When Michael Madsen passed away in late July, the tributes came quickly. The most meaningful, though, has arrived in the form of a three-hour episode of the Pure Cinema Podcast,, where none other than Quentin Tarantino sat down to pay tribute to his longtime friend and collaborator.
Tarantino, who directed Madsen in “Reservoir Dogs,” “Kill Bill,” “The Hateful Eight,” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” rarely gives himself over to public displays of grief, but Madsen’s death seems to have hit really hard.
A lot of people were making announcements about him, and I’m not on social media, and it’s just kind of awesome… Not my thing to kind of play out poignancy publicly, but the loss of Michael really, really hits hard. And I’m actually one of those people that’s quite stoic about people dying… This is hitting me harder than I’m just used to.
Tarantino revealed that in the days following Madsen’s death, he curated his own private film festival at home, a personal retrospective of Madsen’s work, minus his own. As QT put it, those were off-limits, even if he still considers Madsen’s performance in “Kill Bill” to be his greatest.
Tarantino also decided to omit the usual titles that appeared in Madsen’s obituaries—the ones he was most known for, such as “Thelma & Louise,” “Donnie Brasco,” “Wyatt Earp,” Species,” and “Mulholland Falls.”
Instead, Tarantino’s picks dig deep into Madsen’s lesser-known work, most of it very obscure— I’ve only seen one of the titles he mentions. The list spans features, TV movies, even short-lived network series. Most of these are post-“Reservoir Dogs,” a point of emphasis for QT. “I wanted to spotlight the stuff that might get missed,” he said.
Tarantino’s Michael Madsen Top 10:
A House in the Hills (1993)
Final Combination a.k.a. Dead Connection (1994) – bonus title
The High Noon (TV Movie, 2000)
The Inspectors 2: A Shred of Evidence (TV Movie, 2000)
44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shootout (TV Movie, 2003)
Vengeance Unlimited (ABC, 1998–99)
Hell Ride (2008)
Strength and Honor (2007)
Croc (TV Movie, 2007)
Resurrection Road (2025)
If you’ve seen even half of these, consider yourself a Madsen completist. For the rest of us, we might have to seek some of them out. Googling some of these, they’re a mix of low-budget thrillers, network procedurals, and badly reviewed mid-2000s B-movies.
Tarantino also reminisced about the first time he saw Madsen onscreen: Barry Levinson’s “The Natural” (1984), where he played one of the ballplayers. “That was the first spark,” QT noted.
Say what you will about some of these titles, but if there’s anyone qualified, who has seen some of these, let us know in the comments below. Do any of these deserve a look?