Quote:
Originally Posted by Reaper16
Unlike any other QT movie, this one has intellectual shit going on. Take the climatic theater scene for instance. The Germans are watching a propaganda flick in which dozens upon dozens of enemy soldiers are killed. The crowd hoots and hollars and cheers wildly each and every Allied forces death. Then the twin plans of the Basterds and Ms. Mimeuix come to fruition and the Nazi elite are mowed down with gunfire as the theater burns to the ground. And we, the audience watching a movie, cheer with relish each and every one of the German deaths. In effect QT turned us all into what we so wish violence upon -- our reaction to the Nazis dying is the exact same as the reaction of the Nazi audience watching Allied soldiers die! It harkens back to the speech in the film's first, tremendous scene where Landa remarks that people hate Jews for no real reason, that people just know deep down that they don't like rats/Jews. Well we obviously don't like Nazis; we throw justice overbpard in favor of fiery, bloody revenge.
Think about it: QT could cast any actor he wants. For the role of The Bear Jew, in a film that is largely about violence (and propaganda) in movies, he casts the director of films whose audience adores the "torture porn" of it all. It is not a coincidence.
|
Though I didn't really think that much into IB, this makes a whole lot of sense. However, I have one nitpick. I consider there to be a difference between an audience laughing at a revisionist, caricature history and Hitler and the Nazi army and an audience laughing at troops killed in war. In other words, QT's audience hates the Nazis for a reason - not "no reason". If it was simply the German people with no affiliation to the Nazis, Landa would be right on the money. But I doubt any audience would be laughing at the German people getting mowed down. Just as I doubt there mainstream Americans despise today's Germans and Germany.