Quentin Tarantino once worked on a film that has been described as one of the worst of all time, though he managed not to be tainted by its legacy.
The film was called It’s Pat and it was based on a Saturday Night Live sketch character.
Basically, the joke seems to be that it is never revealed whether Pat is a man or a woman, with the androgynous character stumbling through a whole heap of contrived situations for a full feature film.
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Honestly, if you’re thinking that there’s not really enough to make an 80-minute-long film out of that, you’re almost definitely correct.
Here’s the trailer, if you can stomach even a few minutes of it:
As you can see, it's not exactly the sort of film that would get made today, and with good reason.
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Problematic themes aside, it just looks utterly dreadful.
The film came out in 1994 and starred Julia Sweeney in the titular role, with fellow stars Dave Foley, Charles Rocket, and Kathy Griffin helping out.
It was only ever released in 33 cinemas around the USA across three cities, and made just over $60,000 at the box office against a budget of $8 million.
So, not a success in the end.
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It was also critically panned across the board, and is one of a rare group of films who have the unwanted distinction of a ‘0% fresh’ rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
Interestingly enough, Quentin Tarantino claims he was an uncredited writer on the project, having taken up some of the duties to re-write the script because he is friends with Sweeney.
Speaking about the project in a 1994 interview with Playboy, the Pulp Fiction filmmaker was asked: “You were hired to do a rewrite of It’s Pat.
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“As one now familar with the perspiring androgyne from Saturday Night Live, is Pat a he or a she?”
Tarantino responded: “The androgyny aspect is only a part of Pat’s appeal.
“What I love about the character is that Pat is so f***ing obnoxious.
“To tell the truth, I don’t know what Pat is. But I know what I want Pat to be: I want Pat to be a girl.
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“There was only one sketch that Julia Sweeney, the actress who plays Pat did on Saturday Night Live that gave a clue to what Pat is.
“It was the sketch that Pat did with Harvey Keitel.
“They’re stranded on a deserted island and they have sex – and Harvey still doesn’t know what Pat is. And the thing is, they kissed in it.
“At one point they were thinking of taking the kiss out of the sketch. But Harvey, being Harvey, demanded they keep it in, that there’d be no integrity without the kiss.
“So that was the first time we’d seen Pat in an intimate situation – a smooch.
“There is a certain way that you hold your head, the way you come in for a kiss.
“And sitting there, watching it, I thought that Pat didn’t kiss like a guy. Pat kissed like a girl.”
There you have it – you probably don’t even need to watch the film now.
Lucky for you.
Anyway, It’s Pat is one of 43 films that have a ‘0% Fresh’ rating in Rotten Tomatoes, with others including more famous awful films such as Problem Child and National Lampoon’s Gold Diggers, to more obscure stinkers such as Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever and western comedy The Ridiculous 6.
That last one sounds like Tarantino could have been involved at some point, too.
Topics: Weird, Film and TV, Quentin Tarantino
Tom Wood