In what ways can Inglourious Basterds be considered postmodern?

In what ways can Inglourious Basterds be considered postmodern?

Within Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino incorporates many features that could be considered as postmodern, all interlinking together and making it hard to place the film within a specific genre. Tarantino also takes measures to ensure that the film doesn’t look realistic; this is supported by the use of ‘Once upon a time…’ at the very beginning of the film because it links in with fairy tales, which are stereotypically known for beginning with that phrase. The theme of fairy tales is continued throughout the film, such as when Hans Landa slips the shoe onto Bridget von Hammersmark’s foot, an action lifted from the fairy tale Cinderella. The continued cleanliness of the characters, despite whatever happens to them like Aldo’s kidnapping, also enforces the unrealistic element showing that the film is just fiction and not a proper representation of the Second World War. This technique also enforces the feeling of hyperreality, as the characters don’t look or act like stereotypical characters in war films and the deaths that occur within the film don’t seem to have any importance to the characters, whereas in a stereotypical war film death is used heavily to make the film emotional and highlight the importance of the soldiers.

Talcott Parsons created the non-postmodernist theory through his observations of society taking a structural functionalist viewpoint, which suggests that society needs structures to keep it together, like literature and film. Therefore, postmodern texts would reject expected structures and defined roles, an aspect which is present within Inglourious Basterds, as the film is split into five chapters, a literary element that usually isn’t used in films. Each chapter within the film shows part of the characters story, switching between Shosanna and the Inglourious Basterds, but the short length of each chapter doesn’t allow any character development. Although the plot follows a linear timeline, the use of chapters’ breaks up the film and creates a disjointed sensation, rather than following the chronological order which is expected within films. Inglourious Basterds could be considered postmodern due to the chapters which break up the film, because it doesn’t follow the expected structure for films and instead uses a literary structure.

Postmodernism reassesses the roles and constructions of gender, especially through the characters of Shosanna and Bridget von Hammersmark who portray strong, independent women within a male dominated society. Shosanna breaks the convention of war-time women by owning her own business and taking action against the Nazi’s on her own, as during the Second World War women were expected to follow the orders of society to help the war effort, something Shosanna isn’t willing to do when she is asked to show the propaganda film, Nation’s Pride, for the Nazi’s. The fact that she also burns down her cinema whilst all the high ranking Nazi’s are trapped inside portrays Shosanna as a powerful figure because she is responsible for the destruction. Bridget von Hammersmark is also a powerful female character because of her position within the war, as a secret British spy she has authority over the British troops and as a well known actress in France she has secret information from the Nazi’s. She uses both of these powers to help to bring down the Reich, by smuggling in the Bear Jew and Omar to the Nation’s Pride premiere, so that they can blow up the cinema.

Tarantino includes music from other films, such as the music from ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’ as well as mimicked shots that can be seen in many spaghetti western films. Using Levi-Strauss’ concept of bricolage, this element would fall under the category of addition. There are links to other films within Inglourious Basterds, such as the first couple of shots at the beginning of the film reflect the opening shots from ‘The Sound of Music’ as they both include the scenic shots of the Alps. Tarantino also uses subtle references to other films to hint at the actions that are about to occur, like when the barman in Chapter 4: Operation Kino touches his gun underneath the bar. The action relates to Mexican standoffs/shoot outs, a Western film convention, that indicates that there will be a fight within the basement, possibly in a similar style to Western films.

In the first scene of the film, when Hans Landa is looking at the floor boards from a bird’s eyes view, Tarantino uses set reflective camera shots to implement that Inglourious Basterds is just a film and not to be taken seriously. This can also be seen later on in the film when the set is shown through an over head shot, showing Shosanna running out of the room, but still including the door frame in the shot. Hans Landa is then shown to be standing in the doorway from behind at the end of the scene, an intertexual reference from ‘The Searches’.

Another element of Levi-Strauss’ theory is deletion, which could be considered present due to the deaths of the characters. The members of the basterds who are killed in the tavern scene reject the stereotypical war film death and survival rules, as it is expected that the basterds would survive because they are the ‘good guys’ but instead they die like the other characters in the scene. However, this brings a sense of realism to the film, because the fact that all the heroes within war films usually survive isn’t very realistic, so the deaths of the basterds could reflect the real deaths that happened in the war. In some ways the deaths are similar to those in films like ‘Dirty Dozen’ and ‘The Magnificent Seven’ indicating that Tarantino could have found inspiration for the character deaths from those films.

Music in Inglourious Basterds is used often by Tarantino to create certain atmospheres and emotions. The music used in the projection box scene is a good example of this, as when Fredrick is climbing the stairs to see Shosanna, there is dramatic music playing in the background. The music implies that there is going to be some sort of action taking place shortly, as it has connotations to war films, but when Shosanna opens the door to Fredrick the music stops abruptly, making it seem as though there is only going to be a conversation between the two characters. When Tarantino cuts the music it decreases the anticipation and dramatic impact, instead of letting the impact increase by continuing with the music which is a normal convention of films. However, when Shosanna and Fredrick’s conversation ends with Shosanna shooting Fredrick, music starts up again as Fredrick reveals himself to still be alive. The music has a romantic feel to it, indicating that Shosanna may be regretting her actions, which could also be supported when she goes toward Fredrick to check on him. Therefore when Fredrick rolls over and shoots Shosanna in revenge it is quite unexpected because the music doesn’t fit in with the characters actions and the slow motion shooting and death of Shosanna also indicates a romantic element. The use of the romantic music could make both the characters’ deaths seem more tragic, which is a typical element to accompany a characters’ death within a film. Fredrick doesn’t survive long enough to see his revenge finish, a factor that is usually present within typical war films, again showing how Tarantino is almost pushing the boundaries of stereotypical war films.

Overall Inglourious Basterds shows both the stereotypical elements of a war film whilst also pushing the boundaries by using hyperreality and detached characters. Tarantino also changes the actual facts of the Second World War, such as Hitler’s death by the basterds rather than showing his actual death by suicide. Because the facts of the actual war are not presented within the film also relates to the idea of hyperreality and therefore into postmodernism. Tarantino’s influences from other films, unrealistic elements and other medias from different eras all come together within Inglourious Basterds to make the film postmodern.