“It’s no coincidence that the son of the man who killed Hitler in a movie theater went on to become an important film industry figure.”
I’m seeing this making the rounds on tumblr via cracked.com and some other commentary… I feel like I’m the only person who thinks Lee Donowitz himself made Inglourious Basterds as a tribute to Donny Donowitz and that’s why it’s not historically accurate. It’s embellished because he’s Lee Donowitz and he’ll do what the fuck he wants. It’s a film within a filmed universe, this would make it part of the Movie Movie Universe not the Realer Than Real Universe. Although Captain America doesn’t feature in his films, wouldn’t most Marvel and DC properties not exist the way they do if it weren’t for WWII? Comic books are a big part of pop culture featured in his movies. A line of dialogue like “I don’t even know a fucking Jew who’d have the balls to say that.” would have no meaning in a world where Hitler was gunned down by Jewish soldiers. I also disagree that glorified violence in Inglourious Basterds are the very reason characters in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction appear violently pragmatic. Bloody criminals and sociopaths and gimps have existed for far longer than WWII. The Basterds are undoubtedly portrayed as the good guys giving an evil Hitler what he deserves. If this really happened and left its mark on the world then where was Mr. Orange’s or Butch’s blaze of glory? Why was Clarence originally scripted to have died? The Realer Than Real Universe puts a level of violence on display that already exists in our world, in our world we simply choose to ignore it…or walk out of a screening because Michael Madsen is cutting some guy’s ear off. To say that in order for this kind of violence to exist required a major revision of history undermines the nature of calling something Realer Than Real. It’s no longer close to actuality, now it’s far removed in a world that bears no resemblance to our own. What’s the point of having two universes, one set within the other, if they’re both going to be over the top fantasies?
Obviously I concede if Tarantino comes out and says Inglourious Basterds is set within the same universe as Reservoir Dogs etc. but then I’ll just wonder if this was always the case, how, what hints do we see of that altered history in the movies, or if we’re to cheat and simply consider Inglourious Basterds a sneaky retcon.
