In what ways can Inglourious Basterds and Fight Club be considered postmodern?

Inglorious Basterds and Fight Club can be as 'Postmodern' films in many ways. They both possess postmodern elements and can be compared with other postmodern films such as; 'Kick-Ass' and 'Scott Pilgrim vs. The World' because of this.

Inglorious Basterds, being a Quentin Tarentino movie, has numerous postmodern elements. It has lots of intertextual references throughout the text. Particular camera shots from 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' are used in Inglorious Basterds, for example, when they are in the bar and they have a Mexican Stand-off (which also came from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly/Spaghetti Western films). The scene in the cinema where Hitler gets shot, for me, had references to Scarface in the way they were continuously shooting at Hitler with Tommy guns. The film they watch at the cinema 'Nation's Pride' also has intertextual references to 'The Battleship Potemkin', like many films do, with the Odessa steps scene. It is also referenced when the soldier gets shot in the eye.

'Nation's Pride' itself is a postmodern element because it is a film-within-a-film.

Tarentino has a foot fetish, and he always includes a reference to feet in his films. In Kill Bill he has a scene where Una Thurman's character is wriggling her toes for the first time after being paralysed, this includes a series of close-ups on her feet, in Pulp Fiction he has a scene where Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta's characters have a long conversation about a foot massage and in Inglorious Basterds, he includes the scene where a woman’s shoe is found by the German soldiers in the tavern after everybody is killed.

The music used throughout this film is taken from other films, another postmodern element. The majority of the music used in Inglorious Basterds is by Ennio Morricone who has produced hundreds of pieces of music for many films, most popularly, ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’. Music in this film doesn’t fit with the time frame the film is set, because the film is set around the 1930’s/40’s as it is World War 2, but the music is taken from decades up to the 1980’s, for example, the David Bowie track used when Brigitte Von Hammersmark is getting ready.

Postmodern films, particularly Tarentino’s, like to remind the audience they are watching a film, which is a fantasy and not real. The film starts with a title, which reminds the audience that they are watching a film, that says ‘Once Upon A Time’ which links to the idea it is a fantasy because that’s how fairy tales start, and they are fantasies. The film is then split into chapters like a fairy tale, and the way it ends in a woods is a popular setting for fairy tales, Little Red Riding Hood for example.

Linking to theme of it being a fantasy, the ending of this film, baring in mind it’s supposed to be set in World War 2, is completely fictional. The American’s are made out to be heroes because the British soldier dies whilst the Americans kill Hitler when in actual fact, Hitler killed himself. By showing the Americans kill Hilter links the element that Tarentino wants his audience to know it is only a film, and isn’t real. This can also be linked to the acting in the way in which the accents are really enforced and over-the-top, for example, Aldo, Briggite Von Hammersmark, Hitler and any Englishman. Throughout the film some of the costumes remain perfect and unmarked despite laying on the floor etc. Brad Pitt’s character ‘Aldo’ is a perfect example of this as he has a sack over his head for some of the film but when it’s removed there isn’t one hair out of place, or a tiny spec of dirt on his white tuxedo despite having been on the floor in the middle of a woods.


Fight Club can be considered as a postmodern film for very different reasons Inglorious Basterds is because, unlike Tarentino who wants his audience to know what they are watching is a fantasy, David Fincher wanted to make Fight Club realistic to real life scenario’s. The film is successful in this by the way the violence is portrayed. Which is very hardcore, gory and sometimes a bit hard to watch. Throughout the film the fighting is shown in a realistic way in the way in which the men react how a real person would react in a fight rather than not be affected at all like in other films. This makes the violence visceral and more seemingly realistic I.e. the sound effects used in the fights. The film itself isn’t trying to be real, but by including the elements and effect that is does, that then makes it realistic.

Although the film is very realistic, Fincher also makes the audience aware it’s only a film when certain characters break the fourth wall and address the audience, for example when Ed Norton tells the audience about this cigarette burns on the screen. The scene where Ed Norton’s character is walking through his apartment flicking through an IKEA catalogue can be seen as postmodern too, because text appears on the screen like it would in an IKEA catalogue, labelling each object he has in his apartment, this also makes the audience aware they are watching a film, not real life. It makes the point that his life is all about possessions and that he is very materialistic- ‘what you own ends up owning you’ is a line said by Ed Norton’s character which links to the point about how pointless life is.

‘everything is a copy of a copy of a copy’ is said by Ed Norton’s character which is a postmodern statement, because all postmodern films copy other films e.g. Kick Ass with superhero movies. The subliminals that are revealed throughout the film could be seen as a ‘film-within-a-film’ like Inglorious Basterds because, when Tyler Durden works at the cinema he places a subliminal of a penis in a children’s movie so the people who are watching that are aware it’s a film that is being controlled by somebody, so when there are subliminal placed in Fight Club, the audience are made aware they are watching a film, not reality.

There aren’t many intetextual references in Fight Club, but there are little parts of the film where a connection can be made, an obvious one would be when Tyler says ‘run Forrest, run’ (a popular quote from the film Forrest Gump). Intertextual references could also be made when talking about the character of Marla Singer, because she isn’t a typical heroine that’s usually in films like this, because the film is very dark a typical ‘blonde-haired, big-boobed’ actress wouldn’t have fitted the role like Helena Bonham-Carter does because she is known for her quirkiness in many Tim Burton films, which are dark.

Postmodern Dictionary

Simulacra is when something is offering perfection when that is never possible. An example of this could be when you into a McDonalds restaurant and you look at the pictures on the menu and want a certain buger, but you don't actually get that burger, you just get a simulation of it. This could then link to Kick Ass because he dresses up as a super hero although he knows a super hero doesn't and cannot exist, but people buy into this.

When Kick Ass becomes popular with the popular, people buy Kick Ass costumes, this is a prime example of simulacra, because pepole want to be Kick Ass although they know they can never be.




This advert for the ipad is an example of simulacra because, although the ipad is good, they never work as well as it's shown in this advert, there are always problems with connections and battery etc. and they are often slow, whereas on this video the ipad is made to look perfect when in reality it really isn't.


Simulation links to simulacra because, whilst simulacra is an advert, the simulation is a physical example ofthe advert e.g. the burger from the menu at McDonalds. And linking to the clip above, people don't buy the ipad from the advert, they buy a stimulation of that ipad.

In Kick Ass, the gangsters think they are killing Kick Ass because there is a boy wearng the Kick Ass costume, as we later find out, the boy they killed wasn't Kick Ass, it was a stimulation of Kick Ass because he was wearing a stimultion of Kick Ass' costume.

Paradox is a statement that contradicts itself. It states that postmodernism can have no theories because postmodernism itself is a theory.

The way Hitler dies in Inglorious Basterds contradicts reality because in the film he dies at the cinema where he is killed by the Americans, whereas in reality Hitler killed himself.

Pastiche is where something takes idea's from other existing styles but portrays them in a negative way, sort of taking the mick.

Below are two clips; Scream and Scary Movie. Scary Movie can be seen as a pastiche because they take ideas from Scream for there opening but use the ideas to mock that genre of film.





Scary Movie completely copies the scene from the opening of Scream because it is such an iconic scene and the audience will recognise it. Scary Movie could be suggesting a lot of things in the way they create their films to mock the horror genre, an example could be that all horror/thriller films are the same - girl alone in a big house, always follow the noise etc.

Similarly, Kick Ass can be seen as a pastiche because it takes ideas from existing superhero films to mock the genre and make the audience realise how ridiculous superhero movies are. An example of this would be that a 12 year old girl can be a superhero and kill grown men.


Homage is similar to a pastiche but a homage is where the idea comes from existing styles and is portrayed in a nice, respectful way. An example of this is Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody':



Whether some things are pastiche's or homage's is debatable because they are very similar and people can interpret things in different ways. Tarentino uses the homage in the majority of his films, Inglorious Basterds being an example.


Hyper Reality is where reality is portrayed in a certain way which is exaggerated, for example, in film and TV, if there is a shot of Big Ben in London, it is always a sunny day with loads of open top red buses going past, but in reality in rains most of the time in London, yes there are buses but there aren't as many as film and TV show.

In Kick Ass, the film is set in New York, but the film is actually filmed in London, but because of the way the film is shot and because of the accents the characters have, the audience automatically think the film is in New York because of other film/TV.


Intertextuality is where one text has references to others or when there is a relationship between texts.

For example, in Kick Ass the whole story has intertextual references to other superhero movies. The main character has references to Superman, the fact he's a geek and is invisible to girls but when he becomes a 'superhero' the situation completely changes. The street he lives on is also the exact street from Superman.

Big Daddy's costume in Kick Ass is a copy of Batman. His situation is also very similar to Batman as he isn't an actual 'superhero' with super powers, but he is just well trained and armed with a lot of gadgets.