Inglorious Bastards Review

 

Spaghetti westerns were a subgenre of Italian produced westerns from the late 1960s. These films were often characterized by intense violence, extreme close ups, revenge based plots, rousing scores, less dialogue, operatic plots, and strange names. Tarantino uses this subgenre in order to create his wider commentary on the power of cinema. By replicating one of the most stylized action sub-genres there is a constant reminder to the audience that this is a movie. Through this constant reminder he is able to display the power of cinema in every scene. The film's central thesis is that just as film made the Nazi's gain their power, it to is where the Nazis lost the war. On a literal level it is a movie about Hitler and Goebbels, two men who were brought to power through their powerful use of cinema as a propaganda force, being killed by film stock. In this Tarantino shows how film has provided the true death of the Nazis through the constant stream of war films about Americans in WWII. Furthermore, film can provide revenge that reality cannot--A Jewish man can kill Hitler. However, by using the Spaghetti western subgenre there is a constant reminder that this is just a movie and there was no vengeance in real life. Through this Tarantino sets up his metamodern framework about the power of cinema that he would later cement in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. As described in my previous post on this film, Tarantino also subverts the genres he is working in.  For the war film this is predominantly done through the ending (as explained in the previous post), for the Spaghetti western this is through the films structure, dialogue, and inconsistent stylization. In both war films and Spaghetti westerns there is an expectation of a fairly normal three act plot structure, Inglorious Bastards throughs away any sense of structure taking a weird cross cut plot between three character groups that combine together at unexpected points with none of the plots following any conventional act structure. In taking this structure Tarantino is able to deconstruct and honor every war movie structure trope including the femme fatale, the dirty dozen, and the defector. Spaghetti westerns also typically are very sparse in dialogue, however in this movie these scenes are more plentiful than the action. Through this Tarantino is able to make on the nose film references furthering the audience realization of what he is doing in the literal metaplot. And finally the inconsistent style, such as the extended introduction for Stiglitz and none of the other bastards, does a similar thing as the overall use of the spaghetti western sub-genre creating a constant reminder of the film's cinematic status.