Gallery: Quentin Tarantino's 10 Best Movie Frames
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__Stuck In The Middle in *Reservoir Dogs* (1992)__ : From the infamous ear-severing scene of Tarantino’s debut—what a way to start out, right?—is this shot of Michael Madsen dancing to Stealers Wheel’s “Stuck In The Middle With You.” It’s perfectly composed: the terrified soon-to-be victim in the foreground, the only exit door cruelly beckoning in the background, and the sadistic, vengeful Mr. Blonde stuck in the middle, taunting the helpless man.
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__The Mexican Standoff in *Reservoir Dogs* (1992)__: The final scene of Tarantino’s debut has been analyzed for years—mostly because, if you look at the guns, nobody actually shoots Chis Penn’s “Nice Guy” Eddie, yet he still goes down in the hail of gunfire. But it’s an incredible conclusion, taken from a low angle to get closer to Mr. Orange’s perspective, bleeding out on the floor of the warehouse.
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__The Ultimate Piercing in *Pulp Fiction* (1994):__ The religious imagery is particularly strong here, with a Renaissance-esque tableau of everyone marveling at Mia’s resurrection. In contrast to many of the film's other enduring images, though—Vincent and Jules dressed in Jimmy's tacky-ass hand-me-downs, or Jules and Mia dancing at Jackrabbit Slim's—it forgoes color for catharsis. After all, if Marcellus defenestrated a man who gave his wife a foot massage, what would he do to the guy whose drugs she overdosed on?
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__Getting Medieval in *Pulp Fiction* (1994):__ There’s a strong reclamation of authority for Marcellus in this frame, taking back power after what Zed did to him: cocking the shotgun, never turning around to speak to Butch’s face . They’re both bloodied, exhausted, and yet unexpectedly triumphant in the dingy light of a nightmarish basement.
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__Jackie in the morning in *Jackie Brown* (1997):__ Tarantino’s most underrated film has only one flaw: it had to follow *Pulp Fiction*. Pam Grier as the title character is the sun at the center of the film's planetary system, and yet she’s constantly trying to elude capture by authorities—and death at the hands of Samuel L. Jackson’s gun smuggler Ordell. This shot, as she lets Max Cherry (Robert Forster) into her apartment, sums up everything: she’s number one, she’s an electric presence, and yet she can disappear in an instant.
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__The Bride and O-Ren in *Kill Bill, Vol. 1* (2003):__ The fight between The Bride (Uma Thurman) and the Crazy 88 at the House of Blue Leaves restaurant is a cacophony of kung-fu violence. And yet it ultimately gives rise to this, the most beautiful shot in the first half of Tarantino’s epic: a brief moment of respite in her climactic samurai sword duel against O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu). The trickle of water, the bloodied combatants, the graceful snow, and the night sky all combine for a gorgeous frame.
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__Ocular Rift in *Kill Bill, Vol. 2* (2004):__ Can we talk about Quentin Tarantino’s foot thing? There are countless shots in all of his films centered on women’s feet—and Uma Thurman’s in particular. And one of the most viscerally satisfying (if viscerally gross) shots in *Vol. 2* is this frame of The Bride squishing the remaining eye of Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) between her toes. It's power, it's vengeance, and it's probably time for another eyepatch.
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__Hood Surfing in *Death Proof* (2007):__ There might not be all that much to love in QT's grindhouse homage, but the movie's climactic car chase is a doozy—and gave us the movie's enduring image. Stuntwoman-turned-star Zoe Bell clings to the hood of a Dodge Challenger while Kurt Russell's Stuntman Mike pursues mercilessly. While much of the sequence is a medium shot barrelling along the road at 50mph, this quick tight shot marries clarity and kineticism, with just the right angle to portend doom.
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__Bear Kills in *Inglorious Bastards* (2009):__ Eli Roth’s best contribution to cinema is his role as the Boston-bred, bat-wielding executioner of Aldo Raine’s marauding Nazi slaughterers. His introduction is a flurry of sound design—a bat hitting stone walls in a dark hallway. But this shot, just before The Bear Jew gleefully bashes in the head of a German soldier, contains all the pent-up tension Tarantino is trying to vent with his fantastical revision of World War II’s ending.
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__Big Daddy's House in *Django Unchained* (2012):__ So a freed slave and a bounty hunter ride up to a plantation owner's house: not the usual setup for a joke, but it's the premise for a killer shot, what with "Big Daddy" Bennett (Don Johnson) looming in the foreground. Compositionally, Bennett and the driveway/roundabout are positioned perfectly to create some not-so-subtle sexual/power symbolism, which Django (Jamie Foxx) and King Schultz (Christoph Walz) are about to not-so-subtly ride roughshod over.
