All Along The Watchtower - Cultural References

Cultural References

The song as originally recorded by Dylan was used in the 1999 film American Beauty. Hendrix's version was featured in the movies Withnail and I, Rush, Land of the Lost (without Hendrix's vocals), Private Parts, Forrest Gump, A Bronx Tale, Blue Chips, Vegas Vacation, Tupac: Resurrection, the 2001 remake of Brian's Song and Watchmen (among others) and also in television shows such as The Simpsons, in episodes "Mother Simpson" and "My Mother the Carjacker". The song was also mentioned by Fox Mulder in The X-Files season one episode "Beyond the Sea".

• Chapter X in the DC limited comic book series Watchmen by Moore and Gibbons is titled "Two Riders Were Approaching" with a brief excerpt of the lyrics at the end of the chapter, attributed to Bob Dylan. In the film adaptation, Hendrix's cover plays during the same scene.
• In the 2000 film Hamlet, the grave digger can be heard softly singing a few lines of the song shortly before Ophelia's funeral.
• In the 4-part Marvel Comics limited series Venom: Carnage Unleashed (1995), each of the title chapters is named after a line from the first verse of the song.
• "All Along the Watchtower" is one of seven Dylan songs whose lyrics were reset for soprano and piano (or orchestra) by John Corigliano for his song cycle Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan.
• The song was also used to introduce the Final Five in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. The Jimi Hendrix cover was also used for the final moments of the series.