Quentin Terentino's Inglorious Basterds

When we think about movies that are set in World War two, Steven Spielberg is the one directors that instantly comes to mind. But there are other directors, such as Quentin Terentino, who have directed films set in World War two that are comically entertaining, suspenseful atmosphere, dramatic cinematography, and overall entertaining. One flawless example of this type of film is Quentin Terentino’s film Inglorious Basterds. Inglorious Basterds is an adventurous, dark humorous war film coupled with drama and sporadic action that is set in World War two. It was released in North America the 21st of August of 2009. One of the three main protagonists is the 2014 Oscar winner Brad Pitt, or Lt. Aldo Raine, a Nazi-hating U.S soldier as his character.

In an interview in The Atlantic, Quentin Terentino stated how “Holocaust movies always have Jews as victims…We’ve seen that story before. I want to see something different. Let’s see Germans that are scared of Jews.” (Terentino). This probably sums up how much he wanted this film to be original. In a scene early in the movie where Hitler is furious about one of the group’s famous members, Donny Donowitz. Donny is a huge man with broad shoulders and big arms that beats Nazi’s with a baseball bat. He wears many silver dog tags with name of Nazi’s he has killed. Hitler tells his 2 generals that are with him that he has heard a rumor about the “one that beats [his] boys with a bat. The one they call ‘The Bear Jew’”. Hitler has heard that that man is “A[n] avenging Jew angel, [a golem], conjured up by a vengeful rabbi, to smite the Aryans…and hence forth, is never to be referred to as the Bear Jew again.” (Inglorious Basterds). This shows how Terentino really wanted a movie that has as little archetypes as possible to keep this film constantly entertaining and to keep its originality. This is something we really have never seen before in World War two movies like Schindler’s List and Saving Private