Here's my take: Quentin Tarantino makes power fantasies.
Kill Bill was a power fantasy for women. She was abused by Bill, and spends 5 hours getting bloody revenge on him and his henchmen. It was a classic revenge flick that payed homage to other revenge and martial arts flicks.
Django Unchained was a power fantasy for black people. (The fact that it was written by a white dude is definitely problematic, but he seemed to have good intentions at least.) And it does feel awesome to see Django blow up a plantation at the end.
So what is Inglourious Basterds a power fantasy for? America. What is America's proudest moment? World War II. Tarantino's movie shows everything good America did, ratcheted up to 100, and nothing of the bad. It's actually brilliant, in my opinion. The movie is a reflection of how America sees WWII, not the reality, but the imagination. In reality, the USSR captured Berlin and caused Hitler's death. In the movie, America kills Hitler. In reality, America rehabilitated many Nazis. In the movie, the main Nazi gets a permanent scar in his head so he can never forget his Nazi past. In the movie, a special unit of Jewish soldiers is sent to kill Nazis by America. In reality, America was denying boats full of Jewish refugees from the Holocaust. So, the movie makes America look way better than it actually should. It does not show America bombing Dresden, let alone Hiroshima or Nagasaki. It is just pure patriotic pleasure. Inglourious Basterds is what Americans THINK happened in WWII, exaggerated to an absurd degree.
Here's my take: Quentin Tarantino makes power fantasies.
Kill Bill was a power fantasy for women. She was abused by Bill, and spends 5 hours getting bloody revenge on him and his henchmen. It was a classic revenge flick that payed homage to other revenge and martial arts flicks.
Django Unchained was a power fantasy for black people. (The fact that it was written by a white dude is definitely problematic, but he seemed to have good intentions at least.) And it does feel awesome to see Django blow up a plantation at the end.
So what is Inglourious Basterds a power fantasy for? America. What is America's proudest moment? World War II. Tarantino's movie shows everything good America did, ratcheted up to 100, and nothing of the bad. It's actually brilliant, in my opinion. The movie is a reflection of how America sees WWII, not the reality, but the imagination. In reality, the USSR captured Berlin and caused Hitler's death. In the movie, America kills Hitler. In reality, America rehabilitated many Nazis. In the movie, the main Nazi gets a permanent scar in his head so he can never forget his Nazi past. In the movie, a special unit of Jewish soldiers is sent to kill Nazis by America. In reality, America was denying boats full of Jewish refugees from the Holocaust. So, the movie makes America look way better than it actually should. It does not show America bombing Dresden, let alone Hiroshima or Nagasaki. It is just pure patriotic pleasure. Inglourious Basterds is what Americans THINK happened in WWII, exaggerated to an absurd degree.