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What An Inglorious Basterd
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.
Bawnjorno
Throughout the film performances are being put on by various characters to ensure the success of operation kino. Due to the German speaking bastards being caught, these Americans have to portray Italians in order to get into the premiere of the film. This scene built up all the tension from before because the cover that was in place was once very believable and is now at the hands of unqualified Americans. This meme pokes fun at not only the circumstances that the bastards are in but the fact that Americans are really bad at speaking other languages without using the American alphabet and accent. You can tell with how Col Landa is mocking their accents in this scene when he makes them repeat their name several times egging them on to put everything they have into it. Col Landa himself shows that he speaks Italian which shows the audience not only how clever he is as a man but how screwed the bastards are and the eventual death that occurs with Bridget.
The Slighest Inconvenience…
For my GIF I wanted to do a screen shot of Hitler’s tantrum. I feel like Tarantino made out Hitler’s character to be whiny and silly. I feel like he wasn’t really taken as serious as he is protrayed in other films or readings. Other films show him as this fearless leader who gives off this intimidating figure that everyone looked at as someone to be afraid of. However In Inglorious Bastards that’s not the case. In this scene where he finds out about “The Bear Jew”, him and his soldiers actually appear to be terrified about a guy with a baseball bat and his appearance as a golem but don’t know to whether believe it or not because they say it’s just “soldier’s gossip”. I think this is an interesting scene because as we have talked about in class to what is Hitler and how his actions are far more terrifying then his appearance and the thought of anyone being more terrifying then him is an immediate threat. It’s kind of like he want’s to be the most feared so by doing that he say’s that he will hang their naked bodies from the Eiffel Tower to prove a point so that no one is more scary then him.
May I Smoke My Pipe as Well?
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.
No Hiding Now
For this meme, I chose to highlight a scene that stood out to me in the film Inglorious Bastards. In this meme, you can see two members from the “Bastards” looking down at a nazi after they just engraved a swastika onto his forehead. Through a Holocaust class I took a few years back, I know that once the Holocaust was over, many nazi’s fled the area and adopted new identities. They did so to steer clear of getting convicted of any crimes they may have committed during the war against Jews and other minorities. That’s why the action the Bastards took regarding engraving a swastika onto the forehead speaks volumes. They did so to show the nazi’s that this horrible identity they have taken on will follow them the rest of their lives by providing society with an easy visual that identifies who they are and what they have done. I also found it clever how, in the top picture of the meme, they filmed it to make it look like the Bastards were much larger than the nazi and how they were looking down at him.
A Cursed Performance
For all of you theatre kids out there, this one’s for you. I based this meme on the stage superstition that it is bad luck to say “Macbeth” or anything related to Macbeth in theatre. For those not familiar with this superstition, the idea is akin to wishing an actor “good luck” before their performance, when proper practice is to say, “break a leg.” In the eyes of theatre lovers, saying “Macbeth” or wishing one “good luck” will curse a production. I chose this subject to shed light on the performances of the characters in this sequence in Inglourious Basterds. The American ‘Basterds’ are pretending to be Italian filmmakers and Bridget von Hammersmark’s escort, while BvH pretends not to be an Allies agent. However, the improvised nature of their act renders it inviable. The characters have thrown together this outfit at the last minute in attempts to rescue Operation Kino. However, the serpentine Colonel Landa sees instantly through their roles and flaunts his priviness by laughing maniacally at BvH’s cover story and by speaking fluent Italian.
This still captures the moment when the Basterds and BvH realize that their cover is blown and that Landa is teasing them. Their performance has failed, and their faces reflect uncomfortable dismay and worry. However, in another, sarcastic sense, their faces are also the ones of disgruntled stage actors. If, on opening night of a production, after countless hours of rehearsal, stage prep, costume design, and after the actors are all dressed and ready for curtain, someone were to say “Macbeth,” this is the sort of reaction that more than likely would occur. From left to right, the characters’ faces seem to read: “Seriously?,” “Ohhhhh no,” “MMMMM,” and “You may leave now, you disgraceful being.” The juxtaposition of this moment in the film and the moment when some says “Macbeth” in a theater highlights the doomed nature of Operation Kino, or at least, the failed performances by the Basterds and BvH.
Can’t escape being a Nazi
The meme translates to “The first cut is the deepest and hard to forget”. This meme is similar to the article “Collective Memory and Cultural Identity” by J. Assmann because it shows communicative memory. The Nazi was branded with the swastika by the Basterds and he goes back to tell Hitler of what had happened to him. This is an example of communicative memory because the story of how he was branded is being told. The memory of being branded by the Basterds, unless documented such as photograph or writing, will only live as long as the people, who were alive to experience it, are still living.