Dale Luck

Inglourious Basterds Dir. Quentin Tarantino

A2 Media Studies Mr Ford

In what ways can Inglourious Basterds be considered postmodern?

The film Inglourious Basterds can be considered a postmodern film in that it meets the characteristics various theorists have linked to the genre. Jencks suggested that postmodern films are often combinations of past film elements (specific imagery, music, etc.) into one final product, and Tarantino repeatedly uses intertextuality in order to get a specific feel. For instance, the filmwithin-a-film Nation s Pride references the famous Odessa Steps sequence from Battleship Potemkin, and at the beginning of the film when we re introduced to Hans Landa the scenery is very much like the iconic landscape in The Sound of Music. It also has a shot later in that scene that s obviously copying the shot from the final scene of The Searchers, apparently one of the most iconic scenes of all time . That these constant references and combinations of past films help identify Inglourious Basterds as a postmodern film is backed up by the theorist Kramer, who states that (in music, at least) a key characteristic of postmodernism is the referencing of various traditions and cultures, (read: texts of varying genres). Not only does he reference films with war settings, but, as mentioned above, he references the spaghetti western genre too via the use of music and the way the scene introducing Sergeant Donowitz properly was shot. He also uses blaxploitation music at various points too. He even references his own past films, the majority of which could be seen as gangster films for example, his use of lengthy credits shots and the color yellow, despite not really fitting with the rest of the imagery in the film. At various points he also references not just texts, but real people the character of Fredrick Zoller mentions the famous actor Max Linder, and there are multiple allusions to German directors (Leni Reifenstahl, Pabst, etc.). Kramer also mentioned that the distrust of binary opposites was a key characteristic of postmodernism, and Inglourious Basterds does seem to distort the audience s perception throughout on whether or not certain characters are objectively good or bad. For instance, the Inglourious Basterds themselves are seen to be the good guys, but throughout the film show a level of brutality that even the Nazis are scared of (involving the scalping of every dead Nazi they come across, the carving of a Swastika into those they let leave and the complete demolition of Hitler s face with a machine gun). There are also certain characters on the side of the Germans that show traits that aren t really stereotypical for evil characters the character Shosanna kills Fredrick Zoller, a war hero in Germany, but who is portrayed as not really liking what he had to do in the war and for the majority of his screen time is shown as being rather pleasant. These also link into another key characteristic postmodern texts, in that Tarantino s film challenges the conventions of war films that generally show the Americans and Germans being the good and evil characters, respectively, without much deviation (in contrast to the film Saving Private Ryan, a war film that manages to portray them in their traditional roles, with the Germans taking on an almost faceless presence, whereas in this film the Germans have very unique personalities). Baudrillard was a theorist who detailed what s known as hyperreality the acceptance of a distorted reality, essentially and noted it as not only being a key characteristic of postmodern texts but also a characteristic of almost everything we experience nowadays, from edited war footage to the world within advertisements. Inglourious Basterds meets this criteria in that it takes established history that the audience is familiar with and exaggerates or outright changes certain elements to create its own world most notably this includes the death of Hitler at the hands of the Americans, but

Dale Luck

Inglourious Basterds Dir. Quentin Tarantino

A2 Media Studies Mr Ford

includes a variety of things, such as the overacting of Brad Pitt as Lieutenant Aldo Raine and the large-scale and mostly empty rooms that Winston Churchill and Ed Fenech reside in. The way it combines humour into what would otherwise be quite a serious set of events can also be seen as hyperrealistic, especially in certain characters like Hans Landa and his complete mismatch to stereotype (in that he s charming and humorous, e.g. downing the glass of milk and producing a large pipe). Another nice example of hyperrealism is in the suit of Aldo Raine towards the end of the film, that stays clean and pure white throughout the chapter despite being through quite an ordeal, and all of the characters passive attitudes towards the deaths of their comrades. People also apply the thoughts of Lyotard to post modernism too he rejects grand narratives and the like (essentially tradition, like ending with good triumphing over evil or having objectively good and bad characters), and this view is often reflected by postmodern texts. For instance, one tradition that is often kept to in film is the suppression of violence for the sake of decency this almost certainly cements Inglourious Basterds as well as the rest of Tarantino s films as being postmodern, in that he s often known to include very violent imagery (in Inglourious Basterds alone he has scalping, torture scenes, ripping someone s tongue out, removing someone s face with bullets and obliterating someone s skull with a baseball bat) that borders on inappropriate. The lack of traditional portrayal detailed by Lyotard links to the general agreement that postmodern films challenge conventions of not only the things they re showing, but the genre that they re a part of. On the face of it, Inglourious Basterds is in fact a war film - but it lacks almost any of the right conventions that audiences have come to expect from them. For example, whilst war films are often known for trying to be realistic, everything about this film disconnects the viewer from the action, instead choosing to present itself like a storybook to the audience from the way the film is split into different chapters (with the first being called Once Upon A Time In Nazi Occupied France ) and the multiple perspectives of the film, to the presence of fairytale-elements like Bridget von Hammersmark losing her shoe (linking to the story of Cinderella interestingly enough, this also presents Hans Landa, the Jew Hunter , as the Prince) to the story ending in the woods (a trait shared by many old fairytales, like Goldilocks and Red Riding Hood). Compared to Saving Private Ryan, a film many class as the best war film of all time, there are so many differences that it s hard to think of them as being in the same genre at all a great example of this would be in the characters, in that in SPR they show grief over dead friends and fear of the death themselves, but in IB you have characters that are so disconnected from the reality themselves that they glaze over the deaths of their comrades (never mentioning them again) and just power on through, constantly keeping up appearances. And another element that s interesting to note that helps set this film as being a postmodern text is the almost paradoxical combination of self-consciousness and historical grounding that recurs throughout. Though the film does play with the audience s expectations for a film, for the most part it uses stereotypes and camerawork that they re already familiar with in order to make them feel comfortable watching, and yet it constantly shows awareness that it s a film. For instance, not only does it present itself as a fictional story (mentioned above: chapters, shoes, woods, etc.), it also breaks the fourth wall at several points and, whilst not breaking immersion entirely, does disconnect the viewer from what s happening on screen. An example of this would be during the first chapter, when Hans Landa is in the house and the camera takes a birds-eye view over him parts of the roof are seen going by the camera, and yet in the following shot the roof is seen as whole. This type of

Dale Luck

Inglourious Basterds Dir. Quentin Tarantino

A2 Media Studies Mr Ford

shot is again done as the camera goes low enough to see clearly the characters beneath the floorboards, essentially removing the wall in order to do so. Tarantino is a big fan of these kinds of shots in his films, and in this one more than any other the audience is constantly encouraged to view the film as a story rather than a reality to be immersed in. Overall, the film meets just about every one of the postmodern theorist s views that we studied (and that I understood), challenging conventions of the war genre and expectations the audience has when entering the theatre, and the way it combines past conventions and texts into one seamless story whilst simultaneously constructing its own unique reality all strongly back up the view that this film is in fact a postmodern text.