Tarantino recalls amusing life-changing moviegoing experience

Last Updated on November 1, 2022

Quentin Tarantino is one of the most knowledgable film geeks in the world, so it’s no surprise he has some fond–and colorful–memories of going to the movies when he was a kid. 

Appearing on Friday’s episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, Quentin Tarantino recalled catching the western 100 Rifles at the cinema. 100 Rifles stars the great Jim Brown, sex symbol Raquel Welch and Burt Reynolds, who was originally signed on to play George Spahn in Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood before dying in 2018.

Tarantino isn’t even a big fan of 100 Rifles–he once called it “mediocre”–but that particular cinemagoing experience left a major mark on the young Quentin. It was, he recalled, the first time he ever heard the phrase “suck my dick!”. It should be noted that that line isn’t in the movie but rather was shouted by a fellow moviegoer.

That fateful night marked a significant change for Tarantino. “Being taken to a Jim Brown movie at an all-Black theater, that was the most masculine experience I have ever had….Either as a movie consumer, or when creating movies for an audience – that goal of a Jim Brown movie on a Saturday night in1972 is what I’m trying to recreate.”

Quentin Tarantino also recalled seeing Deliverance at the age of nine, which seems a touch young to us but he says he “got the gist of us.”

Tarantino is currently on the promotional circuit for his book, Cinema Speculation, described as: “At once film criticism, film theory, a feat of reporting, and wonderful personal history, it is all written in the singular voice recognizable immediately as QT’s and with the rare perspective about cinema possible only from one of the greatest practitioners of the artform ever.”

Which moment from a Quentin Tarantino movie has left an impression on you? Share your memory below!