Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds is a film never to forget, and on its way to become a cult in the upcoming years. The film has a strong element of satire, and humor is blended inside the plot so well, we have nothing to do but admire the work which consists of unexpected or maybe shocking scenes, subtle messages on contemporary politics and the film industry, and a completely distorted even crooked viewpoint to the history. Although this unconventional point of view may seem like hypocrisy, as Jewish revenge depicted as it is equally be bloody as Nazi deeds, but it can also be seen just as an entertaining fictional movie using the icons of the Second World War.
The historical inaccuracies of this film cannot be examined, for it is made of those inaccuracies. Actually, the film itself is not a typical Tarantino work, since it is dealing with the Second World War, and the director is never known to work on these kinds of war topics. Thus, it is best to talk about the historical background of the film, and how it presents history with sarcasm, dark humor, satire and subliminal messages.
Firstly, within the film, we encounter scenes what we can deem as breaking the fourth wall. A truly remarkable scene at the end, where Shosanna changes the films and switches from a Nazi propaganda movie to a piece of film made by her, which is a statement of punishment, is shown to a theater full of Nazis. Stygian laughs in the burning theater and the image of Shosanna’s face reflected in the smoke are all references to a revenge taken by the Jewish people. The smoke with Shosanna’s face on it can be considered as the spirits of all the Jews who were killed and suffered. The locked burning theater is undoubtedly a parallel to the concentration camps. How those can be deemed as breaking the fourth wall is clear; as it can be seen at the end of the movie, Aldo Raine says that it might be his masterpiece, could very well attributed to the director himself, for the director, with the script and the scenes wanted to get an absolute intellectual and artistic revenge from the Nazis, and in broad sense, racism.
This war and revenge by the movies is the basis of the film. When Lieutenant Hicox is being charged to join the Basterds, he briefly interrogated by Winston Churchill, asking that who Goebbels (who is the propaganda officer and film producer of Hitler) can be a rival of in the Hollywood film industry, Louis B. Mayer or David O. Selznick, two Jewish film producers. The movie inside the film, Nation’s Pride is a propaganda movie and that movie too has its answer when the Bear Jew and Omar kill all the Nazi Party members with machine guns from a “bird’s nest”, as the same words used by the star of the movie, Frederick, who tells Shosanna where he has defended his country and killed nearly three hundred enemies.
Nazis were very well pictured in the movie too. Apart from the extremely picturesque and pathetic Hitler, all characters are well developed and precise. Colonel Hans Landa, a truly remarkable character maintains a new dimension to the movie with cunning, evil but also polite and cultured attitude. Also, the German officer in the shootout scene in the basement French tavern also has cunning and dangerous qualities among his characteristics. A good example how the Nazis see the world is when they play the game of guessing who their characters are by asking questions. After a number of questions, we see that the script is so carefully written, that we think the officer goes straight to the answer, King Kong, but eventually his answer would first be a “negro in America”. This may show that Nazis never saw black people or Jews as more than a mere animal, or a beast that needs to be taken care of. Another example to this can be Landa’s explanation of the Jewish people as rats. They see rats as a nuisance and objects for abhorrence, but there is no visible reason behind it; it is just a state of being of the Nazis.
While the Nazi characters are carefully developed, because of the story of Shosanna, the story does not focus enough on the Basterds. The Bear Jew, Donny Donowitz and Hugo Stiglitz could be unforgettable characters just like Tarantino created in his earlier films, like Jules Winnfield or Mr. Wolf in Pulp Fiction, who both and along many more have become cults, for example Winnfield’s constant quotations from the Book of Ezekiel has become a popular culture figure. The absence of the scenes of these characters can be seen a necessary measure for the film is already too long, but those characters could be worked on for the viewers’ pleasure.
There are several aspects which can be discussed for the film as the points where film does not have success. Firstly, it needs to be stated that a careless mistake has been made. While Hitler talks with the soldier who has been let to live by the Basterds, there is a huge map behind Hitler which contains where the German army and other countries are. There writes Otmanien (Ottomans), in contemporary borders of Turkey. This is either an overlooked mistake or the lack of knowledge.
Moreover, the historical references in the movie are only remotely connected with the real history. While no special Jewish American army groups or brigades served in the Second World War, the British Army had a volunteer Jewish Brigade from the British colony of Palestine. They also had German origin Palestinian Jews and they were very fluent on the German language.
Also, fighting behind the enemy lines in France is not completely fictional. In the same year as the film, 1944, nearly a hundred Jedburgh teams (among a secret operation of Britain and US secret services) were sent to France to create a fear as a part of psychological warfare. However, these Jedburgh teams only consisted of three or four men and they got their training in guerilla warfare.
Alongside the lack of real historical data considering the Second World War, a criticism can be made if we consider American History and how “war” is pictured in this film. An old enemy of Americans is the Native Americans and now the enemy is the radical Islamists for decades. As told by the Americans, this subjective history shows Native Americans as barbarous and primitive savages, who scalp their enemies as a tradition. They do not take prisoners in the war, for that is not in their culture. They make guerilla war, basically. When it comes to the radical Islamists, the most gruesome fact and the most feared thing attributed to them is the suicide bombings, where they have no intention to separate the military and the innocent civilians. In Inglourious Basterds, Jewish American soldiers use all this aspects, what Americans fear and oppose the most.
Basterds scalp their enemies, take no prisoners, and kill people with baseball bat. They literally use the Apache tactic to fight their enemies. Just like the Taliban tried to create a fear and terror by videos of killed American troops, Basterds mark their enemies to create a psychological pressure where they go. In the theater scene of the movie, Basterds decided to send two soldiers with dynamites wrapped around their legs to kill the top Nazi officers and to effectively end the war, just like the radical Islamist suicide bombers, but as it is also stated in the movie, there are not only the army officers, Gestapo or SS; there are also film critics, civilians and actors. The most feared and criticized civilian death is deemed as nothing in this fictional movie.
However it can be seen as a bit exaggeration if we attribute the making of this film to the US as a whole. Tarantino himself talks about the movie as follows: "... despite its being a war film, Inglourious Basterds is my spaghetti western, but with World War II iconography." Therefore this completely fictional and even distorted film cannot be seen as a historical film but as an action thriller, using the characters of the Second World War.
The movie, Inglourious Basterds is a really successfully shot, heavily satirical and humorous, and sentimentally revenge seeking masterpiece-to-be. The inadequacies of the film are not about the cinematography but the way it deals with the material. It can be seen as a mere hypocritical action thriller regarding the Americanization of the history, or a very innovative way to tell a story, using a history told by many people with many films and other medium, in a new and unconventional way. It is better to be seen as the latter one for the film never claimed to be a historical war movie, but an ingenious attempt of entertainment.
27.5.10
4.5.10
Submission, Delusion and Manipulation: The Art of Islam
The world of phenomena and objects are often cannot be seen as what they are, but they are perceived as what previous generations have told it to be. Controversies and challenges to existing values often undermined with learned wrongs. For example, atheists long supported that the image of god and the existence of religion is nothing but mere sedatives and directives of power focuses. Just like every other counterpart throughout the world, Islam in Turkey, like other dominant religions in other countries can be seen like misdirection from certain matters that some interest groups dictated on regular and inadequately educated people.
It would be best to start with the etymologic background of the word, Islam. Although it may be seen like a long shot and an inference can be too literary, it gives a hint to what kind of society that we sociologically grow into. The word, Islam comes from the Arabic root “s-l-m” which means acceptance or submission, not necessarily to god, but a general surrender. Oddly enough, we use the word not only to utter the dominant religion in our country, but we greet each other with a different derivative of this root, “selam”. All in our country use this word to greet each other, either formally or informally. Again, this may seem like a speculation, but saying each other that we submit to the will of someone, or we surrender ourselves into the hands of the people we greet, is a deep scar originated in Turkish language, adapted from Islamic religion.
Turkic people, who are originally from middle Asia, indigenously have Tengriism, a polytheistic religion that originated according to their lifestyles and behaviors. Until the 8th century, Turkic people scattered around the world, either continued to believe in Tengri or assimilated into other religions. 8th century marked a significant event, Battle of Talas, between Arabs (and Turks) and Chinese. With the success of the Arabs, and the cooperation formed in the war, Islam began to expand over Turkic people and culture. Arabs had close bonds with Turks for various reasons, and the question needs to be raised here, why Arabs, specifically Abbasids treated Turks well.
The answers lie within future profits of the Arabs. In the 9th century, a new form of army, Mamluks (also known as Kolemen – which means slave man or owned man) appeared within the ranks of Arabian army. They have gathered immense strength and become a powerful military caste. The military needs of Arabs could only be fulfilled by the decisive Islamic promises. Islam used as a sedative and a way for Memluks to go to heaven, and in return, Arabs ask them to fight Arabic wars for them.
After the battle of Manzikert, the peninsula of Anatolia was ultimately under control of the Seljuq Turks. The decline of the Seljuqs gave way to Ottoman State to be established. The primary goal of the Ottoman State has been to conquer Byzantium and Istanbul. For nearly two hundred years, it has been seen as a “Muslim crusade” and a job that has been given by the prophet Mohammed. The hadith –which means the sayings of Mohammed – about Istanbul is widely spoken at those times, and even it is widely known and revered today’s Turkey is goes like this: “What a beautiful commander who conquered Istanbul, and what a beautiful army who conquered it.” This hadith become a motto while motivating the conquest, and the army. However, while Islam is used to motivate the public again, Sultan Mehmed II has declared himself as Kayser-i Rûm, which means Caesar of Rome. That shows his true intentions are rather becoming a new Roman emperor, and using the words of the prophets is an effective way to do it.
Curiously enough, his grandson, Selim I went to Egypt to get the protectorate of Caliphate. It is hard to believe it is only for the religious matters, but he showed his people that the reason to attack Egypt was to protect the Caliph. However, the riches and the spoils of the war with Mamluks were immense, and there rose questions, that if he used Islam to gather more wealth for Ottomans. After he captured the caliph and put him “under protection”, he has become a savior of the Islamic faith. However the caliph suspiciously surrendered the title caliph to Selim I willingly.
The caliphate has provided many advantages to Ottomans. All Islamic lands and people were somehow under control of Ottoman Empire regarding religious matters; and the sharia (religious law) was the prominent law of that time. Thus, it provides a great power over people. Caliphates have continued until the modern state of Turkey established in 1923. Mustafa Kemal has made an attempt to abolishing caliphate in 1924. Laicism, which also means secularism, was one of the Kemalist ideologies and a blooming modern Turkey. According to Mustafa Kemal’s reformation programs, Islam and therefore the identity of Muslim was belong to Ottoman Empire, and without the caliph, and with a secular system will create a new “Turk” identity.
However, the abolition was a critical and controversial matter. The Islamic faith in Turkey is extraordinarily strong for a secular country, and establishment of secularism in Turkey was not a step-by-step process of separation of church and state like in the West. In the Ottoman Empire, all spheres of life, at least theoretically, had been organized according to sharia, and Sunni religious organizations had been part of the state structure. With abolishing the caliphate, the head of the Islamic faith, the importance of being Muslim in state matters have disappeared, and while religious people found it disturbing, they also tried to sustain their religion in every aspect of the state. That led to confusion in politics, like conservative parties in Turkey have become mostly religion oriented, and they usually exploited common people’s religious beliefs. These religion-oriented parties have more and more dominant in the politic sphere, and conservatism has gained a new meaning in Turkey. They used religious elements for their own benefit, like making the Islamic tradition of wearing turban into a sense of crusade, where women supposed to protect the right to wear a headscarf in public areas and universities, where secular education and life is going on. It became a symbol of freedom for some people, but secularism, which is the foundation of this country, was now endangered.
As told by Karl Marx “religion is the opium of the people.” Throughout the history, we have seen that Islam has affected Turkish people in many ways, but this effect was mostly used by power focuses to gain advantage over people. Thus, Marx’s argument cannot be retaliated; religion is a perfect sedative and also stimulating product of mankind.
It would be best to start with the etymologic background of the word, Islam. Although it may be seen like a long shot and an inference can be too literary, it gives a hint to what kind of society that we sociologically grow into. The word, Islam comes from the Arabic root “s-l-m” which means acceptance or submission, not necessarily to god, but a general surrender. Oddly enough, we use the word not only to utter the dominant religion in our country, but we greet each other with a different derivative of this root, “selam”. All in our country use this word to greet each other, either formally or informally. Again, this may seem like a speculation, but saying each other that we submit to the will of someone, or we surrender ourselves into the hands of the people we greet, is a deep scar originated in Turkish language, adapted from Islamic religion.
Turkic people, who are originally from middle Asia, indigenously have Tengriism, a polytheistic religion that originated according to their lifestyles and behaviors. Until the 8th century, Turkic people scattered around the world, either continued to believe in Tengri or assimilated into other religions. 8th century marked a significant event, Battle of Talas, between Arabs (and Turks) and Chinese. With the success of the Arabs, and the cooperation formed in the war, Islam began to expand over Turkic people and culture. Arabs had close bonds with Turks for various reasons, and the question needs to be raised here, why Arabs, specifically Abbasids treated Turks well.
The answers lie within future profits of the Arabs. In the 9th century, a new form of army, Mamluks (also known as Kolemen – which means slave man or owned man) appeared within the ranks of Arabian army. They have gathered immense strength and become a powerful military caste. The military needs of Arabs could only be fulfilled by the decisive Islamic promises. Islam used as a sedative and a way for Memluks to go to heaven, and in return, Arabs ask them to fight Arabic wars for them.
After the battle of Manzikert, the peninsula of Anatolia was ultimately under control of the Seljuq Turks. The decline of the Seljuqs gave way to Ottoman State to be established. The primary goal of the Ottoman State has been to conquer Byzantium and Istanbul. For nearly two hundred years, it has been seen as a “Muslim crusade” and a job that has been given by the prophet Mohammed. The hadith –which means the sayings of Mohammed – about Istanbul is widely spoken at those times, and even it is widely known and revered today’s Turkey is goes like this: “What a beautiful commander who conquered Istanbul, and what a beautiful army who conquered it.” This hadith become a motto while motivating the conquest, and the army. However, while Islam is used to motivate the public again, Sultan Mehmed II has declared himself as Kayser-i Rûm, which means Caesar of Rome. That shows his true intentions are rather becoming a new Roman emperor, and using the words of the prophets is an effective way to do it.
Curiously enough, his grandson, Selim I went to Egypt to get the protectorate of Caliphate. It is hard to believe it is only for the religious matters, but he showed his people that the reason to attack Egypt was to protect the Caliph. However, the riches and the spoils of the war with Mamluks were immense, and there rose questions, that if he used Islam to gather more wealth for Ottomans. After he captured the caliph and put him “under protection”, he has become a savior of the Islamic faith. However the caliph suspiciously surrendered the title caliph to Selim I willingly.
The caliphate has provided many advantages to Ottomans. All Islamic lands and people were somehow under control of Ottoman Empire regarding religious matters; and the sharia (religious law) was the prominent law of that time. Thus, it provides a great power over people. Caliphates have continued until the modern state of Turkey established in 1923. Mustafa Kemal has made an attempt to abolishing caliphate in 1924. Laicism, which also means secularism, was one of the Kemalist ideologies and a blooming modern Turkey. According to Mustafa Kemal’s reformation programs, Islam and therefore the identity of Muslim was belong to Ottoman Empire, and without the caliph, and with a secular system will create a new “Turk” identity.
However, the abolition was a critical and controversial matter. The Islamic faith in Turkey is extraordinarily strong for a secular country, and establishment of secularism in Turkey was not a step-by-step process of separation of church and state like in the West. In the Ottoman Empire, all spheres of life, at least theoretically, had been organized according to sharia, and Sunni religious organizations had been part of the state structure. With abolishing the caliphate, the head of the Islamic faith, the importance of being Muslim in state matters have disappeared, and while religious people found it disturbing, they also tried to sustain their religion in every aspect of the state. That led to confusion in politics, like conservative parties in Turkey have become mostly religion oriented, and they usually exploited common people’s religious beliefs. These religion-oriented parties have more and more dominant in the politic sphere, and conservatism has gained a new meaning in Turkey. They used religious elements for their own benefit, like making the Islamic tradition of wearing turban into a sense of crusade, where women supposed to protect the right to wear a headscarf in public areas and universities, where secular education and life is going on. It became a symbol of freedom for some people, but secularism, which is the foundation of this country, was now endangered.
As told by Karl Marx “religion is the opium of the people.” Throughout the history, we have seen that Islam has affected Turkish people in many ways, but this effect was mostly used by power focuses to gain advantage over people. Thus, Marx’s argument cannot be retaliated; religion is a perfect sedative and also stimulating product of mankind.
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