{"id":609451,"date":"2026-05-29T01:04:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T01:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/609451\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T01:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T01:04:12","slug":"the-1977-sci-fi-movie-quentin-tarantino-called-better-than-star-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/609451\/","title":{"rendered":"The 1977 sci-fi movie Quentin Tarantino called better than ‘Star Wars’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Quentin<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ Miramax Films<\/p>\n

Thu 28 May 2026 20:15, UK <\/p>\n

As far as impact, legacy, and transformative effects go, no movie of any genre released in 1977 was more important in any way, shape, or form than George Lucas\u2019 Star Wars. Despite that, Quentin Tarantino<\/a> doesn\u2019t even think it was the best sci-fi flick of the year.<\/p>\n

What had been written off as a folly waiting to happen instead became the highest-grossing release in cinema history, winning eight Academy Awards for its groundbreaking technical innovations, acquiring a further four nods, including \u2018Best Picture\u2019 and \u2018Best Director\u2019, and turning Hollywood upside down.<\/p>\n

In the years that followed, everyone wanted to sing from the Star Wars songbook. Space operas were suddenly back in vogue, and thanks to Lucas\u2019 genius idea<\/a>, merchandising the shit out of every high-profile picture became common practice, never mind the five-decade franchise that\u2019s still going strong today.<\/p>\n

Tarantino was 14 years old when audiences around the world were first transported to a galaxy far, far away, putting him right in the demographic sweet spot. He already fancied himself as something of a cinephile at that point, though, so he wasn\u2019t as blown away as the rest of the teenage filmgoing population.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I liked Star Wars,\u201d he explained. \u201cWhat\u2019s not to like? But I remember, and this is not a \u2018but\u2019 in a negative way, but in a good way. The movie completely carried me along, and I was just rocking and rolling with these characters. When the lights came on, I felt like a million dollars. And I looked around and had this moment of recognition, thinking, \u2018Wow! What a time at the movies!’\u201d<\/p>\n

A standard reaction from anyone who caught it the first time around, but it wasn\u2019t his favourite sci-fi of the year. This being Tarantino<\/a>, you\u2019d be well within your rights to think he\u2019d favour something more obscure and off the beaten track, especially when 1977 also marked the arrival of The Incredible Melting Man, Demon Seed, The Crater Lake Monster, and The Mighty Peking Man, which sound right up his alley.<\/p>\n

However, that wasn\u2019t the case. Instead, he favoured the other big-budget intergalactic offering<\/a> from one of the \u2018Movie Brats\u2019, which was massively successful in its own right, but was still overshadowed by Star Wars. \u201cAt the end of the day, I\u2019m more of a Close Encounters guy,\u201d the auteur elaborated. \u201cJust the bigger idea, and Spielberg setting out to make an epic for regular people, not just cinephiles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further reading: Cutting Room Floor<\/p>\n

Lucas was so confident that Steven Spielberg would win the battle of the interstellar epics that he bet 2.5% of his film\u2019s box office takings that Close Encounters of the Third Kind would earn more than Star Wars. When it didn\u2019t, he kept his word, and the wager ultimately earned Spielberg a reported $40 million.<\/p>\n

Close Encounters made north of $300 million and won two Oscars from nine nods, so it was a huge hit at the end of the day, but it was no Star Wars. Why did Tarantino prefer it? \u201cFew films had the kind of climax that Close Encounters had,\u201d he opined. \u201cIt blew audiences away.\u201d That it did, and it\u2019s a classic, but it couldn\u2019t hold a candle to Lucas\u2019 movie in terms of shaking the film business to its very foundations.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE \"\"\/ <\/a> The Far Out Quentin Tarantino Newsletter<\/p>\n

All the latest Quentin Tarantino content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Far Out \/ Miramax Films Thu 28 May 2026 20:15, UK As far as impact, legacy, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[154668,110256,96,2839,33395,15786,2591,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-609451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-154668","tag-close-encounters-of-the-third-kind","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-quentin-tarantino","tag-sci-fi","tag-star-wars","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}