In What Ways Can Inglorious Basterds Be Considered Postmodern?

Inglorious Basterds is a war film made and written by Quentin Tarantino in 2009. The film differs in a variety of different ways to what you would consider normal in a standard war film and can therefore be considered as postmodern. The genre of the film includes many different categories despite the fact that the film's actual setting is throughout the period of World War II. These different categories of genre could be, thriller, action/adventure, drama and war. This is due to Quentin Tarantino removing certain parts of a traditional war film for example fear and replacing it with other feelings such as comedy humour and applying intertextual elements such as the shot framing, revealing the set, music and having onscreen text.

Firstly, one way in which Inglorious Basterds can be considered a postmodern film is the choice of music by Tarrantino. There are many examples of postmodern choices of music used ranging from Spaghetti Western music to a David Bowie song, which was produced long after the film was set. Tarrantino used Spaghetti Western music produced by Ennio Marricone on many occasions during Inglorious Basterds; it is unusual for this genre of music to be used in a war film, as the music tends to be much classical and slow traditionally relating back to World War II. Tarrantino used this music and I think that it worked well and effectively, particularly during the infamous ‘Bear Jew’ scene which is also framed in an exceptionally similar way to that of a Spaghetti Western shootout scene. Tarrantino used mainly close up shots, which emphasised each characters facial expression whilst waiting for the emergence of the ‘Bear Jew’. Another example of the music Tarrantino chose for Inglorious Basterds is a David Bowie song; this again is an unusual choice as the song is completely out of the time period in which the film was set. Despite this Tarrantino again manages to use this type of music in an effective way.

Furthermore, the choice of music used in Inglorious Basterds adds a postmodern element to the film, as it is an unusual choice and not many other directors would have chosen such music as Tarrantino has done. Tarrantino uses the music in specific scenes and parts of which suits the genre of the music and explains his decision for using such a random selection of music. The music used also adds an element of intertextuality to the film. The Spaghetti Western music was produced by Ennio Morricone and is reminiscent to the music used in ‘The Good the Bad and the Ugly”. Although the music lightly touched on intertextuality there are many other examples of intertextuality included within Inglorious Basterds and this is both postmodernism and  representing typical Tarrantino. As I have previously mentioned Inglorious Basterds includes intertextual references from 'The Good the Bad and the Ugly' from the Spaghetti Western genre. Despite this there are many other intertextual references in Inglorious Basterds, which give the film a postmodern feeling. Another example of intertextuality is the link to the Sound of Music, during the scene in which Shoshanna escapes capture from Hans Landa the surrounding scenery of the countryside is almost identical to that of the scenery displayed in 'the Sound of Music'. As well as the visual link there is another intertextual link between Inglorious Basterds and 'the Sound of Music, this link is much more subtle and is displayed at the very beginning of the film. Like the 'Sound of Music' Inglorious Basterds is physically split into chapters using on screen text, the chapters also display a fairy-tale like link, with the onscreen text reading “Chapter 1: Once upon a time in Nazis occupied France…” This is unusual for a post modern film to be set up in this fairy-tale like way, particularly as postmodern films do not generally end happily ever after. This is yet another example of Tarrantino using Intertextual links in Inglorious Basterds can be seen around opening scene involving Hans Landa looking for hidden Jews. The intertexual link comes as Landa is leaving the cabin, in which Tarrantino incorporates as shot, which is almost identical to a shot, used in the film The Searchers. The shot shows Landa standing in the doorway facing out into the open. These intertexual links are only an example and Tarrantino uses a huge amount of intertextual links throughout the entire film, the sheer amount of intertextual links incorporated into Inglorious Basterds certainly adds a postmodern element to the film.

Another way in which Tarrantino adds a postmodern aspect to Inglorious Basterds in the way in which he uses on screen text. Tarrantino often uses onscreen texts in his films and perhaps the best example of this is Kill Bill. During Inglorious Basterds there are many occasions in which text appears on screen and in true Tarrantino style he uses his favourite font and yellow colour. The onscreen text is not overly used and is mainly used to introduce characters such as Hugo Stiglitz. one of the most obvious example of on screen text comes during the scene in which Shoshanna cinema is filling up with the important Nazis leaders. During this scene arrows are drawn on screen pointing to specific characters, the arrows are then followed by the names of the characters appearing revealing that they are infamous Nazis leaders. This can be a solid example of postmodern techniques as the text is unusual and is rarely seen in war films. As well as being postmodern the text does serve a purpose which is to introduce specific characters and is also used to split the film into sections with the use of chapters.

Levis-Strauss developed the concept of Bricolage. They’re many examples of this in Inglorious Basterds as Tarrantino is known for including high levels of intertextuality and using bits of clips and taking ideas from other films. Examples of this in Inglorious Basterds include; the modern music used, small films within a film, comedy, on screen text, chapters and Tarrantino’s infamous foot fetish, which he manages to include in all his films. Tarrantino uses addition by adding public information films into Inglorious Basterds, however the most prominent example of addition is the way in which Tarratino adds humour into the film, this is unusual particularly for a war film, which often focus on other emotions such as being sad and upset. There are many examples of deletion throughout Inglorious Basterds, however I believe the most significant of these in the way in which Tarrantino deletes fear from the film. This is extremely significant especially considering the genre of the film, however Tarrantio counter balances this deletion with the addition of humour into the films. This makes the film postmodern as it has completely transformed the typical war film into something completely different.

Considering all these different ways I believe that Inglorious Basterds can be considered as a postmodern film. Tarrantino includes a variety of different techniques which make Inglorious Basterds almost unrecognisable to the traditional war film. These techniques also add a postmodern aspect to the film as techniques such as revealing the set and using deliberately music which is from a completely time period all create a feeling of postmodernism around Inlgorious Basterds.