In what ways can Inglourious Basterds be considered post-modern?
Quentin Tarentino is renowned for his post-modern creations along with his roles and personal elements included in his films. Inglourious Bastards was released on August 19th 2009, and with no surprise conformed to Tarentino's infamous post-modern approach and includes links which are pertinent to Tarentino himself. The film was set in the Second world war, which creates the impression that the film will share similar aspects to ones such as 'Saving Private Ryan' and other stereotypical war films, however, Inglourious Bastards has a quite light hearted approach to the subject of war, with over-exaggerated characters and the frequent elements of humour it does not conform to the typical stereotype of your average war film.
From the beginning of the film, elements of post-modernism are apparent; the opening credits of the film are in bright yellow, which is Tarentino’s favourite colour; this again links back to the fact that Tarentino likes to include pertinent links to himself within his films, he also did this in ‘Pulp Fiction’ starring John Travolta and Uma Thurman. Although the film is about war, it is not necessarily a ‘war film’ as it holds a very fictional approach. The film opens with ‘Once Upon a Time in Nazi occupied France’ which suggests the beginning of a fairy tale, and the first chapter opens on a panoramic view of French mountains, which is similar to the opening of ‘The Sound of Music’ starring Julie Andrews (1965), already with these two elements, Inglourious Bastards now supports one theorist, Claude Levi-Strauss, who developed the concept of Bricolage- taking existing elements and binding them together. Inglourious Bastards is a prime example of Bricolage; there are so many intertextual references to existing elements which I think can support the fact that the film can be considered as post-modern. References to other films such as ‘The Searchers’ (1956), in IB this is where we see Shoshanna- the only surviving hiding Jew, run from her hideout, with Hans Lander stood in the doorway, similar to that of John Wayne, the doorway shot is referenced in many other films, along with the use of spaghetti western music.
In chapter 3 (German Nights in Paris) there are many references made to famous actors and directors, such as G.W Pabst, (who is referenced to more than once in the film), Leni Riefenstahl- who happened to be friends with Hitler, Max Linder, Sergeant York and Van Johnson, these are all popular culture references to the era. In Chapter 4- Operation Kino, (which is one of the cameo’s in the film), I was surprised at how the scene ends, some of the Bastards die which I wasn’t expecting as it goes against the normal conventions of a film where the heroes normally always survive, as music is the main element in the scene, the music (of lack of music) builds the perception of a tense scene, in ways the scene could be classed as humorous as both of the main characters in the scene reveal that each of them have their guns pointing at each other’s testicles, and one starts the shoot out by saying ‘say Aufweidersein to your Nazi nuts’ to Stieglitz, who knew something wasn’t quite right with the situation in the bar. There is a distinct post-modern element to this scene, which involves the bar owner placing his hand on his shot gun under the bar when he senses something may be going wrong or about to go wrong, this suggests the idea of a Mexican stand-off when we see one place their hands on their gun before shooting. When Aldo enters the scene of the shootout, I was also surprised as to how little the deaths of his men were commented on, this also ties in with the film not conforming to the stereotype of a realistic war film, there is no fear of death present, then again it is common/part of the job, however the fact that death just happens creates a hypereal aspect to the film, as the way in which some die does not seem realistic, again relating to the fictional element of the film. In chapter 4, one of Tarentino’s pertinent references is also used- his foot fetish. This is used in all of his films, one being ‘Pulp Fiction’, after Bridget Von Hammersmark is found to be the only one to have survived the bar shoot out (despite having being shot in the leg), apart from one of the gunmen, she is taken by the Aldo (Brad Pitt) and unknowingly leaves a shoe behind, which is then found by Hans Lander, aka ‘The Jew Hunter’. This scene relates back to Strauss’ theory, and the fairy tale-like element, as Hand Lander is depicted as the Prince Charming who finds the shoe of the Princess (Bridget Von Hammersmark).
In the final chapter The Revenge of the Giant Face, we see Shoshanna get ready for the film premier. The scene shows her applying her make-up in slow motion, one aspect which caught my eye was when she put on her blusher, which she applied as if she was going into war and smeared it in a line across her cheeks, she is wearing a long red dress, and is wearing a small handbag, in which she puts a small handgun and nothing else. In this scene we are introduced to the ‘real’ Frederick Zoller, who is an actor in the film ‘Nation’s Pride’ which is being premiered in the cinema. As Frederick starts to walk up the stairs, to the projection box where Shoshanna is, there is tension creating music, that sounds like marching (from Propaganda films), which suggests that something is going to happen in the scene, normally action (in whatever kind of form) will follow this kind of music. When Shoshanna opens the door and see’s Frederick, we see that Shoshanna is dressed all in red which connotes danger, passion, blood, romance, death, sex etc. and that Frederick is all dressed in white which connotes purity, innocence and hope, the contrast between the colours each of them are wearing and their personalities do no match up. As the scene progresses, we see Frederick- who clearly likes Shoshanna, barge open the door which she seems to be protecting herself behind, as the general consensus of what would happen (in those times) would be that if Frederick wanted to engage in ‘intimate relations’ with Shoshanna, he would, even if she refused.
Considering both Shoshanna and Frederick die in this scene, is holds a bittersweet love element to it. After Shoshanna shoots Frederick, she immediately feels remorse and goes over to see if he is still breathing, in any other film you wouldn’t approach someone who you had just shot, purely for your own safety. As she goes to check, Frederick pulls out his gun and shoots Shoshanna in the chest and stomach. Shoshanna’s death is in slow motion, and the gunshots and diegetic background are replaced by contrapuntal music, which emphasises Shoshanna’s unexpected death. I personally thought she would have survived to see her revenge unravel in the cinema below, purely for the fact her plan had been building up for the whole film. The projection box scene, and the scenes that follow I think together finalise that Inglourious Basterds is an unconventional war movie, as the plans are more tactical, the audience are kept at an ironic distance and the characters are in near enough pristine condition consistently. The plot is more character based than mission lead, and there is no what I would call ‘traditional war time music’ in it at all, which again shows ways in which IB can be considered as post-modern.
Comparing IB to Steven Spielberg’s ‘Saving Private Ryan’, Inglourious Basterds is more comically graphic rather than realistically graphic. In SPR there is an apparent fear/terror of death, and the men always look dirty/dishevelled which is how you would expect soldiers to look in a war film,. There is a much more realistic element to SPR than there is to IB; we see the film from an audience’s point of view, whereas in Inglourious Basterds both perspectives are presented. Also, in a conventional war film, characters are not introduced through animated subtitles, in the final chapter of IB, the hierarchy characters are introduced in a very informal way, and one which I did not expect.
Applying theorists the Inglourious Basterds, John Fiske epitomises a very good theory. That the majority of us as a society have never experienced war, therefore we are always referring back to other films. Applying cultural knowledge of a concept war film, we expect uniforms, typical WW2 settings, soldiers, weapons, a daring mission and heroic characters, though we get all of these aspects in IB, the conventional journey and the apparent relationships we see the soldiers have are non-existent. Inglourious Basterds is recognised as a war film because of all of the other existing war films we have seen and that are out there, but because only a minority have experienced war, we cannot really relate. However, seeing such films as ‘Saving Private Ryan’, IB is merely a hypereal almost fantasy compared to the realistic situations we see in Spielberg’s film and other conventional war films. Another theorist which can be easily applied to the film, and which I have already mentioned is Claude Levi-Strauss, he saw that writers construct texts from others by the process of addition, deletion, substitution and transposition, Tarentino successfully applied all of these elements to Inglourious Basterds, by deleting the journey of the soldiers, the human frailty, the lack of emotion and even managed to ‘delete history’ as Adolf Hitler was assassinated, which obviously didn’t really happen.
Inglorious Basterds can be considered as a post-modern text in many ways; Quentin Tarentino has been very clever through the use of intertextuality, also by including parodies such as Adolf Hitler and Winston Churchill and the consistent references to famous directors and actors such as G.W Pabst. Tarentino continued to keep the audience at a vague distance throughout the film, we didn’t know much about any of the characters, unlike other conventional war films, so you aren’t able to build much of a likeness towards to character, or follow the journey they go on, like most of his films, the plot is very static and hard to follow, as most have no structured storyline. However, his post-modern approach is generally what he is known for.
