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Nobody can analyze a movie like Quentin Tarantino. For example, one of his favorite movies was made by The Monkees. He seemed to say the film in question was just as good as a far more popular film by The Beatles that came out around the same time.

Quentin Tarantino loves The Monkees’ movie and so does another superstar director

During a 2022 interview with Variety, The Monkees’ Micky Dolenz discussed the band’s only theatrical film, the surrealist experiment Head. While The Monkees’ sitcom was fun for all ages, Head is challenging, bizarre, and, at times, intentionally revolting. It directly mocks The Monkees’ fans at points. “Such a crazy movie,” Dolenz said. “Definitely weird at times. 

“And it’s become a hell of a cult thing,” he added. “Quentin Tarantino told me it was in his top five favorite films. Edgar Wright, too. [Monkees creators] Bob [Rafelson] and Bert [Schneider] — along with Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, Martin Scorsese, and Peter Bogdanovich — turned the movie industry on its head. Before them, you couldn’t get a movie made unless it was through a major studio.”

Quentin Tarantino said ‘Head’ and ‘Yellow Submarine’ are great 1960s movies

Tarantino made Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, a movie about the American film industry during the late 1960s. During a 2021 interview with W, Tarantino was asked to name his favorite movies from that era. “Head, starring The Monkees — the script is co-written by Jack Nicholson!” he said. “And Yellow Submarine. 

“I’m not a big Beatles fan; you’re either an Elvis man or a Beatles man, and I’m an Elvis man,” he added, alluding to a line from Pulp Fiction. “But sometime in 1999, my then-girlfriend and I watched Yellow Submarine, and we loved it. After seeing Yellow Submarine, there finally was one thing about The Beatles that I had tremendous affection for.”

The Monkees and The Beatles took different approaches to their signature movies

The Monkees are sometimes dismissed as a lesser imitation of The Beatles. With that in mind, it’s interesting that Tarantino put the two bands on the same level, at least cinematically. However, his feelings make sense. After all, Head and Yellow Submarine both have a pop surrealist aesthetic and some fantastic music.

The main difference between Head and Yellow Submarine is not style but substance. Head was not made for kids. It comments on the media, celebrities, and the Vietnam War. Meanwhile, Yellow Submarine is too cute for words.

While Yellow Submarine has trippy visuals, it ultimately has a coherent storyline. Meanwhile, Head is like the films of Salvador Dalí — it’s a series of vaguely interconnected vignettes that rely on dream logic and emotion rather than a typical structure. There’s a reason why generations of children have grown up with Yellow Submarine but not Head.

Tarantino’s connection to Head extends beyond his fondness for it. Toni Basil, the singer who performed the hit song “Mickey,” danced with Davy Jones during a memorable sequence in Head. Decades later, Basil served as the choreographer for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. That’s the sort of unexpected movie reference that fans have come to expect from Tarantino.

Head isn’t a movie for everybody, but it’s one of Tarantino’s all-time favorites.

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