Multilingualism and Movies: Inglorious Basterds

After some advice for my choice of movies, I decided to turn-tail from Mission Impossible to make a throughout examination of another highly acclaimed movie; Inglourious Basterds. I chose this as the new subject of interest due to it's diversity of language and the impact it brings considering it's unusual approach; only 30% of the film contains spoken English, with the other languages including German, French and Italian, according to film review website IMDB. This intrigued me, and I had to find out more about this insanely popular Quentin Tarantino film.

 After watching some parts of the film, I can see why it was so well- received. Not only does the story reflect a certain sensitivity and intensity, it also helps capture the audience's attention(me, in this case) by appropriating the dialogue with the languages commonly used during the era in which the movies was set, giving a feeling of realism and giving the movie a whole new sense of immersion by grabbing the audience and throwing them into the film, as we watch the firsthand the masterful twisting of tongues as it plays an enormous role in the deception of language widely used throughout the whole film. According to Radheyan Simonpillai; a renown movie critique of Askmen.com, the movie's diversity in language and director Quentin Tarantino's genius use of this can alter the way history was actually written, and is able to manipulate the facts to his favor of the story. Not only does this help in making an engaging film, it also proves just how language can influence a movie.

Below is the link to the review from Radheyan, I found it profoundly interesting and hope you do so too. http://www.askmen.com/entertainment/movie/inglourious-basterds.html

Also, a bonus entry from acclaimed movie critique and film expert Roger Ebert. He describes the movie to considerably made and difficult to review, having to watch it repeatedly to find the proper description for it. After attending the Cannes festival, director Tarantino asked his opinion and Mr. Ebert could only describe it as being either the best or worst film of 2009. In the end however, his answer was still a resounding "Best film of 2009." He adds that a movie like this can not be put down and watching it once will not suffice to satisfy.

Even only watching a few parts. I can certainly agree with Mr. Ebert and I hope to do further research on this topic to prove the claims to glory that this movie holds and the languages that entail it to be.

Harvard Reference:

Inglourious Basterds. (2009) Quentin Tarantino. USA, Universal Pictures and The Weinstein Company [Video: DVD].

Simonpillai, Radheyan. "AM Review: <I>Inglourious Basterds</I>". AskMen. N.p., 2009. Web. 18 June 2016.

Ebert, Roger. "Inglourious Basterds Movie Review (2009) | Roger Ebert". Rogerebert.com. N.p., 2009. Web. 18 June 2016.

"Inglourious Basterds (2009)". IMDb. N.p., 2016. Web. 18 June 2016.