The 15 Most Underrated Performances From Quentin Tarantino Movies

Summary

• Tarantino’s movies spotlight great acting, with minor roles often stealing the show.
• Ensemble casts in films like Pulp Fiction showcase the depth of talent in each scene.
• Lesser-known actors and superstars both shine in Tarantino’s films, delivering real and vibrant performances.

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Quentin Tarantino’s movies are filled with great acting performances, many of which have flown under the radar. Tarantino has benefited from some iconic performances, including Oscar-winning turns from Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds and Brad Pitt in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. However, many fine actors haven’t gotten the recognition that they deserve for working with Tarantino, whether they played supporting roles or even minor cameos that still managed to elevate the whole movie. Tarantino’s regulars often do excellent work without necessarily catching the eye.

Tarantino’s movies often have large ensemble casts, so it can be difficult to keep track of every actor who makes an appearance. In movies such as Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown, there are multiple main characters, and many more minor characters who can still leave their mark on the film. The biggest, flashiest performers tend to draw most of the attention, but Tarantino’s direction often gives actors enough time and respect to work well. This means that his minor characters feel incredibly real and vibrant, even if the actors don’t always get the credit they deserve.

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15 Eli Roth As Donny Donowitz

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

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Inglourious Basterds
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Director Quentin Tarantino Release Date August 21, 2009 Cast Christoph Waltz , Michael Fassbender , Brad Pitt , Diane Kruger , Eli Roth

Eli Roth’s role in Inglourious Basterds was originally written for Adam Sandler, and although this would have been interesting to see, Roth does a great job as Sergeant Donny Donowitz, known as the “Bear Jew”. As a Jewish soldier behind enemy lines, Donny has an intense personal journey, as opposed to other members of the Basterds who often treat their Nazi-hunting as little more than sport. Roth is able to funnel a lot of rage into Donny, as shown by his unflinching stare when he finally gets the opportunity to tear Adolf Hitler to pieces with a machine gun.

14 Robert De Niro As Louis Gara

Jackie Brown (1997)

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Director Quentin Tarantino Release Date December 25, 1997 Cast Bridget Fonda , Michael Keaton , Robert Forster , Pam Grier , Samuel L. Jackson , Robert De Niro

Robert De Niro has had many more memorable roles than Louis Gara, but his part in Jackie Brown makes the entire movie feel much more dangerous and tense. In a world of part-time criminals and desperate grifters, Louis Gara is a hardened killer who has no time to play games. De Niro swaggers about with a permanent grimace plastered on his face, looking like he has a mouth full of sand, and he cuts through the dreamier exchanges that the other characters have. Gara is there to get his money and go, but if he has to crack a few skulls, then so be it.

13 Christopher Walken As Captain Koons

Pulp Fiction (1994)

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Pulp Fiction
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Director Quentin Tarantino Release Date October 14, 1994 Cast John Travolta , Bruce Willis , Ving Rhames , Samuel L. Jackson , Uma Thurman , Christopher Walken , Tim Roth , Harvey Keitel , Eric Stoltz , Rosanna Arquette

Christopher Walken doesn’t have a very important role in Pulp Fiction, and a lesser actor could easily be forgotten entirely. Walken plays Captain Koons, a Vietnam War veteran who delivers Butch’s father’s gold watch to him. This brief appearance is one of the most memorable scenes in the movie. Tarantino places a lot of faith in Walken, keeping the camera locked on his face as he delivers a monologue that lurches from intense drama to comedy, all without Walken missing a beat. Tarantino doesn’t cut away until it’s absolutely necessary, and Walken rises to this challenge.

12 Mike Myers As General Ed Fenech

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

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Mike Myers’ character in Inglourious Basterds adds a comedic jolt to proceedings as he introduces Lt. Hicox. Myers has a lot of prosthetics and a ludicrous accent, and it’s hard not to see his brief appearance as an incident of an Austin Powers character bursting into the war drama. Although he’s overblown and out-of-touch with his surroundings, this kind of performance is exactly what the scene calls for. It certainly marks a huge shift just as Hicox enters the fray, but Myers’ performance also speaks to the bluster and bravado that Britain often uses to describe the war.

11 Margaret Qualley As Pussycat

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

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Director Quentin Tarantino Release Date July 26, 2019 Cast Tim Roth , Margot Robbie , Mike Moh , Timothy Olyphant , Al Pacino , Kurt Russell , Leonardo DiCaprio , Dakota Fanning , James Marsden , Brad Pitt , Luke Perry , Bruce Dern , Scoot McNairy , Michael Madsen , Margaret Qualley , Emile Hirsch

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Once Upon a Time in Hollywood‘s Manson family is packed with talented young actors, many of whom have gone on to achieve even greater success since 2019. Austin Butler, Sydney Sweeney and Maya Hawke all play violent anarchists in Manson’s cult, but Margaret Qualley has the most substantial role. “Pussycat,” as she is known to other cult members, often crosses paths with Cliff Booth as he crisscrosses Los Angeles. She’s alluring and mysterious, but this masks an element of danger as she repeatedly tries to tempt Cliff into giving her a ride.

10 Kerry Washington As Broomhilda Von Shaft

Django Unchained (2012)

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Director Quentin Tarantino Release Date December 25, 2012 Cast Leonardo DiCaprio , Jonah Hill , Samuel L. Jackson , Jamie Foxx , Kerry Washington , Christoph Waltz

Kerry Washington does a lot with her limited screen time in Django Unchained. She could easily be reduced to little more than the object of Django’s quest, but Washington’s performance goes a long way to developing Broomhilda into a three-dimensional character. This heightens the stakes, even when Django Unchained indulges its more outlandish proclivities. Washington and Tarantino subvert the damsel in distress stereotype in Django Unchained, and Hildi becomes a capable and vital character, even though she is repressed by a horrific system.

9 Steve Buscemi As Mr. Pink

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

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Reservoir Dogs

Director Quentin Tarantino Release Date October 9, 1992 Cast Quentin Tarantino , Tim Roth , Michael Madsen , Harvey Keitel , Steve Buscemi , Chris Penn

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Steve Buscemi brings a lot of comedic flair to Reservoir Dogs. From the very first scene in the diner, Mr. Pink establishes himself as a motormouth who isn’t afraid to voice his opinions, no matter how unpopular they are. After the heist, Buscemi ratchets up into his signature brand of hilarious rage. The genius of his performance is how he can deliver laughs without ever impeding the drama of the disastrous fallout from the heist. Many of Steve Buscemi’s best movies, like Fargo and The Death of Stalin, allow him to balance comedy with drama. Reservoir Dogs is no exception.

8 Walton Goggins As Chris Mannix

The Hateful Eight (2015)

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Director Quentin Tarantino Release Date December 25, 2015 Cast Zoe Bell , Jennifer Jason Leigh , Michael Madsen , Tim Roth , Channing Tatum , Bruce Dern , Kurt Russell , Samuel L. Jackson , Walton Goggins , James Parks

The Hateful Eight is set up to place a lot of emphasis on the strength of its performances. Fortunately, Tarantino’s all-star cast delivers, with Jennifer Jason-Leigh and Samuel L. Jackson taking their fair share of the credit. Walton Goggins also shines as the self-appointed Sheriff of Red Rock. Chris Mannix’s simple-minded enthusiasm makes him stand out amid a crowded room full of people staring each other down like they’re ready to draw their pistols at any moment. Mannix is often the comic relief between scenes of nerve-shredding tension, and Goggins is always ready to play the butt of the joke.

7 Margot Robbie As Sharon Tate

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

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Based on the marketing around the movie, many fans expected Margot Robbie to have a much more central role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Ultimately, she makes the best of her peripheral role. Her character represents the new era of the movie industry that Rick Dalton sees passing him by. Tarantino needed a genuine movie star with the glamor of Hollywood’s Golden Age for the role, so Robbie is doing half her job simply by being on screen. She’s also perfectly compelling and likable as Sharon Tate, a naive starlet who has no idea of what’s coming for her.

6 Bruce Willis As Butch Coolidge

Pulp Fiction (1994)

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Most of Pulp Fiction‘s best quotes and most iconic moments are hoovered up by the trio of Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta and Uma Thurman, but Bruce Willis has a vital role to play. Willis is just as compelling, even if he’s a little less splashy in his performance. As a boxer on the run from a violent gangster, Butch Coolidge finds himself facing danger around every corner, but unlike some of the other characters in Pulp Fiction, his predicament stems from his decision to do what’s right. Willis’s performance is a throwback to the leading men of Hollywood’s Golden Age.

5 Lucy Liu As O-Ren Ishii

Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)

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Kill Bill

Director Quentin Tarantino Release Date October 10, 2003 Cast David Carradine , Michael Madsen , Uma Thurman , Daryl Hannah , Lucy Liu , Vivica A. Fox

Kill Bill is thematically lightweight compared to some of Tarantino’s other movies, and joyously so. Tarantino sets up the simple and recognizable framework of a revenge thriller so that he can devote as much of his focus to stylish fight scenes as possible. Amidst this onslaught of action, Lucy Liu is one of a handful of actors who are able to slow things down. O-Ren Ishii is psychopathically detached and extremely lethal. In an action movie soaked in blood, Liu has the intelligence to float gently into frame as if nothing can touch her, and this makes her more terrifying than any of the Bride’s other foes.

4 Tim Roth As Mr. Orange

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

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Michael Madsen may have the most eye-catching role in Reservoir Dogs, and Harvey Keitel has the most emotional, but Tim Roth’s performance as Mr. Orange combines both of these elements. His frantic screaming immediately the heist acts as a grating counterpoint to the swaggering style of the movie’s opening, and he maintains this emotional intensity throughout. The ending of Reservoir Dogs reveals that Mr. Orange was the one working for the police all along, and this makes the movie worth rewatching just to see Roth’s subtle hints. The plot twist elevates his performance to another level.

3 Leonardo DiCaprio As Calvin Candie

Django Unchained (2012)

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Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance as Calvin Candie has received widespread critical acclaim, but he still deserves more recognition. Although his role is a little smaller than Christoph Waltz’s, he should also have received a string of award nominations. Without a convincing Calvin Candie, the entire movie would be akin to an immature and borderline irresponsible revisionist fantasy. Calvin Candie is the dark heart of the American South, and DiCaprio hammers home the incredible brutality and callousness of the time period.

2 Mélanie Laurent As Shosanna Dreyfus

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

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Christoph Waltz’s performance as Hans Landa drew most of the awards-season attention in Inglourious Basterds, but Mélanie Laurent can consider herself unlucky not to have scored a few more nominations. Laurent plays Shosanna Dreyfus, a woman who narrowly escapes Landa’s clutches as a teenager and flees to Paris, only for the Nazi occupation of France to bring her face-to-face with her oppressor once again. Her cordial meal with Landa in a Parisian café is excruciatingly tense, and Laurent does a superb job of selling Shosanna’s feelings of terror, rage and grief, all bubbling beneath the surface.

1 Robert Forster As Max Cherry

Jackie Brown (1997)

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Jackie Brown has a stylish soundtrack, and it devotes a few scenes to slow jams as Jackie or Max take up the screen. Both Robert Forster and Pam Grier have the presence and charisma to hold the audience’s attention while Tarantino slows everything down, but Forster never really got the attention he deserved for this performance. Max is an everyman who gets sucked into a world of crime, but Forster’s tender emotionality reveals that Max is really just a hopeless romantic whose world is turned upside-down by the chance to feel the kind of love that Roy Ayers is always singing about.

Source: https://www.lsu.edu.vn
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