list of the ten best characters he ever produced. That failed when it started to become hard to delineate between whether the reasons for one character topping another were the actors ability (Take Michael Fassbender’s Archie Hilcox in Inglorious Basterds whose basement tavern scene rivals the films opening for intensity, because he’s so damn good) Tarantino’s writing, or my own bias towards genre or type (Pai Mei almost made the list based on nothing else but my love for his appearance from other kung fu films). So I gave up on making this list being strictly academic, or really even academic at all and instead decided to base it more so in heart and memory than anything else. Quickly writing down the first 20 or so characters that popped into my head from his films that I know stuck with me, and then beginning the process of eliminating them by asking myself:

“Which one stuck with me more?

“What is it about them that makes me love them so much acting, writing, a combination?”

“How close are to they to being fully fleshed out characters?”

“How much does it matter to me whether the are good or not, and then why?”

Some fared better in other categories than others , but made up for it in another, but ultimately it came down to some combination of all of these things, and besides that an admission that it would be rather impossible to make a definitive list , but much more interesting to make my own in hopes it inspires others to tell me theirs. So without further ado, MY TOP 10 FAVORITE QUENTIN TARANTINO CHARACTERS OF ALL TIME…

10. Stephen - Django Unchained (2012)

Quite possibly the most despicable villain of all time, Stephen is one of the examples on this list of meeting the criteria of almost all four of my categories near or at the peak. So why then is he at the bottom of my list?…Because besides being probably the second or third name I came up with, besides being one of the most fully fleshed out characters in QT’s catalog, and because Samuel L Jackson so skillfully plays him with so many detestable nuances, I hate him. I abhor this character. To the point I feel some sort of way even revisiting Django. Stephen is the “House Nigga” to end all House Niggas, a terrifyingly re-animated boogeyman of black history, one made even that much more terrifying by the fact black men like him may very well have existed and still do.

9.

GoGo Yubari- Kill Bill Vol.1 (2003)

As O-Ren Ishii’s most trusted bodyguard GoGo Yubari is as lethal as she is loyal, and though she appears on screen for only an extremely short time GoGo leaves quite the impression. She is a sadist of the highest order. Vicious, confident, and bloodthirsty. Given a bigger part I’d find it easy to draw comparisons between GoGo and Anton Chigur in “No Country for Old Men”. They are agents of carnage, angels of death. There is no rhyme or reason to what they do. Chigur invites you to play his game of death, and plays at it being about chance, but GoGo invites men through the perversion of their own fantasies, and requires no such fiction about chance, she kills because she can, because she wants to, because it provides her with pleasure. I think of GoGo as the cinematic embodiment of that great hidden fear all men have of the power women have over them. That not so hidden fear that If only but given the inclination to use the completeness of our attraction to them, the desperation in our need to control them, how easy it would be for them to gut the lot us. Leaving us helpless to do anything but to watch. Watch out boys she’ll chew you up.

8. Winston Wolfe AKA “The Wolf”- Pulp Fiction (1994)

Harvey Keitel’s “The Wolf” character is in the running for THE coolest character in Quentin’s entire filmography, and that is saying quite a lot. A wonderfully unique amalgamation of Hercule Poirot, Humphrey Bogart, The Driver, and Michael Clayton, the wolf is an anonymous player in Tarantino’s fictional underground world. He plays by his own set of rules, his own personal code, and commands the respect of everyone around him. Oh and he drives an Acura NSX, (one of the coolest looking cars ever made… fight me). You get the sense the wolf is the kind of guy who color codes his socks and arranges them in alphabetical order by brand name. I mean any guy who walks around in a f***ing tux at 9 am in the morning means business. Now the Wolf on Tarantino’s paper alone is worthy of some mention on a list of his greatest characters, but it is the steam from Keitel’s performance that propels Winston to the top of my personal list. As portrayed by Keitel, Wolfe is fast talking , but concise, and his movements and gestures match each of those qualities. The Wolf isn’t much for ostentation and ceremony despite the tux and the car, so Keitel gives him distinctive purpose in each line, and each gesture that follows, he keeps his body lines linear, almost protracted, and his eyes filled with intent. In a role that last maybe five minutes, Keitel in collaboration with Tarantino’s distinctive style and language creates a character that stayed with the audience well after that and now we all know just why Jules’s whole demeanor changed upon hearing his name… “Shit negro thats all you had to say!”

7. Hattori Hanzo- Kill Bill vol 1. ( 2003)

This one is easy. Hanzo (gleefully played by veteran martial arts actor Sonny Chiba showing quite some range) was one of the first characters to pop into my head (almost instantaneously). This is in some part due to the almost mythical storied history of his character both in and outside of the film, and in part due to Chiba. Hanzo’s change from mild mannered, cheerful sushi bar owner ( Who sometimes loses his temper with his lazy, insipid assistant) to deadly serious sword maker is Superman-esque and one of the best and most delightful surprises in Kill Bill Vol 1. Im sitting here right now thinking of his charismatic banter with Uma’s Beatrix Kiddo, each of them playing their roles within a role to the hilt of the swords they will brandish, and Im smiling ear to ear just thinking about it.

6. Drexl Spivey - True Romance - (1993)

Gary Oldman. Leopard Print. “White Boy Day.”…Moving on.

5. Marcellus Wallace- Pulp Fiction (1994)

Big, Black, Bold and Direct. The opening scene of Pulp Fiction acts sort of like a Carnival Barker setting you up for the big entrance of one of the films two or three most indelible characters, Ving Rhame’s Marcellus Wallace. When he finally appears, at first off camera, later the back of his head just off to the left of the screen, a large band aid front and center - it does not disappoint. Rhame’s signature baritone voice, smooth and somehow calming, despite the air of menace underneath, wraps itself in Tarantino’s words and then wraps us the audience around his fingers. Maybe my favorite part about Wallace, is his ability to articulate without having to conform to the accepted patterns, cadence, and use of the english language. He is profane, he uses slang, but he is still very well spoken. I maintain that Marcellus Wallace’s opening monologue is one of the greatest introductions to a character on film, and spawned numerous knock offs, none of them quite like the original. I remember first watching this character on screen and thinking “I have never seen a black man on screen like this ever. He was a new age incarnation of Superfly, and for a young teenager like me, I can’t tell you how much seeing him on screen meant to me, but suffice to say a lot. I guess you could say that was my “Pride, f***in with me”.

4. Shosanna Dreyfus- Inglorious Basterds (2009)

Thing is, if I were going off of acting Uma Thurman’s the bride may very well have been n this very place. It was a virtuoso performance. A knock down dragged out, physical and emotional tour de force. Both these characters suffer immense loss, both exact revenge, but the difference maker for me was in the execution of said revenge. I mean sure the five finger death punch is cool, but did you burn the entire third reich alive in a theater while watching their own propaganda film? Cool, calculated, and highly intelligent, Shosanna doesn’t end up living to tell her tale like Beatrix, and she’s no warrior, but she sure knows how to deliver punch, and having the last laugh on the theater screen ( the title of one of German director F.W. Murnau’s finest films) while your enemies burn…that is glorious indeed.

3. Jackie Brown- Jackie Brown (1997)

My favorite thing about Jackie Brown is how relatable a ant-hero she is. In fact if she had a super power it’d be like, survival or something. She’s not a highly trained martial artist, she’s got no assets, no partner in crime, and no team, but she’s resourceful as hell, intelligent, and she knows the game. She plays only the hand she’s dealt and yet she still comes out on top. I’ve rarely seen this type of woman portrayed on screen, even more rare by a black woman played with all the world weary “F*** you pay me” sincerity few woman but Pam Grier could provide. Jackie Brown gets to win, (Still very rare on screen for a black woman) and she gets over on everyone because A. she’s a woman, and B. she plays it so straight, no one’s any the wiser as to whats going on underneath. In that way both “Jackie Brown” the movie, and Jackie Brown the character’s genius lies in their simplicity. The movie doesn’t try to hide a lot from you, and neither does Jackie. Jackie communicates in a straightforward no frills fashion, and so to does the movie, without much of the verbose grandiosity and flashy cinematic call backs of his other films. Truth is, both are better for it , Jackie is smarter for it, and we all get to reap the benefits every time we watch her do it again.

2. O-Ren Ishii- Kill Bill Vol.1 (2003)

If ever there was a stand- alone movie I’d like to see based upon a character from one of Tarantino’s films, O-Ren Ishii would top that list. The character is in possession of one of the most harrowing, tragic, bloody, bad ass back stories in movie history, and Lucy Lui is in total possession of the character. The anime backstory is the stuff of legend , but the power in the anime is boosted and given legendary heft when we arrive to see a fully grown Ishii at the head of the Yakuza table. The following scene is not just a glorious continued ode to anime, but a supremely well acted one, that places O-Ren in an unquestionable position of power, while allowing Lucy Lui to show off her considerable acting chops. Here’s the best part about Ishii..or at least my favorite part. She takes over as head of an all male organization and installs only women as her most trusted advisors, she is a fierce warrior capable of dispatching any number of these men, so there is nothing to be done about it, that’s a revolution I want televised. O-Ren Ishii ‘s story is a story we are all familiar with, the rise and fall of a gangster. It’s “Scarface,” its “The Godfather,” except this time it’s a woman.

Jules Winnfield-Pulp Fiction (1994)

You had to know we were headed here. It would very hard for me to compose any list of characters from Tarantino films and not have Winnfield come out on top, whether academic or more from the heart (as this one is). Winnfield is almost incomparable. There was very little like the loquacious, Jheri curled hitman on-screen before 1994, and very little like him after. Samuel L Jackson imbued Jules with a fire similar to Robert Mitchum’s Harry Powell from “Night of the Hunter”, and later in the film, the weariness of Gary Cooper in “High Noon” and its a revelation every single time I see it. There is an equal amount of poetry in Tarantino’s unorthodox rapid fire dialogue, and Jackson’s animated baptist preacher delivery that bonds in such a way as to create the kind of art that transcends the paper. Mostly because Jackson’s performance despite having a clear rhythm also goes off book. Its one of the few performances wherein I genuinely feel the actor might have been possessed. It really borders on the spiritual, and as wild and outlandish a character as Jules is in conceptualization, Jackson grounds him in electrifying authenticity. Never a false note, never a beat that feels forced. In my lifetime I feel it’s one of the 10 or so greatest performances Ive ever seen, and Winnfield, Jackie Brown, and O-Ren are the only characters on this list that would be on the top of this list even if it was academic. They’re that strong… they’re that good.