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Obadiah, FraQ, and 1 more like this
Post by Jorji Costava on Sept 12, 2015 10:47:29 GMT -6
 There's a lot of interesting subtext to decode here about the nature of propaganda and more generally, the way in which we construct collective identities through images and words. Language and its role as an element of cultural identity is a major motif here: A lot of the film is subtitled, and a number of key plot points turn on a character's proficiency (or lack thereof) with a given language. Many characters are also preoccupied with their nicknames ("The Jew Hunter," "The Bear Jew," "Aldo the Apache," etc.), and significantly, these nicknames are always conferred by others. And many of the characters are absurd caricatures of their ethnic identities: Lt. Aldo Raine's southern accent is deliberately over the top, while Lt. Hicox is squarely within the stiff-upper-lip Brit archetype. I'm not quite sure what all of this amounts to right now, but I think the suggestion is something like this: Propaganda runs deeper than film reels and pamphlets made and distributed by government officials: It manifests itself in our stereotypes of others, in our language, and even in our culture itself. All of these things can be used for ideological purposes. Having said all of that, I'm sad to say that this is probably my least favorite Tarantino film; it's just a frustrating film to watch. Everything with Shosanna abounds with tension and pathos, and Hans Landa is probably Tarantino's best villain, but the Basterds are just some of the most uninteresting characters Tarantino has ever put to film; Eli Roth, in particular, is atrocious as the Bear Jew. There's definitely some fat that could be trimmed in this movie; the tavern scene, for instance, seems to repeat many of its beats with the rising and falling levels of suspicion about the Basterds. The occasional interjections by narrator Samuel L. Jackson just felt out of place, and the humor of this movie didn't click for me like it does with Tarantino's other films. There are also a lot of elements to the film's resolution of its story conflicts that didn't work for me too well, but I don't want to get into spoilers right now. Last thing worth noting: Tarantino has a way of wearing his influences on his sleeve, and I noticed that he quotes from The Battle of Algiers twice in this film. The song which plays when the Basterds break Stiglitz out of jail is actually the opening theme to Pontecorvo's movie, while the scene in which Shosanna meticulously applies her makeup in preparation for her mission parallels The Battle of Algiers' famous bombing scene, where three women bombers are applying their makeup and "Westernizing" their appearance so they can more easily get past the checkpoints into the French Quarter. |
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