Inglourious Basterds (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

iTunes Review

Quentin Tarantino is famous for referencing older movies in his work, and for 2009’s Inglourious Basterds he often draws musical material from earlier films. The director boldly repurposes David Bowie’s “Cat People (Putting Out the Fire)” — originally the theme song for Paul Schrader’s 1982 feature Cat People (a remake of a 1942 Jacques Tourneur film) — for this World War II revenge fantasy. Ennio Morricone is represented by four tracks, including “The Verdict,” which riffs on a fragment from Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata,” and “The Surrender,” which features monster trombone. “Tiger Tank” is a classic example of the action music the Argentinean composer Lalo Schifrin is known for, while Jacques Loussier’s main theme from Dark of the Sun sports a sharp arrangement. “Davon Geht Die Welt Nicht Unter,” by Zarah Leander, a Danish singer and actress who was popular in Germany during the war, is included, and so is Billy Preston’s funky “Slaughter,” one of the most exciting things here.