"Inglourious Basterds" Japanese Theatrical Poster
At the heart of the game of bingo is a fairly basic game, this is what can make it so fun. Whether you play it at your favourite bingo hall or choose to do it online, you’ll know the rules of the game and how it works, and even recognised its use in movies. Here are some films that have used the game of bingo, with some in fairly unusual ways:
Inglorious Basterds
While not literally a game of Bingo, the interrogation by Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) is memorable because of the way he incorporates the phrase into the scene by uttering the words ‘that’s a bingo’. His aim of course is to get the truth out of Brad Pitt’s character and to put all the jigsaw pieces together to work out the assassination plot. His “bingo” moment is when he believes he has confirmed everything (even if he is incorrect in his usage).
Hotel Transylvania
While being a film that is perfect for all the family, the tale of a hotel made for monster has its fill of jokes that are more aimed at adults. One of the more memorable scenes from the film is the attempt at a game of bingo that includes skulls and beasts that are more intent on eating their bingo cards than actually playing the game. This is a funny scene that works well with both adults and children alike.
Bad Grandpa
Johnny Knoxville’s Irving Zisman is a character so popular that he managed to make his way out of the Jackass show and films themselves and made it to his own movie. In one of his most memorable scenes he goes on a trip to a bingo hall to create as much chaos as possible. In his attempt to not only drink some of the pen ink, but also chat up some of the patrons of the game, it was not only funny but quite charming to see the people around him take more enjoyment than offense in his weird actions.
Rampage
This may be a movie with a darker edge, but Rampage still has an interesting use for Bingo. Featuring a hitman walking through the bingo hall picking off participants in a game, the scene is memorable for the fact that players are too engrossed in their game to care about what is going on around them. Surely there is some kind of social commentary about gaming in this, but that is for the audience to decide.
Bingo – The Documentary
We’ve included this documentary by John Jeffcoat in the list because, for fans of the game this is surely going to be the most interesting look at the pastime. Featuring interviews with players it looks into the experiences on a personal level and why people are so in love with it. No doubt it would be just as interesting to see why players look to play bingo, and if the experience in the halls, and on the Internet are the same, or different.
There are many films that use various of the bingo game to provide their entertainment. What the ones we have listed here show is that the use of bingo doesn’t have to be so literal, but can be used in a more abstract sense, while still being interesting for fans of the game.
