Tarantino, Quentin, dir. Inglourious Basterds

Inglourious Basterds introduces a number of now iconic characters: Christoph Waltz as the violent yet deceptively charming SS colonel Hans Landa, nicknamed “The Jew Hunter,” and Brad Pitt as the foolhardy First Lieutenant Aldo “The Apache” Raine, leading his band of Jewish American mercenaries known as the “Inglourious Basterds,” involved in the business of hunting and scalping Nazis, and carving swastikas into their foreheads. The film takes place in Nazi-occupied France and is mostly concerned with the French resistance and covert Allied missions, and includes only few Jewish characters: the Basterds and Shosanna Dreyfus, a Jewish woman who managed to escape from Landa, although he succeeded in killing the rest of her family. Only the latter’s character is developed; the Basterds remain flat. The film’s critical reception was largely positive, although many critics felt that its entertainment value interfered with its (lack of) ethical and aesthetic value.

The film’s climax takes place in a French cinema owned by Shosanna, who is living under the assumed name Emmanuelle Mimieux. Shosanna and the Basterds both independently hatch a plot to assassinate the Nazi leadership (consisting of Hitler, Goebbels, Göring and Bohrmann) at the premiere of a new propaganda film (Stolz der Nation). The film is moved last-minute to Shosanna’s cinema because Frederick Zoller, a Nazi sniper starring as himself in the propaganda film, becomes infatuated with Shosanna. He convinces Goebbels to change the location, upon which Shosanna decides to burn down the cinema and the Basterds plan to blow it up on premiere night.

Hans Landa is a definite departure from traditional, mainstream representations of Nazi perpetrators – he combines the comical with the maniacal, the Nazi’s respect for hierarchy with blatant narcissism, the charismatic charm with the sex appeal. As one website devoted to TV tropes describes it, he is “a primary example mixture of several of the above types – cultured, multilingual, sadistic, silly and prone to making ze important phone call vich vill change zee war. … [He and his specific type] constitute Evil Is Sexy with ze kinky Cherman accents und leather trenchcoats” (“Those Wacky Nazis”). Frederick Zoller is rather the ‘just-doing-my-job’ type, although he takes it a step further when he assumes that his position implies that Shosanna/Emmanuelle owes him sex and her utter devotion. Both Landa and Zoller are, at least when they are in public, charming figures, and look dashing in their SS and army uniforms (for a a consideration of fascism and sex appeal, see Susan Sontag, “Fascinating Fascism”). The portrayal of the American ‘heroes’ is rather untraditional too. Brad Pitt as Aldo the Apache lives up to numerous stereotypes concerning Americans, or more specifically, Southern ‘hillbillies’: utterly monolingual (e.g. in the scene where Aldo is impersonating an Italian stuntman), a pronounced southern accent (even when pronouncing monosyllabic Italian words), a moonshiner, violent, fond of guns, and rather stupid. In Inglourious Basterds, it is difficult to pick a side: both the Nazis and the Americans display a mixture of brutal violence and slippery charm that makes either side both appealing and horrific. While Landa strangles a woman with his bare hands, Aldo and the Basterds are repeatedly shown scalping and carving up Nazis – yet both Landa’s affectatious silliness and the Americans’ role as fumbling guerilla liberators are endearing.

Within Tarantino’s oeuvre, Inglourious Basterds is his second-highest grossing film, after Django Unchained. As usual with Tarantino, the film is full of visually rich scenes, contains mainly dark humour, aestheticises violence, and includes references to popular culture (e.g. Hitler shouting ‘Nein nein nein’ in a manner almost identical to the bunker scene in Der Untergang, and a David Bowie song as part of the soundtrack). Like his other successful films, such as the Kill Bill series and Django Unchained, Inglourious Basterds is a mix of spaghetti western and revenge flick, although the usual gore is limited mainly to the scenes where Pitt and the Basterds scalp and carve swastikas into Nazis’ foreheads. While the film was nominated for various awards, nearly all wins were for Christoph Waltz as best supporting actor, for his brilliant portrayal of Hans Landa.

“Those Wacky Nazis.” TV Tropes. TV Tropes, n.d. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThoseWackyNazis

Author of this entry: Eline Reinhoud

Tarantino, Quentin, dir. Inglourious Basterds. United States: Universal Pictures, 2009.