Quentin Tarantino working at Video Archives circa 1984 just years before he’ll go on to write “True Romance”
Before he was a famous Oscar-winning filmmaker, Quentin Tarantino got his start working at a video rental store in Manhattan Beach, California called Video Archives. In the mid-1980s, Tarantino landed a job at Video Archives right after dropping out of acting classes. He worked at the video store for five years, using his time there to deepen his knowledge and love of films.
Tarantino has often referred to his time at Video Archives as his film school. Surrounded by walls of VHS tapes, he voraciously watched and dissected a wide range of films from various genres and eras. His co-workers at the video store also shared his passion for movies, and they would have lively discussions about their favorite directors and films. Tarantino has said these conversations helped inspire him to become a director himself.
One of the major benefits of working at Video Archives for Tarantino was that it exposed him to many obscure, forgotten, or foreign films that he may not have otherwise discovered. He developed a reputation at the store for being able to recommend the most offbeat cult films to customers. This encyclopedic knowledge of cinema would inform Tarantino’s own filmmaking style, which is known for mixing various eclectic influences.