I have been studying the two films: Inglourious Basterds and Fight Club, i think that both of these films are post modern as they both include aspects of what makes a postmodern film.
The film Inglourious Basterds is post modern, because it uses the story telling plot of a fairy tale (this is when it says: “a long time ago” and the story ends in a forest and this is the most common ending in a fairy tale), also the story is broken up into chapters and this strengthens the point of the story plot being based on a fairy tale, this also emphasises that the film is a fairy tale (never happened) and it is being told to a child by their parents or grandparents and the story is told in a personalised way as everything goes to plan and Hitler is killed in a horrific manor, glorifying the death of Hitler. I think that some of the scenes in this film were aimed towards Jews such as the killing of Hitler (this scene is about one of the Inglourious Basterds over-killing Hitler corpse on the floor and he was shooting Hitler in the face, this is bloody violence and gore. Another point to suggest that some of the scenes in the film are aimed at Jews is the humiliation of Hitler as there is a scene when Hitler has a paddy and screams: Nien, nien, nien.... like a little child.
The next point for why Inglourios Basterds is postmodern is the violence that is used, this is because the violence in the film is so exaggerated that it makes the audience laugh, which is a postmodern thing to do as it forces the audience to laugh at something that we would not normally laugh at e.g. when the Bear Jew smashes the Nazi’s skull in with a baseball bat, this violence is pushed so far that it does not seem to be real and it make the audience laugh. Another example would be Hugo Stiglitz in the bar scene when he stabs a German in the back of the head repeatedly, although this clip is horrific it seems to be so far away from reality it is comical.
Next the songs that are played in the film are postmodern as they were all made after the time period of the film (WWII) and also some of the songs genres do not fit in with the story of a war, an example of this would be the spaghetti western (Mystic and Severe by Ennio Morricone) song, this song is out of its year time line. This makes the audience confused as they notice that the song does not fit the film and it gives the effect of the time line being mixed up and the effect of the music creates an atmosphere of the music genre.
Another point that suggests that Inglourious Basterds is postmodern is the personalisation of tarantion’s foot fetish, this is shown in scenes such as when Col. Hans Landa puts on Bridget’s shoe and this is also a link to the fairy tale as it is similar to Cinderella.
In the film there is a film within a film and this is called: ‘The Nations Pride’ and it celebrates Frederick Zoller’s triumph over the Americans, the film within a film is an extremely postmodern thing to do as it reminds the audience that they are watching a film, and another post modern element in Inglourious Basterds that reminds that audience that they are watching a film is when the set walls are revealed and this is typical of Tarantino as he uses this technique in Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction (two of his other films). The method of telling the audience / reminding them in a film is a postmodern method.
The next film that can be considered post modern is Fight Club and this is because it includes elements such as: subliminal messages, breaks the fourth wall, self reflexive, copy of a copy of a copy and so on...
The first post modern point about Fight Club is that it is a film that is not trying to be real, but by adding all of the elements and the effects of realistic topics, like the sound of a punch it is therefore realistic. This is post modern because it is something that is real but it is not and it is not trying to be realistic so therefore it is realistic.
The next post modern point in this film is the subliminal messages that are used as they show the audience a brief clip for something like 2 milliseconds and this makes the audience remember that message later on in the film. The subliminal messages that we see as an audience are of Tyler Durden and as the story progresses the audience is introduced to Tyler and they remember him from the film although he has not been in the story yet, this is a post modern thing to do as it is challenging the audience and deliberately confusing them.
Next there are intertextualities in the film for example when Tyler shouts ‘Run Forrest Run!’ at the back of the store, this is taking a text from a pre existing film and then using it in a different text in Fight Club and this is also known as ‘a copy of a copy of a copy’
Another postmodern point in this film would be when Ed Nortons character looks around his flat and there are labels of all of the furniture giving their name and the price that they cost, this is a postmodern aspect as it is displaying unreal elements and it is reminding the audience that they are watching a film and it also fits into the moral of the story and it is all about what we will tolerate as being real or unreal and this is tolerated as being unrealistic.
Also another post modern element in this film is near the end when the audience find out what Ed Nortons characters name is (Tyler Durden), this then sends his memory back into a flash back of all of the events that have happened with him and Tyler and it has replaced all of Tylers actions with Ed Norton and it shows the audience that he is a skitso and has a split personality with Brad Pit as what he wants to be, this then confuses that audience and makes them rethink about the whole story and this is a postmodern technique because it is challenging the audiences knowledge.
