Director of Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino, and Groundhog Day star Bill Murray have reportedly put an end to their long-standing feud, according to sources speaking to Page Six. The two were seen dining together at the Sundance Film Festival, in an event facilitated by film critic Elvis Mitchell.
According to sources, Mitchell helped mend the rift by hosting exclusive talks with movie legends in his pop-up, “The Elvis Suite,” presented by Darling&Co. “Bill and Quentin are having dinner tonight at ‘The Elvis Suite’ after Elvis Mitchell brought them both to Sundance and helped bring them back together after a long feud,” a source revealed.
Tarantino and Murray, both great friends of Mitchell, were flown in just for their conversations with him. The two actors reportedly enjoyed Old Fashioned cocktails and chatted before dinner. Tarantino, 61, made an appearance at Mitchell’s “Elvis Suite,” while Murray, 74, also participated in a one-on-one conversation with Mitchell at the event.
The tension between the two began after Tarantino criticized Murray’s films in his 2022 book, Cinema Speculation, where he discussed his views on 1980s cinema. “Complex and complicated lead characters of the ‘70s were the characters that ‘80s cinema avoided completely,” Tarantino wrote. “Complex characters aren’t necessarily sympathetic. Interesting people aren’t always likable. But in the Hollywood of the ‘80s, likability was everything.” He specifically called out Murray’s characters, saying, “If you did make a movie about a f–king bastard, you could bet that F–KING bastard would see the error of their ways and be redeemed in the last 20 minutes. Like for example, all of Bill Murray’s characters.”
In his analysis, Tarantino went into detail about films like Stripes, asking how Murray’s character transforms from an iconoclastic pain to a hero. “How does Murray in ‘Stripes’ go from being an iconoclastic pain in the ass, who deserves to get beat up by Drill Sergeant Warren Oates, to rallying the troops (‘That’s the fact, Jack!’) and masterminding a covert mission on foreign soil?” Tarantino wrote, pointing to the inconsistencies in the character arc.
Murray never publicly responded to these critiques, but he shared his thoughts at Sundance, saying, “I like to check in on them because not everything holds up. You like to know they hold up. Like ‘What About Bob?’ I hadn’t seen that in 15 years and I recently watched it and thought, goddam it — that was funny!”
In addition to the Tarantino and Murray reconciliation, Mitchell also hosted conversations with other stars like Cynthia Erivo during the festival.
