Film criticism is just a part of the cycle of filmmaking; a director releases a movie, and whether it is screened for critics or not, a holding pen of pundits will be ready and waiting to weigh in on it. While the vast majority of directors are detached enough to simply swat criticisms away and stand by their vision, occasionally directors will feel empowered to take a stand and rally in defense of their work, feeling personally slighted by something a critic (or a band of critics has said). Whether indignant rage against an over-the-line personal attack or merely a frustrated defense of their movie, these filmmakers stood up for what they perceived as an injustice, and whether the results were hilarious or terrifying, they were most certainly entertaining...
10. Quentin Tarantino Claims To Know More About Film Than Most Critics (And Is Probably Right)
The Criticism: Not one specific critic or criticism, but the general barrage of complaints levelled against his work, that it is ultimately too derivative to be truly great, and that he's just very clever at plagiarising.
The Response: Tarantino had a fantastically honest interview with GQ where he said, "I respect criticism, but I know more about film than most of the people writing about me. Not only that, Im a better writer than most of the people writing about me. And I can write film criticism better than most of the people writing about me." "Instead of critics reviewing my movies, now what theyre really doing is trying to match wits with me. Every time they review my movies, its like they want to play chess with the mastermind and show off every reference they can find, even when half of it is all of their own making. It feels like the critics are IMDB-ing everything I do. It just rubs me the wrong way because they end up using it as a stick to beat me down with." Though the man speaks like an egomaniac, he at least has the smarts to back it up, and actually wants to retire eventually to become a film critic, a job for which he is quite rightly better-qualified than most working film writers.