While Reservoir Dogs was his big break-out, auteur Quentin Tarantino has a lesser known film that launched him into the (minor) spotlight. My Best Friend’s Birthday is a black-and-white film written by Tarantino and his friend Craig Hamann. Conceived and shot during his days working at the rental store Video Archives in Manhattan Beach, California, the 16mm film was shot on a $5,000 budget. The original cut was 70 minutes, but much of it was unfortunately burned up in a lab fire that occurred during editing. I’ve stumbled across the 36-minute version below that has never been officially released. See his 1987 debut below, that was an inspiration for his work on True Romance.
Synopsis: young man who continually tries to do something nice for his friend’s birthday, only to have his efforts backfire.
Can you see Tarantino’s beginnings and how they influenced his later films in this 1987 debut?