Quentin Tarantinowas quoted once as saying, “Great artists steal. They don’t do homages.” Whether you agree or disagree with it, you have to give the guy credit; there is some truth to it, and he backs it up with his own filmography. There is another quote by Andre Gide that is comparable to it: “Everything has been said before, but since nobody was listening, we have to keep going back and say it again.” That’s the thing about art and the messages that come out of it. We rehash them over and over again, and you wonder if we are making any progress.
Tarantino steals; he doesn’t care. Even the score ofThe Hateful Eighthas ties to John Carpenter’sThe Thing. He’s making movie history, and yet the history of movies is all over his work, and here are ten perfect examples as to why his theft from other films is actually cool to see on screen.
9Django Unchained (2012) - Visual Cues from Gone With the Wind (1940)
Django Unchained
Django Unchainedtells the story of a freed slave (Jamie Foxx) who befriends a bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz). The two travel around the country, going after evil slave owners and other forms of bad men, until Django catches wind of the whereabouts as to where his long-lost love is. The pair travels to the plantation to infiltrate it and rescue her from the grasps of a vicious plantation owner named Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio).
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How Did Quentin Tarantino Utilize Gone with the Wind in Django Unchained?
In the video above, you’ll see the opening credits toGone with the Wind.In it, there is scrolling text for the main title that comes across the screen. In the link below, you’ll see that once Django and Dr. King Schultz have made their way into Mississippi, a scrolling text comes across the screen that reads the name of the state they are in, just like the title cue ofGone With the Wind. With both films taking place mostly in the South during times of slavery and the era of rich white landowners, Tarantino was bound to try and utilize something from a film that represents that era.
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Related:Quentin Tarantino Movies Ranked Worst to Best
8Inglourious Basterds (2009) - The Infamous Doorway Shot from The Searchers (1956)
Inglourious Basterds
Inglourious Basterdswas Tarantino’s take on Nazi-occupied France and how multiple story lines came together to reach the film’s epic climax. Some argue it’s his best film in terms of world-building and character development. Tarantino had yet to make a western in his career at that time. Oddly, he utilizes one of the most famous shots in the history of the genre in his WWII film.
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A John Ford Classic
The Searchersis a film that many say defines the genre of American westerns. John Ford iconically opens and closes the film with a scene from a doorway. Many have duplicated this shot in movies. Tarantino utilizes it in the climax of the tense opening scene, where Nazi officer Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) interrogates a French farmer who is hiding Jews in his home. After the gunfire settles, we see one get a way through the doorway; it’s Shosanna (Melanie Laurent). Her escape kicks off the rest of the movie.
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7Jackie Brown (1997) - The Opening Credits from The Graduate (1967)
Jackie Brown
Tarantino’s follow-up toPulp Fictioncame in 1997 with his crime caper,Jackie Brown.The film follows Pam Grier in the title role as a flight attendant who gets busted for smuggling money for her arms dealer boss. When the law sits her down, she is given two options: go to jail if she doesn’t corporate, or get killed for snitching. So she decides to double-cross both parties.
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The Opening Shot
Jackie Brown’sloaded with callbacks to 1970sblaxploitation films.Pam Grier being the star of the movie is enough evidence alone of Tarantino going for that kind of aesthetic. However, he straight copies the homework of Mike Nicholos iconic coming-of-age drama from thirty years earlier,The Graduate.The opening shots of both films are utterly identical.
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Kill Bill Vol. 1
Tarantino has yet to make a horror film. ButKill Bill Vol. 1gets pretty bloody in its climactic battle. One of the big bads, Gogo, the cute but psychotic henchwoman, gets a leg from a table that has nails sticking out bashed into her head. The results of the hit show us that blood is now trickling out of her eyelids.
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Fulci Did It First
Quentin Tarantino most likely saw Lucio Fulci’sCity of the Living Deadyears ago and put the shot of the blood tears in his back pocket.City of the Living Deadis an installment in Fulci’s Gates of Hell trilogy. It’s a fever dream of a zombie film (which Fulci movie isn’t?). Tarantino is a fan of Italian cinema,especially the horror movies to come out of the country. The gruesome death scene in the movie is pure Italian horror cinema at its finest; goopy and gory.
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Related:15 Terrifying Italian Horror Movies That Will Keep You Awake For Days
5Reservoir Dogs (1992) - The Standoff from City on Fire (1987)
Reservoir Dogs
This may be a little controversial because some would argue that Tarantino’s breakout movie,Reservoir Dogs, is actually a full-on ripoff of the 1987 Asian crime film,City of Fire. Reservoir Dogs is about an undercover cop who is wounded in a robbery that turns violent, and the rest of the crew now must sniff out who is snitching.City on Fire,which came out in Hong Kong a few years earlier, is almost the same exact film.
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Plot for Plot, Shot for Shot
We’re almost certain that Tarantino can make a case against this claim. Regardless, the movie may not have the exact same composition in terms of shooting technique. But the character arcs are very similar, and the plot is very similar. All of this is seen in the video below. Let’s not take anything away from QT here; he’s an icon of the industry. Maybe he didn’t carbon copy it, but there’s no way he didn’t see this film in his video store days.
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4Pulp Fiction(1994) - Mia’s Dialogue Comes from The Flintstones (1960)
Pulp Fiction
Pulp Fictionput Tarantino on the map almost thirty years ago. A film about multiple intersecting stories that all seem to come together by the time you reach the final scene in the movie. There are a few references from this film that only true cinephiles will get. But many have wondered about one offbeat thing in terms of something Uma Thurman’s character says toJohn Travolta at one point in the film.
Don’t be a Square
In the segment of the movie where Vincent Vega takes Mia Wallace out to dinner, she tries to get a rise out of him by saying “Don’t Be a Square,” and she makes the gesture of a square with her fingers. With said gesture, a simple animation pops up of the shape (that looks more like a rectangle, but whatever). It feels random and never even gets explained. In hindsight, it’s just another quirk in a Tarantino movie. But if you’re a fan of cartoons from the 1960s, you’ll get the reference. Specifically,The Flintstonesdid this in an episode. See below and fast-forward to the one-minute, five-second mark.
3Pulp Fiction (1994) - The Briefcase Scene from Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Many watchPulp Fictionand try to compare it to other films. There’s a crime drama feel to it, and then there’s some comedy as well. There are also some things left unexplained, too. One thing is the mysterious briefcase that Vincent and Jules pick up in the first scene. All we know is that it has a bright gold light that comes out of it. Many people have theories about it, but we definitely know where the idea originated from.
The Classic Noir
The 1955 noir filmKiss Me Deadlyhas a scene identical to Pulp Fiction. The film, directed by Robert Aldrich, does have some explanation around the briefcase. It is supposedto have radioactive material in it.Let it also be known thatKiss Me Deadlyhas inspired other films made by some of Hollywood’s elite. Spielberg used something similar to it inRaiders of the Lost Ark. The debate over what Tarantino’s golden glow is a metaphor for goes on, but at least you know where it originated from.
2Kill Bill Vol. 1 - The Outfit and Fight Scene from Lady Snowblood (1973)
Many know by now thatKill Bill Vol. 1is loosely adapted from the manga seriesLady Snowblood.Which, back in 1973, got its own adaptation as well. What many notice when comparing the two films is that Lucy Liu, who plays the movie villain, dresses a lot like the anti-hero of the Japanese franchise. It’s a thrilling comparison to make, as we can clearly tellTarantino is a fan of theLady Snowbloodfilms and other exploitation movies.
Red Blood Across White Snow
Kill Bill Vol. 1’sfight between Lucy Liu and Uma Thurman looks like a scene cut right out ofLady Snowblood.The calming Japanese snow hitting the ground, the violence that ensues. It’s a form of bloody poetry on screen. Some say that because of these comparisons,they actually no longer like the film.Mainly due to the character arcs of both films' protagonists, and yet, one movie has the lead played by a white woman, but the villain is an Asian woman who dresses like Lady Snowblood? Kinda backwards. Your views of Tarantino’s on-screen robbery are entirely up to you.
1Pulp Fiction (1994) - The Dance-Off Scene from Bande a' part (1964), and 8 1/2 (1963)
When the dance number inPulp Fictionbegins, you kind of know that something special is happening in this movie. But like many of the moments on this list, once they hit the screen, they feel like they came from somewhere. So, of course, Pulp Fiction’s famous dance scene comes from the famous dance number inFederico Fellini’s8 1/2.See the scene below and decide if the comparisons are real.
A Band Apart
Tarantino had a production label that went on his films titled A Band Apart. It is no longer in use, but some believe that its title originated from the 1964French new wave filmBande a Parte.This phrase comes from the French sayingfaire bande a' parte. Which translates to:to do something apart from the group. The film referenced here also has a dance number in it that feels somewhat familiar to thePulp Fictionscene as well.
