Quentin Tarantino is one of the most well known film makers of our generation. Some of his films are questionable (but nonetheless brilliant) while others have deeply rooted messages and amazing plot lines that speak to many generations. My personal favorite and his most acclaimed film is Inglourious Basterds.
Opening in 1941 in Nazi occupied France, the story follows two plots: one with a group of Nazi militants who are out for "Natzi scalps," and Shoshana Dreyfus, a French cinema owner.
During World War 2, Hitler wasn't shy about making his plan known as to what he wanted to schieve and the fact that he eventually planned to take over the world. This was an important time for cinema because it was experiencing rapid growth and worldwide expansion. Countries were deveoping their own individual film industries and militant forces recognized this as a way to push propaganda on supporters, protesters and neutral citizens.
In the film, Shoshanna Dreyfus is a young woman who has taken to cinema as a way for her to cover up her French Jewish heritage. At the beginning of the film, we see her running from the house in which Hanz Landa (a Nazi) has just murdered her entire family on their farm in the French hillside. In chapter three of the film, Shoshanna is shown posting the new film name on the board outside the theatre when she is approached by a Nazi about the use of her theatre to show a propagada film. She soon learns that she will have no choice about whether or not she can show the movie- the same meeting in which she realizes that the same man forcing the use of her business is Hanz Landa who killed her family. Shoshanna decides then and there that she will indeed hold the film viewing but will do it with her own motives.
She is going to lock the Nazi Regime in the theatre and burn it down with all 3,000 rolls of nitrate film that she has stocked away (nitrate film burns three times faster than paper.)
If you havn't seen the film, you should. It is one of the more culturally and historically accurate pieces of Tarantino's work. While I won't spoil the ending, you can find out how Shoshanna's plan panned out in this clip.
While this isn't a completely true story (i.e. we know that Adolf Hitler committed suidcide and unfortunately wasn't, in fact, trapped in a burning theatre and then blown to smitherines by the "Bear Jew"), we also can gain a lot of historical knowledge and valuable insight as to how cinema played into the World War 2 efforts. This wasn't happening just in France or Nazi occupied parts of the world. This was happening even in America! Obviously for more morale purposes, but Frank Capra's Why We Fight was seen as a tremendous benefit to the American war effort and was pushed into theatres across the country by the Commander in Chief of the US.
This film provides a narrative and entertaining look at why and how the cinematic arts influenced and were influenced by the outbreak of the second World War.
While this isn't a completely true story (i.e. we know that Adolf Hitler committed suidcide and unfortunately wasn't, in fact, trapped in a burning theatre and then blown to smitherines by the "Bear Jew"), we also can gain a lot of historical knowledge and valuable insight as to how cinema played into the World War 2 efforts. This wasn't happening just in France or Nazi occupied parts of the world. This was happening even in America! Obviously for more morale purposes, but Frank Capra's Why We Fight was seen as a tremendous benefit to the American war effort and was pushed into theatres across the country by the Commander in Chief of the US.
This film provides a narrative and entertaining look at why and how the cinematic arts influenced and were influenced by the outbreak of the second World War.
