Quentin Tarantino's Favorite Indiana Jones Film Is The One Steven Spielberg Likes The Least
Like many people passionate about movies, particularly those who grew up in the golden age of trash-talking critics like Pauline Kael, Judith Crist, Rex Reed, Gene Siskel, and Roger Ebert, Quentin Tarantino isn't shy about throwing an elbow or twelve when discussing cinema. He doesn't vacillate, nor does he spend much time discussing films that elicit a ho-hum response. You could say he likes to play contrarian, but that would suggest he's basically the Skip Bayless of film discourse. While you may vehemently disagree with Tarantino from time to time, he is anything but a full-of-it blowhard who spouts off inflammatory opinions to get a rise out of low-information fanatics. Tarantino knows his subject inside and out. If you want to enter his arena, you better come armed with ardor and a lifetime's worth of film knowledge.
This doesn't mean Tarantino can't be infuriating on occasion. This is, after all, the man who declared Paul W.S. Anderson's execrable "The Three Musketeers" one of the top 11 movies of 2011, while consigning Kelly Reichardt's masterful "Meek's Cutoff" to his "Worst of" list. He can be especially exasperating when discussing his favorite directors (e.g. his distaste for Brian De Palma's uber-De Palma coup de cinema "Body Double"). Tarantino has, for a long time, harbored some curious opinions about the oeuvre of Steven Spielberg — and if you thought he might back off these smoldering takes over the years, he proudly reiterated them when he visited the Reel Blend podcast at the end of 2022 with his Cinema Archives buddy, Roger Avary. If you haven't heard these viewpoints before, get ready to gape.
Quentin Tarantino and the Contrary Take of Doom
Ask most film critics to name Spielberg's worst five movies, and you're guaranteed to find the filmmaker's 1979 flop "1941" in the mix, if not at the very bottom. It's a wildly mean-spirited comedy that lampoons Los Angelenos' militaristic hysteria in the immediate wake of Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor. Even with the presence of "Saturday Night Live" superstars John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, the film has a reputation for being a mirthless, shoddily made embarrassment. While comedy is subjective, "1941" has moments of awe-inducing cinematic grandeur, most notably during the brilliantly shot-and-staged USO dance sequence (which suddenly turns into a brilliantly shot-and-staged brawl between Army and Navy enlistees).
Tarantino and Avary once again went to the mat for "1941" on Reel Blend (stating their correct preference for the shorter Theatrical Cut) before voicing what might be an even more unpopular Spielberg opinion.
Tarantino adores "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," for which Spielberg has expressed dissatisfaction (even though he did fall in love with his second-and-current wife, Kate Capshaw, while shooting the movie). In fact, Tarantino thinks the second Indy film is the director's best movie next to "Jaws." When asked to elaborate, Tarantino excitedly replied:
"Because... [Spielberg] was full of piss and gauge, alright, on the case of back-to-back 'Jaws' and 'Close Encounters,' now he figures he could do no wrong, pushes the envelope, creates PG-13! The movie is so f****** badass, it created a new level in the MPAA! Something Brian De Palma's never been able to do as much as he's tried!"
Tarantino throws another Indy curveball
I had no idea De Palma was hellbent on creating a new ratings classification during his 1980s heyday. I suppose Tarantino means what would eventually become "NC-17," which was meant to erase the porn stigma of the "X" rating (which, coincidentally, was introduced in 1968 via De Palma's counterculture comedy "Greetings"). De Palma managed to beat the system with "Scarface," and was forced to trim "Body Double" to avoid an "X." It was an unwelcome impediment, but this is much different than forcing the MPA to wedge in a new classification between "PG" and "R" due to violence (which "Temple of Doom" did with a significant assist from Joe Dante's "Gremlins").
As for "Temple of Doom," Tarantino's crazy to call it Spielberg's second-best movie, but it is a supremely entertaining adventure that kicks off with a dazzling musical set piece which, á la "1941," turns into a masterfully executed action sequence.
For added cognitive dissonance, Tarantino later said he, gasp, far preferred "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" to "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." "I don't like the Sean Connery one at all," he exclaimed. "That's such a boring one. It's boring! And [Connery's] not an interesting character. The joke is made immediately. It's like 'Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot.'"
"Last Crusade" is definitely the most broadly comedic of the Indiana Jones movies, but worse than the autopilot Spielberg of "Crystal Skull"? Tarantino's gonna Tarantino. The only major surprise here is that he isn't a secret fan of "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot."