Writer and director Quentin Tarantino is an avid film fan who famously pays homage to his favorite genre films in his own work, but for "Inglourious Basterds," he drew from his own filmography as well.

While "Basterds" is clearly inspired by numerous war films and Nazi exploitation movies like "Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS," Tarantino also loosely pulled from several of his previous films. In an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Tarantino shared that he felt like "Inglourious Basterds" shared traits with his earlier films "True Romance," "Reservoir Dogs," and "Pulp Fiction." (Tarantino wrote the screenplay for "True Romance," which was directed by Tony Scott.) It's not surprising or unusual for a creative to draw from their earlier work, and Tarantino took some of the lessons learned from his past to make "Inglourious Basterds" the best it could be.

The director's sixth film is a tone-shifting historical drama that balances...