Tarantino the 'Inglourious Basterd'

US director's latest film perhaps seems to us, as Jews and as people relatively familiar with history, utterly groundless. Yet, in reality, it isn't clear that's case for viewers around world. As Jews rest on their memory, Tarantino is disastrously shattering it

Reuters | Published: 09.23.09, 16:28

Collective memory is a central part of Jewish culture and religion. We fast on Tisha B'Av because the Temple was destroyed more than 2,000 years ago. We eat matza because our forefathers did not have time to let their bread rise when leaving Egypt more than 3,000 years ago. On Yom Kippur, which is next week, a significant part of the prayer service is dedicated to reviewing the work of the High Priest during the Temple period.

Our national memory is perhaps the most central asset we have as a people; it is what guided us on the winding path we made from Europe back to our historic homeland that was preserved in our distant memory, our ancient books, and our prayers.

In the age of post-modernism, the preservation of memory can be a difficult task. It would not be an exaggeration to claim that we are remembering less and less in Israel. The threat of forgetting is no longer directed only towards distant memories such as Tisha B'Av and Passover as it was in the past, but is making giant, encroaching strides on the Holocaust, which took place less than 70 years ago, a mere millimeter in terms of eternity.

Last week, Quentin Tarantino visited Israel. He was welcomed with respect, with appreciation, and perhaps even joy. Deep inside, I felt, and I believe I'm not the only one, that I was suffocating. Deep inside, I felt a kick. Tarantino came here to promote his tasteless film Inglourious Basterds that supposedly deals with the Holocaust, but is nothing short of a disaster for the Jews. A disaster that I am doubtful can ever be rectified.

Tarantino, as befitting of his profession, was looking for ratings, which most simply translated are dollars flowing into the coffers, and, from his perspective, to hell with how this is achieved. He is the one who has rewritten history and decided to tell a story that never happened and never existed – a horribly cruel group of Jews seeks revenge on the Nazis. In Tarantino's movie, Jews are the "inglourious" ones and the Nazis are the ones looking to maintain a sense of humanity.

The Jews are not the Partisans fighting the Germans, but the "bad guys" chasing after the Germans, and the movie doesn't even make it all that clear why. Jewish suffering in WWII is completely absent from the movie as never having existed. We are left with nothing of the sort of suffering at the hands of Nazi officers that occurred during the Holocaust.

Which character will survive?

With his typical arrogance, Tarantino was all smiles as he recommended that Israelis leave their prejudices at home. He added that "taboo is meant to be broken," and mumbled something unclear that his movie is every Jew's ultimate fantasy. Excuse me? The ultimate fantasy of every Jew? Not mine, at least, not even in my wildest dreams. What conceited assumption that all Jews want to do is crack Nazi skulls.

In general, Tarantino forgets who he is a little bit and who is audience is. Perhaps this is the main point. This isn't a philosophical-psychological movie directed at those who are familiar with history. Tarantino's audience comes to see an hour and then some of an enjoyable film: a few jokes, a few explosions, and, if possible, a few pretty girls. This audience is not necessarily aware of the delicate relationship between fantasy and reality in the world of art. It also is not necessarily overly knowledgeable about history.

Tarantino's film perhaps seems to us, as Jews and as those relatively familiar with history, as completely unfounded. However, in reality, it is unclear if this is true of viewers around the world. Will every young man in America, who perhaps has never heard of the Holocaust, know how to distinguish between fiction and reality? Will he know how to decode the grotesque allusions? I don't think so. Furthermore, it is not just the Holocaust. The next time he thinks about a Jew, or sees one mentioned in the newspaper or on TV, the image that will come up in his mind is that of the brutal Jewish murderer he saw in the Tarantino film.

It sounds crazy, but this is exactly what Steven Spielberg's film Schindler's List did in the previous decade. Cinema is a powerful medium, so much so that many claim that movies are their main source for historical information on the Holocaust. Spielberg cautiously built a fictional movie, but one that strongly rested on historical reality.

Doesn't exist in a vacuum

Perhaps my outrage partly stems from the general picture of which Israelis who do not deal with history are not always aware. Tarantino's film does not exist in a vacuum. Holocaust denial is still a marginal phenomenon that we do not witness in the mainstream in the West. However, in recent years, a worrisome trend has developed of cheapening the Holocaust and de-radicalizing the Nazis.

There is a developing literary-historiographic approach in Germany that depicts Germans as the main victims of WWII. This viewpoint still distinguishes between Nazis and Germans, but the next, much more problematic phase is peaking through the cracks – a re-evaluation of Hitler and Nazis. Within the post-historical, post-modernist approaches, Nazi Germany is being re-evaluated, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to paint it all in black. In this context, Hitler is being depicted as a socially-conscious leader, perhaps even an outstanding one, and the extermination of the Jews is being diminished.

It is in this setting that Tarantino's movie is hitting the box offices. And only in this context could he bring up his ridiculous and murky idea. Through the grotesque, through explosions, through pseudo-sophistication, Tarantino makes his contribution to distorting the concepts and the memory of the Holocaust.

Jewish tradition is on one of memory. The upcoming years will be years of struggle over preserving the memory of the Holocaust. Don't let Tarantino's light-heartedness and smile fool you.

Adi Schertzer is a graduate of the at the Open University's Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies, and a cinema and television critic for Kippa