Inglourious Basterds Film Analysis - Revenge, Evil, and Humanity

chezzy62

Hello! I just wrote an analysis for the film:

Inglourious Basterds
This article may contain SPOILERS



Quentin Tarantino’s style of filmmaking is like no other. He turns left where others choose to turn right, and turns right when others choose to turn left. His latest movie, Inglourious Basterds, is very unique. Instead of focusing on how bad the Nazi’s were, he focuses on how a war affects every single person for the worst. He demonstrates the corruption of the human spirit, and the lengths we are willing to go in order to find peace. For ourselves, and for others. Unfortunately, throughout the struggle, we may lose our humanity. Inglourious Basterds is a representation of what happens when we lose our humanity, and how it can affect people on a mass scale.

One group of people that nearly every American hates, are the Nazi’s. Their brutal violence and torturing of the Jews will forever be shamed upon. Inglourious Basterds is a fictional depiction of the anger that Jews felt towards the Nazi’s. Although the anger is justified, does it really benefit anyone? If the depicted events were factual, how would Jews and Nazi’s be viewed under today? The Nazi’s would still have a bad reputation, but the Jews would be remembered for the violent way they ended the war. If the events were true, how would our society be different today? The world might have been more violent, and people would see their revenge justifiable. After all, it would have ended World War II. But in the end, what does the seeking of violence and revenge lead to? Through it all, we lose the essential traits that make us human beings. Our compassion, our kindness, our rationality. We lose it all, and for what? To lose our own lives in a battle that isn’t worth fighting for? To seek revenge against any and all who stand in our way? There are always going to be a few rotten apples in our world, like Adolf Hitler. The best thing you can do is to leave them alone, and stay out of their way. But what if they get in your way? If they are a threat to your way of life, you must seek non-violent ways to solve the problem. Violence + Violence = More Violence. More violence = Hate. Hate = Loss of Humanity. When we lose our humanity, then we have lost all hope for our lives. This is beyond the level of desperation, and this is where the Nazi’s stood.

Another issue that Inglourious Basterds deals with, is the ability to walk away from the wrong you have done. When the Basterds let one of Nazi’s leave, they leave a mark on their foreheads. The mark represents that they were once a Nazi, and they can never escape their past. Is it moral, to not let another forget their past? To forgive them for the wrong they have done, and let them live a better life in the future? There are many people we see every day, walking on the streets, who have done wrong in the past. We have all made mistakes in the past, big or little. Despite our shortcomings, we continue to move forward, able to move past the wrong we have done. No physical mark is left on our bodies to remind us of our past. The actions that the Nazi’s took were brutal, cruel, and terrifying. However, is it right to engrave their own mark on their foreheads? What if one of the Nazi’s asks for great forgiveness, and becomes one of the worlds top peacemakers? What if he helps more people personally, than he has harmed? Does his past deserve to be forgotten? As human beings, we are given a birthright. The ability to change, at any time, as we wish. People can go from good to bad. They can also go from bad to good. If a person wishes to change their ways from bad to good, they should not have a constant physical reminder of their horrible past. Isn’t it enough that they are suffering from the memories of all the wrong that they have done? Is it right to judge others by what they have done in the past? No, because at any given time, people can change their ways. And that is what makes us human.

Colonel Hans Landa, played by Christopher Waltz, is a terrifying character. In the beginning of the film, he enters the house of a local farmer, and begins his interrogation. He is looking for Jews being harbored in the area, and he does it in his own unique way. Landa walks into the house, as if he were an old friend. He is very polite, and talks as if he were having a casual dinner conversation. This makes the scene even more intense. How can one person exterminate Jews, and compare them to rats?! Colonel Landa is our primary example of lost humanity. He has no mercy for those he kills, and he lives to serve Hitler. He asks; Would you welcome a rat into your home? What has the rat ever done to you, to elicit such a violent reaction? And this had me thinking, why do we hate rodents so much? Of course, they do spread deadly disease, and they are quite unpleasant in general. But is that the only reason why people kill rodents on sight? It is not. People have a difficult time accepting any other animal/being into their home. Unless invited, we tend to kill any little bugs/rodents that we see. It is a human reaction, that represents mass superiority. Is it our right to take the lives of less superior beings away? What if at one point in time, humans are no longer the superior beings? What if we become ants, and another group of beings feel they can exterminate us at any time? It is difficult and horrible to comprehend, but you get the horrible picture. Just because certain beings don’t belong, does not mean they should be killed. Instead, they should be moved to a place where they will be more appreciated. Rodents do not belong in a home, they belong out in nature.

The Nazi’s treated the Jews like rats. The Jews are great people, and have done absolutely nothing wrong. Yet the Nazi’s wish to exterminate the entire Jewish population! How can something so horrible, happen to our humanity? A twisted belief. I am going to quote Will Smith. He took a lot of heat for saying this, but he spoke the truth about general humanity:

“Even Hitler didn’t wake up going, ‘Let me do the most evil thing I can do today.’ I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was ‘good.’”

This quote accurately represents what a twisted mindset can do to a population, and how powerful it can be when a leader has lost their humanity. People aren’t evil by choice. They are evil because they have a blocked neuroreceptor, that distinguishes between right and wrong. It seems that Hitler, and all Nazi’s had lost their sanity on what was truly wrong. This can be due to genetics, environment, and they way a person was raised, and what events they had gone through in their life. It’s a shame, but some people believe that violence is good. This is absolutely ludicrous. In no way did God create the world with violence. God never wanted a single person to commit a violent when he created the world. Unfortunately, he gave people emotions. He gave everyone a brain of their own, and let them set out to create their own lives. Some people became wildly successful, some trekked through the middle of the road. And some people dropped down low. Very low. People resorted to violence to give themselves significance. Adolf Hitler was one of these people. He believed that in order to be a good person, he had to commit genocide. I need not explain further, how horrible and wrong this mindset was. The scariest part? It only took one seriously twisted mind, and a whole bunch of followers, who believed that he was right. When evil is given ultimate power, horrible things can happen. We must never let anything like this happen again, to anyone.

One major final event that happens in the movie, is the surrender of Colonel Hans Landa. What causes this change of heart? Why didn’t he choose to save Hitler, and the rest of the Germans? He wanted to end the war, because he was through with the destruction. After he forced himself to kill Bridget von Hammersmark, he had a change in heart. He realized that the war affected not only the Jews and Germans, but everyone else. People did what they could to stop the evil of Hitler, and he was part of the collective evil. Did the Germans know that they were evil? Like I mentioned earlier, they believed, in their own twisted minds, that they were doing right. It wasn’t until the very end of the movie, that Colonel Landa realized that he had pointlessly killed every single person. Bridget von Hammersmark was an actress, who had realized the evil of the Nazis. She used her high-class to stop the evil once and for all, and succeeded in the end. She lost her life because of it. Colonel Landa finally realized what she died for, and he had a change of mind. It goes to show, that no matter how evil a person is, they can always change. Many don’t, but anything is possible.

How does Inglourious Basterds represent society today? Many people are revenge driven. If someone did something horrible to them, they would want to do something equally horrible to the other person. To suppress the part of your emotions that seeks revenge, is to suppress nearly all of the evil in your body. Of course, there are other factors, besides revenge, that play a factor in how humane you are. But revenge is by far the most powerful negative emotion, and its elimination would be in incredible leap for all mankind.

As a Jewish American, I found Inglourious Basterds to be a very interesting and insightful movie. I have seen many holocaust films, depicting the horrors of the Nazi’s. However, Inglourious Basterds takes a different approach. Instead of showing how horrible the holocaust was, it shows an in-depth look at the human beings involved. Including the leaders of the Nazi’s, and a small but powerful group of Jews who rebelled. Tarantino made up a completely new story, that is not only compelling and insightful, but gives a deeper look into what drives human beings and their emotions. I have seen other Tarantino movies like Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction. His movies never disappoint, because they are intense character studies, which use cause and effect, and direct/indirect characterization to describe and analyze a situation. His filmmaking is such a pleasure to watch. However, his movies are only for the open-minded. So if you are not ready to analyze his unique ideas, then you may not be such a big fan. Inglourious Basterds is Tarantino’s interpretation on the holocaust, and what could have been. It goes to show that we are all human beings, and we all want the same thing: Significance. We all want our own significant role in making the world a better place. However, some of us have a very skewed perception on what actually can improve the world. Following the path of hate will never lead you anywhere good. Hitler tried to improve the world by filling it with hate for a specific group of people. In return, he became more evil by the day. Following the path of love will truly improve the world. Look at Gandhi and Mother Teresa. They wanted significance, and they wanted to make the world a better place. They followed the path of love, and look at what good they have done for humanity! Follow their example, and act out of love. Never follow what Hitler did, because it will contribute to the fall of humanity as we know it.

Link to my original article:
Inglourious Basterds

Thank you for reading!

Please let me know if you have any comments/questions.

The Sparrow

chezzy62 wrote: »

Quentin Tarantino’s style of filmmaking is like no other. He turns left where others choose to turn right, and turns right when others choose to turn left. And in recent times for no good reason other than to feed his ever expanding ego. His latest movie, Inglourious Basterds, is mostly terrible. Instead of focusing on how bad the Nazi’s were, he focuses on ridiculous set pieces and scenes that seem to last a week. He demonstrates his recent corruption as a filmaker of note by constantly indulging his own increasingly bizarre fantasies His films are for Tarantino and Tarantino alone. Unfortunately, throughout this film I felt myself losing the struggle to stay awake as too many scenes seemed to last longer than the war itself . Inglourious Basterds is a representation of what happens when a promising director gets far too big for his boots and nobody is willing to give him a slap in the edit suite and tell him to cop on and stop indulging himself.

Fixed that for ya

Hope you don't mind me taking a bit of poetic license. It was an interesting read but as you can see, I almost completely disagree.

chezzy62

Thank you The Sparrow! I respect your opinion. Tarantino is widely hated as well as loved. It wasn't his best movie, but I felt compelled to write this. I'm glad you found this to be an interesting read, nonetheless.