Postmodern elements can be identified in the film right from the begining, the film is labelled a war film set during world war 2, the film doesn't portray typical conventions you would expect to be posed in a war film, all of the extra features Tarantino works into his film could be considered 'post modern' to add humor and his own personal stamp.
Tarantino opens the film with ‘once upon a time’ he then uses chapters throughout the film ‘chapter 1’ these are both Fairy-tale elements which constructs hypertextuality in the film, although the film has a setting and date being set around World War Two, Tarantino straight away introduces fiction into the film from the opening scene reminding the audience that the film isnt real.
In chapter 1 Tarrentino creates the illusion of the house but shows the audience clear signs that it isn’t real, this is hyperalility, it shows a shot of Hans Landa scanning the floor boards showing no ceiling but once the camera changes to exposing the ceiling, it creates a clear statement by taking the realism out of the film as the audience are starting to be drawn into the film, a post modern technique.
Ingloriuos basterds is represented as a war film although Quentin Tarantino doesn’t follow the typical conventions, he uses an intense amount of dialogue in the film and most of the dialogue isn’t relevant to the war, this doesn’t paint the picture or create a realistic representation of war. Compared to films such as ‘Saving Private Ryan’ which doesn’t include half the dialogue and contains a lifelike representation of war by including convincing sounds effects of battle and convincing and chaotic setting.
Tarantino throws in amusing and gruesome scenes where he feels like it creating an interesting viewing experience for audiences. Another post modern element i recognize in the dialogue is the use of languages, a mixture of languages are used in the vast amounts of dialogue English French and German this prolongs the breaks between the graphic violence creating more suspense.
Yellow subtitles and yellow text introducing characters are seen in the film are something typical to Tarantino’s style in his films; this is something distinctive to him and allows people to recognise that his work. The subtitles also create a reference back to his other which is a way of him promoting and referring back to the audience.
Intertexual references can be recognized throughout the film, Features in Inglourious basterds can be compared to old spaghetti western films, He links to this genre in the way he frames the shots to produce and builds tension between characters in scenes, before he includes the action. This ‘standoff’ type technique can be seen in films such as ‘the good the bad and the ugly’ There is also another reference to spaghetti western films in the soundtrack used in the bar scene. There is a reference to Cinderella, when Col. Hans Landa discovers a shoe and then matches it to Bridget Von Hammersmark's foot. These postmodern references probably are only really recognised by a literate audience.
Interesting music has been used through the film creating references to other media texts, the music. There are many examples of postmodern choices of music one being David Bowie song which was released long after the film was set in world war two, this would be considered post modern.
Tarantino always uses an interesting mix of actors in his films creating enthusiastic performances The characters are played in an over the top manor using exaggerated speech and accents, for example Brad Pitt who plays in the film holds an exaggerated Tennessee accent throughout the majority of the film to create humour. The character Hitler is played very over the top and conforms to stereotypical characterization adding to the comedy. Samuel L Jackson also features in the film during a voice over.
Tarantino normally credits himself a cameo in his films, in Inglourious basterds he only features in the scene where it is his hands that are filmed strangling; this could be considered a post modern trait. Something else Individual to Tarantino is how he somehow includes his foot fetish in majority of his films, this adds his personality into his work.
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