Tarintino agrees with Tom he needs to step up his game after There Will Be.....

[whaleplane]

what is it about this guy that people feel the need to back him so hard?

It could have something to do with the fact that his movies are tailor-made for cinephiles (in the sense that there are so many references and homages) and so a large contingent of his fans are people who take film very seriously and have seen and absorbed way more movies than the average person. I think these people tend to identify very personally QT himself since he is such a film nerd, and can get really defensive about his stuff as a result.

Well, I, for one, liked the part where they shot Hitler's head off.

[Chris L]

what is it about this guy that people feel the need to back him so hard?

It could have something to do with the fact that his movies are tailor-made for cinephiles (in the sense that there are so many references and homages) and so a large contingent of his fans are people who take film very seriously and have seen and absorbed way more movies than the average person. I think these people tend to identify very personally QT himself since he is such a film nerd, and can get really defensive about his stuff as a result.

These are the cinephiles who are passionate about Tarantino (1997 and still holds up).  The real ones are a lot more divided.