Both films have felled five challengers each, but here we are. Comedy versus drama. Two icons who came up in the Nineties. Two filmmakers who are still wowing the world today. Do you pick... THERE WILL BE BLOOD or... PULP FICTION?
Technically the best movies are The Return of the King, Ben-Hur and Titanic, right? They all have 11 Oscar wins. Who better to tell me what the best movies are than the academy. The actual best movie ever is Fellowship of the Ring
I generally feel the same way. There Will Be Blood is better, but I don't think it would make my top 50 of all time.
Both are solidly great, though I have a hard time enthusiastically voting for either one over the other. There Will Be Blood is the one I think of more often. While I think Pulp Fiction is a masterful work, Tarantino has gone on to make at least 3 films that I think even more highly of. There Will Be Blood is probably the 2nd or 3rd best PTA film, and where his evolution from Boogie Nights into Magnolia into Punch Drunk Love really hit people, though he’d follow it up with a significantly greater film in The Master. I think I’ll vote There Will Be Blood. Pulp Fiction has an unfiltered rawness that is part of its charm, while There Will Be Blood feels like someone who refined their voice and style into something unique, where that point of Tarantino’s arc was still to come. If it were Inglourious Basterds vs There Will Be Blood I’d have an even tougher time. If it were The Master represented, it’d beat any other film mentioned. The Godfather should have been here.
I feel good about my TWBB vote, but every time I watch Pulp Fiction I remember how much I love it. It really is a fantastic movie - such a great energy to it.