If anyone's qualified to judge whichmoviesserve as the best the 21st century has to offer, it'sQuentin Tarantino.
The iconic filmmaker behind such legendary hits asPulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds, Kill BillandDjango Unchained, the 62-year-old Tarantino has long expressed an undying love for all things cinema.
With that in mind, it's no great surprise that theOnce Upon a Time in Hollywooddirector has once again entered the public spotlight with his list for the best films of the 21st century.
Appearing on a recent episode ofThe Bret Easton Ellispodcast, Tarantino finished off his ongoing countdown to thebest moviesof the current century, topping off the list with Ridley Scott's 2001 war film,Black Hawk Down.
Based on the 1999 nonfiction book of the same name,Black Hawk Downfocuses on the real-life military operations pitting a United States military task force against Somali insurgents in 1993 Mogadishu.
Led by an expansive ensemble cast that includes the likes of Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Jason Isaacs, Tom Hardy, Orlando Bloom, Sam Shepard,Tom Sizemoreand Eric Bana,Black Hawk Downearned a number of positive reviews upon its initial release, although it failed to gain serious traction at the 74thAcademy Awards.
Over 20 years since the movie's theatrical debut, however, Tarantino is heaping praise on Ridley Scott's war film, calling it "beyond extraordinary."
"I liked it when I first saw it, but I actually think it was so intense that it stopped working for me, and I didn't carry it with me the way that I should've," Tarantino said of the film. "Since then, I've seen it a couple of times, not a bunch of times, but I think it's a masterwork, and one of the things I love so much about it is […] this is the only movie that actually goes completely for anApocalypse Nowsense of purpose and visual effect and feeling, and I think it achieves it."
"It keeps up the intensity for 2 hours 45 minutes, or whatever it is, and I watched it again recently, my heart was going through the entire runtime of the movie," the director continued. "It had me and never let me go, and I hadn't seen it in a while. The feat of direction is beyond extraordinary."
Tarantino's other picks for the top 10 films of the century included:
Black Hawk Down
Toy Story 3
Lost in Translation
Dunkirk
There Will Be Blood
Zodiac
Unstoppable
Mad Max: Fury Road
Shaun of the Dead
Midnight in Paris
This story was originally published byParadeon Dec 2, 2025, where it first appeared in theNewssection. Add Parade as aPreferred Source by clicking here.
