Tag Archives: meme

What An Inglorious Basterd

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Blog Post #4

Personally, I enjoyed how Tarantino made a film set in WWII concerning the Holocaust but also managed to subtly tie in aspects/nods to the history of American slavery and the genocide of the Native Americans. There are multiple characters/scenes in the film that draw audience’s attention to our own country’s shame, while largely watching a movie about European atrocities (see the game from the tavern scene). While Tarantino does his best to draw our attention to our own country’s horrible past, I thought it would be comedic to draw attention to how lazily he seems to do it. As per usual it seems whitewashing, or just general ignorance, has found its way into a Hollywood movie, even a great film touching on a number of controversial subjects such as this. Basically, to sum it up, it feels like Tarantino is trying to “represent” a number of minority groups in this movie, but does so by casting a white guy as the only Native American character, and only casting two black actors (one who literally has a single scene of narration talking about a white guy, and the other has a good bit of screen time but ultimately burns alive). I just thought it would be great to make a meme praising Tarantino for the thought involved but also kind of shaming him for being lazy on the literal representation.

Inglourious Basterds Meme

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In the film Inglorious Basterds, Col. Hans Lada’s character acts as one of the main antagonists, making it pretty easy to dislike him. In the opening scene of the film, he visited a french dairy farmer’s home to investigate the possibility that they were hiding a Jewish family from the Nazi’s. The colonel then goes on to explain that he thinks of the jewish people as rats and to find them you must think like a rat. All the while he was enjoying the fresh milk from the farmer’s cows. He makes a fuss about how delicious it is, complementing the farmer. Later, he is in a restaurant sitting with Shosanna, orders her a glass of milk, and instructs her to wait to eat her dessert after they bring the whipped cream for the top. The significance of the milk is still somewhat beyond me but I believe that it was used as an intimidation tactic. It also created suspence within the films that it was featured in.

Mind Your Business

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While this meme is a historical one, it does contrast the basement bar scene in Inglorious Basterds. When the basterds head into the bar to meet with von Hammersmark, they were expecting no Germans to be there seeing as it was a small bar in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately for them there were several German soldiers including a major who happen to be having a night off. In a normal situation no one would think twice about other soldiers being present at the bar, the low-ranking soldiers do a good job being portrayed as a normal group of people. In this scene sergeant Wilhelm slightly questions Hicox’s accent but other than that no one else thinks twice of it, except for the major. The major, like colonel Landa, is constantly assessing and observing everything, and that is how he catches the basterds in the act of having a meeting about Operation Kino. The German major really had no reason to be suspicious of the basterds meeting there other than him not knowing them, and instead of minding his business, like colonel Landa, he investigates and finds them in a web of lies. Tarantino keeps this character trait of the German officers being paranoid and always looking for something throughout the movie. This meme also helps show the absurdity of the semi modern European wars, where England and France continued to fight on and off for hundreds of years for the most part no reason other than ego of their crowns, and that of Germany taking over most of western Europe for no reason other than his personal ego and gains.

Hugo Stiglitz has Fans

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During the flashback where the Basterds break Hugo Stiglitz out of prison, they introduce themselves as his fans. One can not help but laugh at such a playful set of words, given the setting and context of the scene. The Americans know and remember him as a celebrity, given that “everybody in the German army has heard of Hugo Stiglitz.” However, Stiglitz’s status as a celebrity to them is like calling him an artist, actor, or performer of anything much more commonplace than Nazi-killing. Teh above meme is made with a humorous imagination of what Hugo’s equally humble reaction could be. After all, his character is quiet and does not tend to do much, save for contributing to the more violent scenes of the film. He likely would consider his deeds a personal hobby, but in a much more laid-back honesty compared to his heralded remembrance by the other characters in the film.

May I Smoke My Pipe as Well?

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In Inglorious Basterds, there is a plethora of examples of phallic imagery used to show the power imbalance in different scenes. The scene that the meme above is from is perhaps the most well known instance of phallic imagery in the film. This meme is attempting to exaggerate the phallic imagery in this scene to show how the two men are exerting control over each other. During this scene, Landa is speaking to LaPadite in an uncomfortably calm manner, as he knows that he is about to massacre the Jewish family hiding underneath the floor boards. When LaPadite begins to smoke his pipe, he is attempting to take control of the situation, being the first man to take out his phallic item. During this period, he believes that he can convince Landa that he is not hiding anyone and that he has shifted the power over to himself. However, once Landa asks if he can smoke and brings out his ridiculously large phallic pipe, he shows that he has always had the power in this situation; they are “comparing sizes” and Landa has come out on top. Both of them use their pipes to convince the other that they are in control, but in the end, the man with the biggest pipe wins.