Who could possibly hate Bill Murray movies?
If you think about Bill's incredible filmography, one can't help but be wowed. Of course, the absurdly hilarious Caddyshack comes to mind, although he was just one of the ensemble... Although some of his best films feature Bill surrounded by other huge stars. This includes all of his collaborations with We Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zizou, and Moonrise Kingdom etc.) Of course, there's also his beloved works such as Lost In Translation, Stripes, Zombieland, and Ghostbusters.
But iconic director Quentin Tarantino isn't a fan... Well... at the very least, Quentin's not a fan of ten years worth of Bill Murray films. Here's why...
The Problem With Bill Murray Movies Has A Lot To Do With Chevy Chase
Bill Murray and Chevy Chase have a history of major feuds and now Quentin Tarantino is just exacerbating that in 2021. Quentin believes that these two Saturday Night Live alumni represented why 1980s movies tended to be bad. However, Quentin made an important distinction between the works of these two major 1980s stars.
The discussion came up on The Joe Rogan Experience when Quentin Tarantino was discussing the two worst periods for North American cinema. He claims the 1950s and the 1980s were the worst due to censorship and the rise of political correctness. In the 1950s, this was self-imposed due to the aftermath of WW2. North America just wasn't ready for controversy and edge after the trauma they endured after their fight with the Nazis and Japanese.
The 1980s were different, however, according to Quentin. This is because North America self-imposed censorship rules.
"After the '70s when everything was just 'go as far as you can', then, all of a sudden, everything got watered down," Quentin explained to Joe and his audience.
Quentin claims the 1970s was one of the best decades for film because so many of the main characters were dynamic and interesting. They weren't all shiny and often they weren't all that good. But that changed in the 1980s and Quentin believes that Bill Murray was very much a part of that.
Quentin explained that in the 1970s, the main character had to be likable. An audience had to be on board with them from the start. Exceptions were unlikable characters who went through a massive change in attitude by the end of the movie... AKA a lot of Bill Murray movies.
"The critics always really preferred Bill Murray movies to Chevy Chase movies. However, it does seem as if the point of all the Bill Murray movies is that he's this kind of hip, cool, curmudgeon, smarta** guy, who in the last 20 minutes gets a transformation and becomes this nice guy and almost apologizes for who he was," Quentin said. "Stripes. Groundhog Day. Scrooged. The whole thing... Like, for instance, Stripes... How does he go from where Warren Oates kicks his a**. Deservedly kicks his a**. He deserves to get belly punched by Warren Oates in that movie.... How does he go from being this iconoclastic, 'I don't give a f*** about anything. I get beaten up by Warren Oates', to now he's rallying the troops."
Quentin continued by discussing Bill's character's change in Groundhog Day: "Does anybody really think that a less sarcastic Bill Murray is a better Bill Murray? Maybe it's better for Andie MacDowell but not for us as the viewer."
Why Chevy Chase Movies Were Different
"Chevy Chase movies don't play that s***. Chevy Chase is the same supercilious a**hole at the end of the movie that he is at the beginning. He never changes in his stuff. He's always like a bit of a d**k. And he's always completely sarcastic. I mean, unless they cast him playing a dope like he is in the National Lampoon vacation movies. But when he's playing like a Chevy Chase character... he never apologies for who he is. Stays that way throughout the whole film and even if there is a slight change that's not the whole point of the movie."
In short, Quentin believes that Chevy represented the good aspects of an otherwise terrible decade in American cinema history. On the other hand, Bill Murray and his strict character-arc flicks represented something completely different.
Regardless, Bill Murray is one of the most beloved movie stars and comic minds of his generation. And while Chevy Chase has some movies that have stood the test of time, people are still quoting some of his 1980s films, such as Groundhog Day, Stripes, and Ghostbusters, to this very day.