Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino (2009)

The film Inglourious Basterds directed by Quentin Tarantino takes place during the Nazi occupation in France during World War 2. A vigilante-like group called the Inglourious Bastards hunt and kill German soldiers. At a Nazi movie premeire, the Inglourious Baterds plan to blow up the cinema. The owner of the cinema is a young girl whose family was killed during the search of the dairy farm where they were being hidden. She was able to escape, and on the night of the premiere, plans to burn down her cinema as an act of revenge against the Nazis. 

Quentin Tarantino created this film in a very stylized manner. The film’s sequence is similar to a book in which he has sectioned it into chapters. Additionally, he is expressive with the music in the film as well. The opening score has a patriotic feel and almost resembles the patriotism that the score lends to Casablanca as well. This serves to place the viewer in the atmosphere of a war and view the movie through the motives of fighting for one’s country. However, throughout the film, when he introduces certain characters, particularly the Inglourious Basterds, electric rock music plays and leads to express this rebellious aura around them. Tarantino is also stylistic in his use of cinematography at these moments as well. He not only displays the character’s name in various fonts, but there is also a freeze frame shot and zoom in on the character; similar to the ending of The 400 Blows. This calls attention to the character and alerts the audience to their significance. He also labels German characters in the cinema as well, however they do not receive a special musical into or a freeze frame, rather an arrow points them out within the scene. This may help to assert favorability for the Allies. 

Quentin Tarantino’s talent is evident in his film, however I’m not sure I would seek out more of his works.