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Be Cool! Check Out Tarantino’s Most Famous Movie References

What do The Flinstones, Citizen Kane (1941), and Five Fingers of Death (1972) all have in common? A 52-year-old film buff-turned-director from Knoxville, Tennessee named Quentin Tarantino. Same with The Warriors (1979), Miller’s Crossing (1990), Samurai Fiction (1998), and a whole host of others, which Jakob T. Swinney illuminates in a new supercut called Quentin Tarantino’s Visual References

“It is a well known fact that Quentin Tarantino is a self-proclaimed cinephile,” Swinney writes in the video’s description. “But the writer/director’s love for cinema is most obviously expressed through his own films. In addition to showing his characters spending a great deal of time discussing cinema, Tarantino’s films are jam-packed with homages and visual references to the movies that have intrigued him throughout his life.” Tarantino’s gotten some flack over the years for being “unoriginal,” but watching the similarities—and differences—between his work and those whom he’s remixed is a thrill. With The Hateful Eight in theaters December 24th, now is an ideal time to bulk up on Tarantino’s favorites.

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Explains Swinney, “Many filmmakers pay homage, but Tarantino takes things a step further by replicating exact moments from a variety of genres and smashing them together to create his own distinct vision. Just like Kill Bill: Vol 2 (2004) draws on The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) and Samurai Fiction (1998), Tarantino’s work often reflects Spaghetti Westerns and Japanese cinema–both new and old. His unique way of referencing other films allows him to bend genre boundaries and shatter the mold of what we expect to experience.”

Swinney created Quentin Tarantino’s Visual References for Press Play/IndieWire’s “Genius Directors in Three Minutes” series. Watch it in full below.

See more of Jakob T. Swinney’s work on Vimeo.

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