Parsons: Revenge in Inglourious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino's film Inglourious Basterds is a revenge film. In the dictionary revenge is "to exact punishment or expiation for a wrong on behalf of [someone]" It is the revenge that Jewish people never received in World War II and it is the revenge, portrayed as justice. The Basterds, mostly Jewish American soldiers, hunt and brutally kill Nazis, creating terror among the German Soldiers and even Hitler. The characters of the Basterds are these morally questionable heroes who create havoc and murder Germans as a type of pay-back for the horrible treatment of European Jews. Tarantino's film is both dark and humorous. The visuals are striking and each shot is done with great detail. Revenge is the theme I find most interesting in this film, and the mise-en-scene shows this.

The scene that is the highlight of the film and shows the theme are revenge is when the Basterds murder Hitler. The scene where Omar and Donowitz shoot Hitler is dark and is filmed from Donowitz's point of view. First we see Hitler standing and being shot, he is in the middle of the screen and is flanked on either side by Nazi flags. As he dies the lighting is all coming from the fire down below and Hitler looks more evil than ever because the back lighting creates odd shadows on him. The colors are all red and black and create this ominous crazy atmosphere along with the smoke and haze of the fire. As Hitler is being killed he falls to the ground and we are in Donowitz's point of view watching as his face gets mutilated with bullets. The camera is looking down on Hitler and being from the point of view of a Jewish man is powerful because we are looking down on Hitler and feeling the power of Donowitz. The shot then switches to an upward angle of just Donowitz's face and we see the anger and the hatred clearly. He looks evil, and yet at the same time he is the hero.

Inglourious Basterds is a revenge film and Hitler's brutal death is the ultimate show. The Jewish American Basterds achieve their goal of ending the war by murdering the maniac behind it all. Tarantino may be a nut, and his movies may be crazy and historically inaccurate, but he is able to use the camera and the way his films are shot to make them more powerful. His grasp of mise-en-scene and its usage in this film shows perfectly the theme of revenge and how it plays a huge role in this movie.