Dying to Know All the 'Basterds' Movie-Geek References?
Filed under: Action, Thrillers, Fandom, Brad Pitt, Quentin Tarantino, Lists, War
I always trust that there are far more references crammed into a Tarantino film than I could ever acknowledge, and the extra wink-wink workings of Inglourious Basterds made that all but a guarantee. Luckily, the "video store nerds" (their words) over at Seattle's Scarecrow Video not only have their own extensive and ongoing catalog of films that are either referenced or given homage in Basterds, or are just fitting companions, but they've all been placed in their own section in the store, which just really makes me more jealous of the locals than anything, seeing as all the independent video joints in my own neck of the woods have either gone belly-up or have scaled back their selections.(Really, it's a shame. Netflix may be convenient, but it will never have that personal touch -- a note that Scarecrow's lengthy list happens to conclude on.)
Do you guys and girls agree with like-minded recommendations like Black Book? (I do.) Is there anything you think is missing? (Comment away, here or there.) And more than anything, what one film do you have a hankering to see, or see again, in the wake of QT's latest?










Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
8-30-2009 @ 8:33PM
Paul said...
How could they leave out The Good, The Bad and the Ugly? The entire opening sequence of Basterds is a clear parallel to the one in GBU. It's already pretty sinister in GBU and Basterds capitalizes on that.
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9-01-2009 @ 3:39PM
Scott said...
I beg to differ. The opening is a direct riff on the post-credit scene in "Once Upon A Time in the West."
8-30-2009 @ 8:33PM
Bob Foster said...
Touch of Evil, anyone?
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8-30-2009 @ 8:33PM
NP said...
Black Book was the first film I thought of as a parallel to Basterds.
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8-30-2009 @ 8:33PM
JBob said...
I think the True Romance connection is odd. I wonder if theres a citation of that fact somewhere.
First 2 that came to MY mind were GBU and Dirty Dozen, the latter of which is on the list.
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8-30-2009 @ 8:33PM
TheDude said...
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly tribute woulda bit 'em if it were a snake. Did they omit it on purpose or are they simply being too clever for their own good? A little Tarantino reference BTW...
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8-30-2009 @ 8:33PM
laird said...
Thanks for linking to us! I plan on updating the list by reading comments like the ones above, so I really appreciate the input. Also, thanks for acknowledging the tension between Netflix and independent brick & mortars. I certainly would not want to deprive people in rural areas of the access that Netflix brings them, but at the same time, Netflix aggressively seeks to pull customers away from stores like Scarecrow via exclusivity deals and aggressive marketing. Can't we all just get along?
As for the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly... it was tempting to list numerous Leone films and other Spaghetti Westerns, but we just tried to sum it up with "Once Upon a Time in the West:
Title & similarities in the opening chapter of Basterds: Once Upon A Time… in Nazi Occupied France. There are lots of nice tips-of-the-hat to Leone throughout the film including some brilliantly prolonged character introductions."
Personally, I think the opening of Basterds is more evocative of Frank's gang slaughtering the McBain family in Once Upon A Time in the West than anything in Good, the Bad, the Ugly... but that is just my opinion.
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8-30-2009 @ 8:34PM
laird said...
OK, just rewatched the first 15 minutes of GBU. I can see your points. I'll add it to the list. Thanks!
9-01-2009 @ 12:56PM
Paul said...
:)
8-30-2009 @ 10:57PM
Eric Sun said...
Pulp Fiction, where Hicox "fixes his own scotch"
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8-30-2009 @ 11:47PM
Kate said...
This is embarrassing, but I haven't seen a lot of the films on that list. A trip to the library is due.
And this is incredibly nerdy, but the scene between Bridget and Landa in the office reminded me a lot of Tosca and Scarpia's confrontation in act two of 'Tosca'.
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8-30-2009 @ 11:58PM
beeniebag said...
There was the great number of references to foreign directors and actors such as:
G.W. Pabst, Max Linder, Leni Riefenstahl, Emil Jennings.
The cinema also showed on the marquee, the film "The Wages of Fear"
I also thought that the standoff b/w Aldo and the German Soldier in the tavern was also reminiscent of the the standoff in the diner in Pulp Fiction.
Also: There was some references to "The Lady From Shanghai"
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8-31-2009 @ 9:19AM
joel said...
I like to think the strangulation scene is a homage to Argento (the hands doing said strangulation are those of Tarantino, and Argento would also be the hands in his own films)
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8-31-2009 @ 9:19AM
Riley Freeman said...
I watched this movie and honestly I am not a fan. 80% -90% of the movie in a foreign language? there was aout 30 mins if that in total of english in this movie. I luckily speak french so it wasnt as bad for me as others. Reading subtitles is annoying. Not a fan but then again I dont like too many quentin tarantino movies.
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8-31-2009 @ 11:15AM
NP said...
How sad that this is a reason not to like a movie.
8-31-2009 @ 12:03PM
ML said...
... and I would sooo much rather read subtitles than listen to a dubbed film. I hate it when I don't have the choice. I also think it's weird to listen to English when the characters would logically be speaking a different language. So ... different strokes, I guess.
8-31-2009 @ 9:19AM
George said...
I believe some of the soundtrack from Carbucci's `Mercenary' starring Franco Nero and Jack Palance was used.
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8-31-2009 @ 1:13PM
Riley Freeman said...
guys i go to the movies to WATCH a movie not to read. i do enough of that during the week and if i wanted to read id pick up a book.
i understand the part that they should be speaking french or german but its a movie. i think u would find most people overlook this since its being made for an ENGLISH audience.
any interaction between hitler and his men should have been in german. everything else should have gone english.
im not a 100% sure on this but shouldnt 300 have been in greek? we didnt mind that.
theres tons of other movies im sure should have been in a different language and were not yet we didnt mind it.
all in all i just found that part annoying. this is not why i didnt like the movie. i just didnt feel like there was much of anything interesting about it.
the scene in the bar where a bunch of people die. seems what pretty dumb that they left the bodies of their teams there. this would definitely be warning signs that something was up when you see 2 bastards impersonating german soldiers.
they didnt even check to see if anything was left behind i.e. her shoe and the napkin.
yes its a movie but no logical army/spy/ undercover etc... would ever have done that.
i find tarantino movies just always leave me saying wtf at some of the plot
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8-31-2009 @ 7:12PM
Jonathan said...
They basically list every movie ever made.
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8-31-2009 @ 7:55PM
TheDude said...
I liked the Star Wars reference: "These aren't the Jews you're looking for..."
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