More than meets the eye: The Tarantino/Rodriguez Connection

This rainy summer, Babylon Kino in Berlin has organized a festival of Tarantino & Rodriguez flicks. While rewatching some of them, I thought I'd share some insights into their fruitful collaboration. This piece was penned a helluva long time ago for my video essay published on Canal+. Below is the full, unedited cut.

[They met 15 years ago at the Sundance Independent Film Festival and became instant friends. They were promoting their debut films, which are now cited to aspiring indie filmmakers as prime examples of creativity and originality. El Mariachi, made for a mere $7,000, stands as the cheapest film ever distributed by a major studio, with a crew that essentially consisted of one man: Robert Rodriguez. He penned the screenplay while in isolation for a clinical trial, testing obesity medication, and then funneled his entire honorarium from the trial into the film's production. Reservoir Dogs marked the grand entrance of Quentin Tarantino, who until then had been writing screenplays and trying his hand at acting. Most of the film's action unfolds in a single location, yet the screen is never short on drama. For him, the classic bank heist motif wasn't the film's objective, but merely a vehicle to explore the mutual suspicion simmering among the criminals. The sharply drawn characters and numerous flashbacks were a clear testament to his talent as both a writer and director.


It's often said that a director's second film is the true test of whether their first was merely a stroke of luck. Pulp Fiction fully unveiled Quentin Tarantino's genius, winning the Palme d'Or and becoming a milestone in cinematic history. The helmer proved his directorial mastery and also took home an Oscar for the film's screenplay. The film's fractured narrative, glorification of violence, and long-winded, meandering dialogues about nothing sparked fervent debate, but also spawned a wave of imitators. Robert Rodriguez's Desperado was a peculiar hybrid of remake and sequel. The story of the first film served as a foundation for what became the lowest-budgeted of the year's biggest blockbusters, packed with explosive action inspired by John Woo productions. Both were groundbreaking action films. A deep fascination with comic books is evident, which allows the on-screen violence to be treated with a wink and a nod. This trait would become a hallmark of their later pictures.


As authorities in the film world, they strive to influence the tastes of both audiences and fellow filmmakers. As a producer, Tarantino lends his name to promote Asian films little-known in America, such as Hostel or Hero. Rodriguez is widely known as a self-sufficient, one-man-band filmmaker. He often serves as his own editor, composer, and sound designer, while also handling production design and special effects. He also owns his own film studio where his projects are brought to life. In his self-produced "10-Minute Film School" segments, he reveals the secrets of his craft to young aspiring directors.


Building on existing film genres, Tarantino and Rodriguez have crafted their own unique worlds, rife with cinematic allusions, where one searches in vain for morality or truth. One of their first joint projects was the vampire horror flick From Dusk Till Dawn, helmed by Rodriguez. Tarantino penned the screenplay and played one of the lead roles. The film enjoyed moderate success but was instrumental in launching the big-screen career of George Clooney in his first major cinematic role. Following the success of Sin City and the two-part Kill Bill saga, the two filmmakers decided to reacquaint audiences with the Grindhouse phenomenon.]


Hitting theaters is the film Planet Terror, which constitutes the second part of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's project, Grindhouse. The first part, Death Proof, premiered in Poland in July. Grindhouse refers to a screening format popular in the U.S. during the '60s and '70s, where audiences could see two films for the price of one, shown back-to-back. These were typically C-grade horror and action films that exploited sex and violence. The minimal budgets of these films translated into a certain kitschiness, which didn't bother their fans in the slightest. The Grindhouse tradition is familiar mainly to Americans, which is why the creators decided that the rest of the world would see the two films at separate screenings, albeit in versions extended by half an hour. The premiere of Death Proof took place in Poland in July, while Planet Terror is now arriving in theaters.


Working from the foundation of existing genres, they have created their own worlds, rich with cinematic references, in which morality and truth are conspicuously absent. A great fascination with comic books is visible in their films, allowing the on-screen violence to be presented with a certain tongue-in-cheek quality.


Tarantino and Rodriguez met 15 years ago at the Sundance Independent Film Festival and have been friends ever since. At the time, they were promoting their debut features, which today are held up to aspiring filmmakers as exemplars of creativity and originality. They often use the same actors and props. Today, their collaboration is growing ever closer.


While filming a cameo in one scene of Pulp Fiction, Tarantino asked his friend to step behind the camera. One of their first joint projects was the vampire horror flick From Dusk Till Dawn, directed by Rodriguez. Tarantino wrote the script and starred in one of the leading roles. He also had a cameo in Desperado, as well as in the current Planet Terror. In return Rodriguez composed the score for the Kill Bill vol. 2. The project Four Rooms, in which they, along with two other director friends, each helmed a segment, proved to be a misfire.


Invited by Rodriguez to direct a scene in Sin City, Tarantino became acquainted with the techniques of digital filmmaking. This positive experience led to him personally taking the reins as cinematographer on his own latest film.


Tarantino's Death Proof was an homage to the popular car chase movies and slasher flicks of the '70s—films about psychopaths murdering young women. Rodriguez's Planet Terror is a nod to the popular theme of ecological threats [and mutant zombies]. Both films [should be taken with a grain of salt, as they are pure entertainment. They are an expression of fascination and a heartfelt tribute to brutal grindhouse cinema. Both] feature stylized film damage and intentionally 'missing' reels, which were characteristic of those old screenings. So too was the practice of showing trailers for future film attractions between the two features. For this project, four fake trailers for non-existent films were shot. However, a feature film based on one of them, Machete, is already in production. As the project's godfathers admit, we can expect further installments within this framework.


Michael Talarek



Coda (August 2025)

The explosive, shared universe of Tarantino and Rodriguez, which reached its zenith with the ambitious Grindhouse double feature, seems a distant, almost mythical cinematic landscape from the vantage point of 2025. The project, a passionate homage to the gritty exploitation films of their youth, paradoxically marked both the pinnacle of their back-to-back collaboration and the beginning of a long, pronounced divergence in their creative paths. The lukewarm box office reception of Grindhouse in 2007, a financial disappointment that saw the features split for international release, appears to have been a critical juncture. While their friendship endured, the two auteurs embarked on decidedly separate, though equally compelling, journeys, their shared cinematic playground giving way to individual empires.


Robert Rodriguez, ever the maverick industrialist, doubled down on the very world Grindhouse had spawned. He seized the audience's enthusiasm for the project's fake trailer and delivered Machete and its sequel, expanding his own cinematic universe. Never one to abandon a franchise, he also revisited the world of Sin City with A Dame to Kill For and continued to build his family-friendly Spy Kids brand. Perhaps most significantly, Rodriguez channeled his independent spirit into television, launching his own network, El Rey. A flagship original series for the network was From Dusk Till Dawn, a deeper, serialized dive into the Mesoamerican vampire mythology he and Tarantino had first unleashed in 1996. This venture allowed Rodriguez to fully explore the lore only hinted at in the original film. His path also led to a major collaboration with another cinematic titan, James Cameron, for whom he directed the long-gestating manga adaptation Alita: Battle Angel. In a move that brought his career full circle, he returned to his guerrilla filmmaking roots with Red 11, enlisting his son for a self-imposed challenge to create the film for a mere $7,000 with virtually no crew, echoing the audacious production of his original flick.


Quentin Tarantino, meanwhile, turned inward, embarking on a new phase of his career that saw him meticulously crafting historical revisionist epics. With Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained, and The Hateful Eight, he channeled his love for spaghetti westerns and other genre films into profound, often brutal, interrogations of America's and Europe's darkest chapters. This trilogy of sorts not only proved commercially successful but also earned him a second Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Django Unchained. His ninth, and what many consider his most personal film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, was a sun-drenched, melancholic fairy tale about the end of an era in the film industry he so dearly loves. Following this cinematic capstone, he has dedicated more time to his other great passion, publishing his acclaimed work of film criticism, Cinema Speculation, in 2022.


While the two haven't shared a director's chair or a screenplay credit in years, the echoes of their alliance remain. Tarantino has mused that Rodriguez would be the perfect director for a spin-off film based on the fictional TV show from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Rodriguez, for his part, has often spoken of a connected universe between his various film properties. Their paths, though separate, continue to demonstrate the core artistic principles that first united them: a deep reverence for film history, a rebellious spirit, and an unwavering commitment to a singular vision. The days of their direct, frenetic collaboration may be over, but the cinematic landscape is all the richer for the distinct, powerful bodies of work they have created since going their separate ways.


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