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What "Inglourious Basterds" Owes to History, continued
By Kim Morgan
on 08/31/2009
Martin Wuttke in "Inglourious Basterds," The Weinstein Company, 2009
Of course, there’s a difference between Alex’s ultraviolence and the Basterds’ Nazi-hunting, Apache-style scalping. I know that the anger lies in Tarantino making a movie in which Jews viciously retaliate against Nazis, which, to some critics, makes the Basterds just as hideous as their goose-stepping enemy. I know that certain critics believe that QT’s spectacular alternate universe of fantastical revisionism, one in which Hitler meets his maker all bloody and burned in (of course) a movie theater, is a form of Holocaust denial (Jonathan Rosenbaum, specifically). But…really? I’ve not read a critic (and perhaps I’ve missed one) who actually believes a person will walk out of the theater thinking that’s how it all went down. That Adolf didn’t off himself in a bunker and, instead, was burned alive after the director of “Hostel” and “Hostel II” pumped his face full of lead. (And for anyone who’s stood up for Eli Roth’s movies — god, wouldn’t that be awesome?). But the idea that Tarantino is going to eradicate memories of the Holocaust is almost as ludicrous as believing Col. Hogan really did convince Col. Klink he was psychic, and that the episode “Psychic Kommandant” really did happen. I realize there’s a lot of dummies in this country, but…do I say it? Please.
Let’s return to the Biograph. Let’s pretend we’re John Dillinger for a moment. Let’s pretend we’ve killed people. Let’s pretend we’ve robbed banks during an economic depression in a country that’s not only killed many, but among other minorities, oppressed blacks, Jews, women and those who were here first -- the Native Americans. As in, all groups addressed and celebrated via “Inglourious Basterds.” Haven’t we all pretended such a thing? And not just as children, but as adults? Through dreams, imagination and art, and in this case, the art of cinema, doesn’t the very act of tapping into our own primal (and very real) need of vengeance offer catharsis in a world filled with hypocrisy and uncertainty? Why should we feel guilty about it?
And in the case of “Inglourious Basterds,” a movie that seamlessly mingles superbly written, tense dialogue with horrific though inspiring violence, it does mean something. If a person thinks I’m sick in the head because I find it strangely beautiful and, by the final line, thrilling, when Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) carves that swastika into Lt. Landa’s (Christoph Waltz) forehead, then so be it. The fact that Raine will allow Landa his life (which we like; I’ll admit I didn’t want Landa to die), but not the ability to hide is Tarantino’s version of “never again.” And the fact that Tarantino allows you to get off on this moment, even just a little, does indeed make you complicit. Yes. But it also makes you a human being.
[Additional photo: Johnny Depp in "Public Enemies," Universal Pictures, 2009]
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Mike A.
Agreed, griping about the represented historical legitimacy of IB is insipid, a conclusion that The Great Dictator, Kelly’s Heroes and The Producers would have presumably killed in its cradle. But I think most of us are missing thwe mark: the film does not unfurl in a 20th-century-history context, but in a movie-drunk state of ectacsy, a non-diegetic world of the filmmaking-filmwatching here-and-now. Tarantino might know his HK and Leone but he also knows his Godard, and this is a war film like Les Carabiniers is a war film, but it’s also a film as redefined by Godard: a conversation and meal shared with the filmmaker, who’s more or less speaking to us directly. Woe is us when critics forget that modernism came to movie town a half-century ago, and never left.
Patrick
I'm absolutely not afraid to say it and I don't care what people think. Fuck Nazis. Did you like the build up of that sentence?
If people think that the revisionist history of Basterds is an attempt to erase what the Nazis done then let them, let them be morons on their own account. Yes, they're "defending" the stupids of America and the belief that they will not recognize the satire of the film, but those same stupids can not handle watching this film; therefore, they have nothing to worry about. The trailers for Inglourious Basterds portray the film as an intense action movie, which to a point is, but it is not the type of action the stupids of America go for. They're more in line for Transformers 2. I work at a video store and can not tell you the number of people who tell me how horrible Basterds was and how a countless number of people walked out during the screening.
So the point is, great read and I agree with all that you have said. I really want to rewatch Public Enemies--going to the movies with the girlfriend is hard to do if I intend to dissect and intake the entirety of the film. Not to be mean, but she is more of the ZOMG JOHNNY DEPP IS SO MUCH HOT!! type of person, than the "This is thought-provoking" type. She fell asleep during Fargo, enough said, but I can not help but to love her.
-Patrick
Daisy
What a wonderful movie by Quentin Tarantino.
I watch and loved it from the beginning.
All characters are great, and Christopher Waltz are amazing.
Becca
I couldn't agree with you more. I find it strangely beautiful as well. and I'm only 18.
