The Story Of My Best Friend’s Birthday

Hey there Mr Tarantino, if you happen to be reading this, I have a simple plea to you to put the finishing touches on your first movie, My Best Friend’s Birthday. Ever since Reservoir Dogs exploded onto screens in 1992, Quentin Tarantino movies have become true event cinema.

Tarantino’s gift for characters and dialogue has resulted in some of the most iconic movie scenes of the last 30 years. The director wants to finish off his filmography on a high note, with Tarantino planning to retire after his upcoming tenth movie.

While Reservoir Dogs is technically his directorial debut, he helmed the unfinished My Best Friend’s Birthday before it. Tarantino shot this 1987 comedy during his days working at the Video Archives store and as the title implies, it involves a man trying to do something nice for his friend’s birthday.

Quentin Tarantino Was So Disappointed In My Best Friend’s Birthday He Never Finished It

My Best Friend’s Birthday was shot over several years in the late 1980s on an estimated budget of $5,000. The film was never completed, however, and over the years conflicting rumors emerged as to why. There does exist a 36-minute montage of scenes, which is easily accessible online.

In 2019, the director himself revealed in the book My Best Friend’s Birthday: The Making of a Quentin Tarantino Film why it wasn’t completed: he wasn’t happy with the film. This scrappy no-budget comedy hadn’t turned out the way QT wanted, so he instead cut together some scenes he liked after running out of steam to finish it.

Tarantino’s friend and fellow Video Archives employee Roger Avary also confirmed My Best Friend’s Birthday was abandoned due to a loss of enthusiasm. Tarantino doesn’t disregard the experience, though, claiming working on the comedy acted as his film school and taught him some useful lessons.

Reports That My Best Friend’s Birthday Was Destroyed In A Fire Are A Myth

For years, the most commonly reported reason for My Best Friend’s Birthday being left unfinished was that half the film was destroyed in a lab fire. According to My Best Friend’s Birthday: The Making of a Quentin Tarantino Film, this was total nonsense, though the production did lose a couple of reels in a lab accident. Says Tarantino:

For the record, I never actually said the movie was destroyed in a fire. That just became part of the mythology. I started reading it in the biographies, and I figured, why not just go along with it? It was an interesting story, so I never corrected it.

The director also states that losing some film rolls was a blessing. If the lab hadn’t given him a large discount in the aftermath, Tarantino doesn’t think he could have afforded to get the remaining footage out of the lab. This also means he still has the original footage and could complete the film – if he so wished.

Tarantino Hasn’t Ruled Out Finishing My Best Friend’s Birthday

The script for My Best Friend’s Birthday ran for 80 pages. So, going by the loose rule that a page of a screenplay translates to a minute of screentime, the film should run in the 70 to 80 minute range. During his making of book interview, QT hadn’t ruled out a return to the edit bay for his debut.

It’s sitting in storage. I could finish the movie one of these days. I might still do it, just to have it.

While he’s currently focused on other projects, I’d love to see Tarantino blow the cobwebs off his first film. I’ve got no illusions that it’s a secret masterpiece, but it would be a fascinating look into his development as a filmmaker. Even in the available footage, there are signs of the auteur he would become.

Completing My Best Friend’s Birthday could also become a nice retirement project. This would allow his fans the chance to see “film zero” by one of this generation’s most defining directors.

Source: My Best Friend’s Birthday: The Making of a Quentin Tarantino Film by Andrew J. Rausch