Influence of the spaguetti-western in Inglourious Basterds of Quentin Tarantino

Abstract

This study analyzes the influence of spaghetti-westerns on Inglorious Basterds (2009). Inglorious Bastards is a planned ensemble war film/spaghetti western written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. The present work is structured as follow: first, we present a brief introduction defining spaghetti-western concept and its relationship with Quentin Tarantino´s filmography, then we analyze the soundtrack of the film, since it include several themes of the most significant titles of spaghetti westerns, and finally we compare some of the scenes of the movies in which those musics originally appeared with the scenes of Inglorious basterds where this music is used. The analysis of the soundtrack reveals the dominant presence of themes of spaghetti westerns like The Big Gundown (La resa dei conti, 1966), The Return of Ringo ((Il retorno di Ringo, 1966), The Mercenary (Il mercenario , 1968) or As Man to Man (Da uomo a uomo, 1967). The analysis of the scenes where the music originally appeared shows that its proximity to the spaghetti-westerns is not just a question of borrowing a theme but a global formal style.