Quentin Tarantino’s movies are primarily known for their gruesome violence, pitch-black humor, and amoral antiheroes. But the notorious writer-director has also told some surprisingly sweet love stories across his iconic filmography. At its core, Django Unchained is a fairy tale about a noble warrior embarking on a dangerous adventure to liberate the love of his life.
From Clarence and Alabama in True Romance to Jackie and Max in Jackie Brown to Pumpkin and Honey Bunny in Pulp Fiction, Tarantino’s movies are full of endearing romances.
Pumpkin & Honey Bunny (Pulp Fiction)
The first characters that audiences meet in Pulp Fiction are a pastiche of Bonnie and Clyde who refer to each other by their pet names, “Pumpkin” and “Honey Bunny.” Their diner robbery bookends the movie and sets the pitch-black comedic tone of Tarantino’s sophomore directorial effort.
Pumpkin and Honey Bunny are a pair of sadistic gun-toting criminals, but their tangible love for one another humanizes them.
The Bride & Bill (Kill Bill)
At the beginning of Kill Bill’s nonlinear narrative, Beatrix “The Bride” Kiddo is determined to kill Bill. But as a series of flashbacks would later reveal, they were once in love. Before Bill and the contract killers on his payroll left the Bride for dead for leaving the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, she and Bill were in a passionate relationship.
This isn’t a happily-ever-after love story like Clarence and Alabama or Django and Broomhilda; it couldn’t be further from it. After being reunited with the daughter she shares with Bill, the Bride kills him using the fabled “Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique.”
Shosanna Dreyfus & Fredrick Zoller (Inglourious Basterds)
One of the most compelling threads in Tarantino’s darkly comedic World War II epic Inglourious Basterds is the doomed romance between German army sniper-turned-propaganda star Fredrick Zoller and the apple of his eye, Shosanna Dreyfus. Fredrick takes an immediate liking to Shosanna, who he knows under her assumed identity of Emmanuelle Mimieux. He moves the premiere of his film Nation’s Pride to her cinema in an ill-fated attempt to woo her.
Little does Fredrick know, she’s a Jewish refugee hiding in plain sight. There’s nothing he can possibly do to win her heart, because there’s no chance that she could love someone who serves the fascist regime that massacred her entire family.
Mickey & Mallory Knox (Natural Born Killers)
Oliver Stone significantly rewrote Tarantino’s Natural Born Killers script when he came aboard to direct it, but Tarantino’s signature style is still buried in there. Mickey and Mallory Knox escape from their tragic pasts by going on a blood-drenched killing spree.
Throughout the movie, Mickey and Mallory use violence as a twisted expression of love. Their romantic crime spree inspires a fervent fan following.
Vincent Vega & Mia Wallace (Pulp Fiction)
Vincent Vega and Mia Wallace never make their union official in Pulp Fiction, but the main source of tension in their story segment is that there are clearly romantic sparks between them. Vincent’s boss, notorious crime lord Marsellus Wallace, tasks him with taking his wife out for dinner and showing her a good time.
Their dinner conversation at Jack Rabbit Slim’s is overtly flirtatious, and to top it off, they take part in a racy dance contest. If anything, Mia’s unexpected heroin overdose is a blessing in disguise, because it prevents them from having an affair that would’ve gotten them both whacked.
Jackie Brown & Max Cherry (Jackie Brown)
Tarantino’s only adaptation of another writer’s work, Jackie Brown (based on Elmore Leonard’s Rum Punch), is also his most mature film. On the surface, it’s a stylish crime caper about a flight attendant playing a gun runner and a pair of ATF agents against each other. But it’s really about two people of a certain age finding love.
Pam Grier and Robert Forster share palpable, engaging chemistry as Jackie, the titular flight attendant-turned-criminal mastermind, and Max, the bail bondsman she falls for. Fate keeps them apart at the end of the movie, but they clearly still have strong feelings for each other.
Django Freeman & Broomhilda Von Shaft (Django Unchained)
Stylistically, Django Unchained is a spaghetti western set against the backdrop of the antebellum South, with Sergio Leone-style operatic bloodshed and recycled Ennio Morricone music cues. But its narrative is closer to a fairy tale.
Slave-turned-bounty hunter Django Freeman rides across the country to liberate his wife Broomhilda from the Candyland plantation. Django’s love for his wife is the heart of the movie, as he’ll stop at nothing to save her.
Clarence Worley & Alabama Whitman (True Romance)
Tarantino’s first script to be produced by a major movie studio, True Romance, is also the most romantic story on his filmography. It chronicles the idealized coupling of Clarence, a lonely comic book nerd, and Alabama, the beautiful escort his boss hires to keep him company who ends up falling madly in love with him.
The two lovebirds elope, steal a briefcase full of drugs from her former pimp, and go to Hollywood to make their fortune selling it. This narrative plays like a rose-tinted fantasy, but the sincerity of Tarantino’s storytelling and the electrifying chemistry shared by Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette make it work beautifully.