Inglourious Basterds

With almost 64 years since the end of World War II, is it still too early to approach the subject of war atrocities and violence in the battlefield in a deliberately conflicting light? Quentin Tarantino explores this question and produces an answer that teaches us that atrocities can be entertaining when history is taken subjectively. Viewers who expect a traditional war movie may be sourly disappointed, as this film follows none of the conventions of binary opposites between good and evil or characters motivated out of will for freedom and peace. That being said, full appreciation of this film requires an assumed knowledge of such clichés, precisely so that it can challenge them.

Traditional World War II films such as Schindler’s List and The Pianist, which talk about the struggle of the Jewish under a relentless invading force, are completely out of place next to this film that instead relates more to adventure films such as The Great Escape and the Dirty Dozen.  Quentin Tarantino admits himself that Inglourious Basterds is a “spaghetti western” adaptation of a “big issue” movie and, indeed, historical accuracy takes a back seat to the usual ‘crowd pleasers’ of violence, sex and explosions.

The primary aim of this film is to entertain and in true Tarantino fashion, the film is shot and edited in a vintage ‘Tarantino film’ style to keep the viewer afraid, disgusted, in suspense but above all, engaged and entertained.  Of the many trademarks used by Tarantino in his films, at least 19 were present in Inglourious Basterds.  An example of a Tarantino trademark (TT) is his references to cult movies and television and this is present throughout the film in different areas.  Examples of his confronting and ‘no trappings’ film editing are best seen in the titles that flash up on screen and in the segmentation of each plot development into chapters of the film.  Cinematically, the climax begins in the beginning of the fifth chapter entitled Revenge of the Giant Face with an amazing montage on the opening night of Nations Pride to the tune of Cat People by David Bowie and ends in a spectacular explosion of the cinema that is the centre of the narrative on more than a few levels.

The narrative itself serves as a device to get the camera from once place to another and, unlike most films about world war two, the narrative holds no lasting moral that the audience is supposed to leave the theatre with.  Instead, the underlying question posed to the audience is shown through the characterisation of the multiple protagonists and the graphic nature of the acts they commit on screen.

Like the Dirty Dozen, Lt. Aldo Raine and his men are portrayed as morally ambiguous and the complete opposite of the classic American hero of the traditional war film.  Other characters such as Shosanna Dreyfus who would classically be motivated out of a need for survival, is instead pushed through the narrative by a blinding desire for revenge that is strong enough to erase the poise and courtesy of her appearance in act 3.

The casting of Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Raine promised a lot but proved to be disappointing. Brad Pitt’s characterisation of Lt Raine was neither realistic enough to be convincing, nor outrageous enough to be entertaining.  In a film where all the characters are one of either extreme, either as frightening and Col. Landa, or as comical as Adolf Hitler, a mediocre performance is very noticeable.  The best actor of the film however, is undoubtedly Christoph Waltz as Col. Hans Landa who was able to play such a complex character convincingly enough that the complete turn around of the character in act 5 seemed seamless and perfectly within the character’s capacity.

The violence committed by these protagonists is displayed in loving detail by Quentin who is no stranger to blood and gore and its graphic detail is intended to shock the viewer and subtly pose the question “Does violence shock you just as badly when the victims are supposed to be the bad guys?”  Audience reactions to this would suggest no.

Whilst there were some audience members looking on in horror, most viewers seemed to be fluent with Tarantino’s extreme style and were even able to find humour in some of the most grotesque sections of the film such as the beating of a German officer by Sgt. Donowitz with a baseball bat.  Unlike some of his other films however, Tarantino uses comedy to great effect in this film. During some of the most suspenseful scenes, such as the opening scene in Lapadite’s farm house, humour can be found in the smallest of things.  After two viewings of this film, it is still impossible to avoid chuckling at the stark contrast between Lapadite’s modest pipe and Landa’s extravagant and outrageous pipe.  This humour is precisely placed by Tarantino in the midst of an intensely suspenseful scene and the result of this is that it takes the viewers mind off of the suspense momentarily and afterwards the audience is returned to the suspense with a refreshed patience.

Whether you believe that Inglourious Basterds is social commentary or base entertainment is dependant on the way you interpret the protagonists.  Often it is assumed that the protagonists are expected to live up to a degree of moral responsibility by either not committing base acts or at the very least, feeling remorse.  The truth is that none of the characters are intended to represent any form of moral upstanding.  Colonel Hans Landa is probably the most complex and interesting character of the film and the character that we see the most sides of.

Special effects in this film are used in traditional Tarantino style.  The gore is disgusting and the explosions are exciting.  There isn’t any computer generated content and everything resonates with that ‘vintage’ theme that is present in so many of Tarantino’s movies.  Blood and gore seem to be present at a steady rate throughout the film with some intensely realistic peaks in the beginning of act 2 and in the last show of the film.

Explosions however were almost completely missing until act 5 when the fire sequence more than made up for the lack of anything else similar in the film. Act 5 was undoubtedly the most expensive to film and Tarantino wasted no amount of time making sure that the cinematography exploited this act to its fullest using amazing establishing shots of the cinema and filming gunshots and explosions in painfully-slow motion.

Quentin Tarantino sees no use for long drawn out introductory scenes in order to establish setting for this film and instead replaces this convention with a simple introductory caption ‘Once upon a time in NAZI occupied France…’.  Again, Tarantino relies on the ‘assumed knowledge’ the viewer has of traditional war films and lets the viewer create their own reality to a small extent.  The same technique is also used in the portrayal of the Nazi soldiers. There is one minor sequences used to show the atrocities committed by the Nazi’s to earn the title of ‘evil’ and instead, the viewer is simply expected to already know exactly what the Nazi’s have through their experience with other war films.

Sound and music is used to great effect in this film and the montage that takes place in the beginning of Act 5 is undoubtedly the climax of the score however, in some parts of the score, the music’s execution was entirely too obvious and bordering on the offensive.  After Hans Landa had established that there were Jews hiding under the floor boards in act 1, the music accompanying the film took on a form obviously intended to highlight the rising suspense in the narrative however, this music was completely overpowering and the audience found itself more in fear of the menacing tone of the score than of the Nazi’s on the screen.

With Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino is able to produce a film that is as guiltily entertaining as a ‘spaghetti western’ whilst still being able to cleverly hide some social commentary and dark humour in between the scalping and Lt. Raines’ snuff taking.  As a historical fiction, Inglourious Basterds pushes the limits of conventional film and explores exactly what he can and cannot get away with when talking about Hitler.  Expect to be shocked but always remember to simply enjoy the film for what it is.  Entertainment.

Rated: MA 15+