Quentin Tarantino rediscovers World War II with a cinema-oriented approach. Once upon a time in Nazi occupied France (as the film suggests) a young Jewish girl (Melanie Laurent) witnessed the slaughter of her family. Some years later, she plans her revenge the same time with a sabotage plan by a team of Nazi skull hunters led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt). A notorious German military man (Christoph Waltz) uncovers them and the final battle is going to happen inside a big theatre during a film premiere.
A Love Letter to Cinema
Almost 18 years since the release of Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino celebrates this maturity with a declaration of love for the art form he serves. Though a similar theme runs through his previous films there’s something that sets Inglourious Basterds apart from the others. As with all his films, Basterds is full of the usual arty choices and rich in hidden references to challenge any cinephile’s mind. The main difference here, however, is that cinema itself becomes the leading man above all other leading characters within the film.
Everything that occurs on screen during this film relates in a direct or indirect manner to the art form that is cinema, thus rendering a war film into a lesson on cinematic history. A British officer’s (Michael Fassbender) entire scheme to sabotage a German fort relies on his knowledge of Pabst, Goebbels is portrayed as a grand film producer while playing down his political significance in the war, and a German soldier (Daniel Bruhl) stars in a film depicting his own experiences in battle. The grand scene at the end of the film occurs inside a cinema and Winston Churchill’s limited dialogue once more pertains to cinema. Tarantino creates an enjoyable alternate universe in which cinema is at the forefront of events during the Second World War, though the viewer is gradually lured into this universe (the beginning sequence would lead one to believe they are watching a film relating true war events) until finally is presented with a grandiose finale.
Cinema changes history
This journey from actual events to events that could have been, surreal moments which the logical mind will abhor, are indicative of the director’s dislike of films portraying reality. After all he has battled against this type of film through his entire career. Instead he takes the position of the cinephile viewer who detests a dry and wooden depiction of reality and instead relishes a plot full of fantastical characters and intricate events, for it is these elements that are immortalized thanks to a camera and film projector as illustrated aptly by this particular film. In a fantastical world such as the one Tarantino creates here, and for the purpose of cinematic climax even a change of historical events is permitted. And though the misspelled title could be construed as an act of self criticism on Tarantino’s part he is a virtuoso of aesthetics and thus possesses license to change history indeed.
Tasos Melemenidis - Watching and reading frantically about cinema as a teenager, had a major impact on my studies in IT. This was a negative impact as far as ...
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