one of the few perks of getting older is
revisiting your favorite movies and
discovering new layers of meaning that
emerge against a different social
backdrop like listening to an old album
on upgraded speakers I recently
rewatched in glorious bastards and man
these Tarantino revisionist fantasies
really are something special Cinema has
always been a powerful tool in framing
our Collective understanding of history
and in turn our national moral identity
I mean there's a reason your substitute
teacher would wheel up that Dusty HS
player and pop in Mr Smith Goes to
Washington but few filmmakers offer such
provocative and insightful portrayals of
historical evil as Tarantino what's so
fascinating is when you consider in
glorious bastards versus jeno and
chained they're actually moral mirror
images of each other in Jango the
refined European intellect of Schultz
exposes the borish ignorance of slaver
Calvin candy whereas in in glorious
bastards the ruggedly unsophisticated
Aldo rain triumphs over the cunning
European intellect of Hans Landa in
essence the films flip the dynamic in
one case intellect provides the moral
Clarity to condemn horrific evil in the
other intellect provides the cunning to
perpetuate horrific evil so what does it
say about American cultural identity if
we chastise our lack of cultural
refinement in one era and celebrate it
in another are we dare well in order to
flesh this out we're going to have to
dive deep into Eng glor ious bastards
and also get a Little Help from this
America let's dive in but first a quick
recap in German occupied France SS
Colonel Hans Landa interrogates a French
Dairy Farmer in search of a Jewish
Family hiding beneath his floorboards he
executes all but the daughter Shana who
flees to Paris where she assumes a new
identity as the owner of a cinema
meanwhile Lieutenant Aldo rain assembles
a group of Jewish American Guerilla
fighters to hunt down German soldiers
and spread fear among their ranks back
in Paris a famous German war hero
Smitten by Shana arranges for his
propaganda film to premere at her
theater giving her a prime opportunity
to exact revenge on the regime as
several high-ranking officials including
the furer himself will be there the
bastards also catch wind to the premiere
and hatch their own plan to blow up the
cinema along with actress turn spy
Bridget Von Hammer Mark they infiltrate
poorly land sees an opportunity to end
the war and get rich so he defects and
allows Shana's plan to succeed Aldo
accepts land of surrender but not before
carving a permanent reminder of his
allegiances into his forehead the end I
think this just might be my
masterpiece one of the most brilliant
things about the characterization of
Hans Landa is how he aligns with three
key post-war evaluations of German
culture he's sophisticated bureaucratic
and opportunistic let's start with
land's refined demeanor dude's
impeccably polite even Charming when he
visits the laad farm he's got good
manners he's complimentary but this of
course is an Insidious tactic and that's
kind of the point he speaks at least
English German French and Italian
fluently and is quite the pastry
connoisseur keen on the best strudel in
Paris and insistent that not a single
bite be enjoyed without the authentic
experience I just have to take a second
and appreciate how good this scene is
there are a lot of interpretations as to
the significance of the cream as it gets
this palpable closeup not only is dairy
a disturbing reminder of the tragedy at
the farm but for me The Delectable
visual pulls us into Shana's perspective
as she fights the temptation to
surrender to her circumstances and
possibly even enjoy being the girlfriend
of a high ranking German officer it's so
uncomfortable and so captivating anyway
landas also got a sharp sense of style
he Sports the Hugo Boss threads and does
his work with a dip pen even though
fountain pens were common at the time
here Hans personifies a Reckoning with
German intellectual culture How could a
nation that produced Kant Hegel
Beethoven brahs Gerta and Einstein also
be responsible for such Horrors Landa
embodies this dissonance between
Germany's esteemed cultural achievements
and its severe moral failings land is
also bureaucratic and organized he
persecutes Innocents not with a machine
gun but with a pen and notebook here
again is an alignment with the post-war
realization that some of the greatest
evils were perpetuated not by sadistic
Maniacs but by detached bureaucrats what
philosopher Hana arent termed the
banality of evil Germany was renowned
for its bureaucratic efficiency perhaps
best epitomized by the German Postal
Service a source of global admiration
for its reliability and complexity those
same procedural competen genes were
horrifically redirected to facilitate
systematic large scale atrocities as
depicted in last year's the zone of
Interest polish philosopher Zigman
Bowman dubbed this moral blindness
basically that an emphasis on hyper
rational systemic thinking enables
people to detach from the moral
implications of their actions finally
Landa is opportunistic toward the end of
the movie he spots an opportunity to end
the war by betraying the German High
command getting rich in the process and
even securing some Prime real estate on
Nantucket Island this Echoes the claim
that many of the war's worst
perpetrators weren't ideologically
committed but just went along with the
regime for personal gain for example
some claim that political philosopher
Carl Schmidt only changed his ideas to
align with the Reich in order to secure
powerful positions this of course is
contested Hans even puts Dynamite near
the fur's chair not the behavior of a
card carrying idealogue in contrast to
Land's old world decadence Aldo rain
represents the symbolic moral
superiority of America's Frontier Spirit
the name Aldo rain is a nod to the actor
Aldo Ray famous for playing the
quintessential American Everyman
including roles in war films such as the
Green Berets and Men At War unlike Hans
Aldo is anything but refined he's a
rough and tumble Southern boy from
Tennessee with a colorful past as a
bootlegger Aldo's accent is so over the
top that he makes the Germans sound like
Oxford graduates that's a pretty
exciting story what's next lies on Ice
he says debit when he actually means
debt when you join my command you take
on debit he can't pronounce sandwich if
you ever want to eat a sourkraut
sandwich again and mispronounces
European names with abandon you know
what sit down means Warner including the
name of the one German guy in his Squad
stiglets everybody in the German Army
go he iconically botches the mission
with his god- awul Italian see yeah
gretto and his crew's knowledge of other
cultures are basically limited to
stereotypes in this way Aldo's actually
Calvin he doesn't speak French don't
speak French to him it'll embarrass him
whereas Hans is orderly and strict with
rank Aldo is defiant and loves to bend
the rules you'll be shot for this N I
don't think so more like you out I've
been cheed out before and while hans's
violence is cold and bureaucratic Aldo's
is raw and visceral there's a nice
embodiment of this contrast in the
ornate snuffbox Aldo uses that he likely
lifted off a dead German Soldier a
non-nonsense southern boy wielding a
dainty High Society trinket this
underscores a crucial element of
American mythology the Triumph of rugged
and practical American values over
European cultural and intellectual
elitism the morally upstanding American
icon doesn't need K's categorical
imperative his values come from his gut
it's no accident that the theatrical
poster features a German Helmet hanging
from a baseball bat a symbol of
America's national Pastime that held
little appeal in Europe however it's
important to recognize that this
portrayal of the Rough and Ready
American Hero is rooted in a specific
cinematic tradition that the film pays
homage to the Spaghetti Western the
spaghetti western is a genre of western
films produced by Italian filmmakers
primarily during the 60s and70s these
films often retell American frontier
myths featuring rugged individualistic
Heroes and stylized depictions of the
Wild West the opening credits of Eng
glorious bastards feature distinctively
spaghetti western music and typography
and later when the Bear Jew is about to
do his thing we again hear music from
Eno moricone a legend of spaghetti
composition SPH Western Heroes were
tough unrefined and unpretentious they
spoke directly dismissed social niceties
were indifferent to luxury and dressed
for practicality unlike the often
flamboyant Hans Landa Aldo rain is a
descendant of this archetype this image
of the rugged non-pretentious Rebel
distrustful of high culture and driven
by Instinct became a central component
of American self-perception in a world
where evil can lurk behind the veneer of
Civility the American Hero is defined by
action not contemplation now it's worth
pausing a second and acknowledging the
obvious I believe in the value of
intellectual Pursuits hell at this point
I've spent almost half of my life trying
to popularize this kind of stuff however
I also believe that intellectualism is
not above criticism it definitely has
limitations and pitfalls in fact I find
that the mainstream discourse on
anti-intellectualism lacks a genuine
effort to engage with its shortcomings
because in fact a lot of thinkers have
explored the flaws of intellectuals Camu
and Orwell to name a couple but I was
recently drawn to an argument made by
chesla miash a Polish writer who
survived both the German and Soviet
occupations in his book The Captive mind
mwash argues that intellectuals are
particularly susceptible to destructive
ideologies because they're more likely
to be tormented by unanswerable Big Life
questions and an ideology can offer an
escape from those existential concerns
making them like moths drawn to a flame
anyway it's also important to note that
Aldo is a deliberately exaggerated take
on the frontier hero archetype his
accent is so thick and his demeanor is
so rugged that he literally has a scar
on his neck from being lynched his
All-American badassery is as over the
toop as the blood geysers from Kill Bill
the frontier hero dominated American
Cinema for decades to the point of
becoming tedious and Aldo's portrayal is
a playful nod to this oversaturation so
one might think that Aldo reflects a
growing sense of disillusionment with
this vision of American identity right
well not quite but before we get into
that I want to tell you guys about this
video sponsor ground news with the
constant Avalanche of information coming
at us staying critical is hard we often
skim headlines take them at face value
and fall into information bubbles ground
news helps break through that ground
news compiles articles from over 50,000
sources around the world and enables you
to compare how different sources cover
the same story so you get a full picture
of the news one feature I love is their
media bias bar which shows whether
stories are being disproportionately
covered by sources with a particular
political leaning for every article
ground news breaks down the
publication's political bias factual
accuracy and my favorite who owns the
outlet Chomsky would love it for example
they have this feature called the blind
spot that identifies stories that only
the left or right are reporting on so
check this 18 right-wing Outlets
reported that the New York Metro murder
rate sword 60% sounds dire but ground
news insights tells us that this 60% is
actually three murders no life is
Trivial but ground news reveals that
this was framed to optimize outrage or
here 29 Outlets reported that a convoy
of trump supporters harassed a Biden
Harris bus not one headline of the 10
left leaning Publications mentions
what's in the Insight section that this
was four years ago it's conveniently
omitted to push an election narrative so
save yourself from framing spin by going
to ground. news/ Jared and give it a try
if you sign up through the link in the
description you'll get 40% off the
Vantage plan which is what I use to get
unlimited access to all features I
really respect what ground news is doing
so give him a try you won't regret it
and now back to the show can you
Americans speak any as language than
English around this time and especially
in reaction to the Bush Administration a
wave of films emerged that deconstructed
the myth of the exceptional American
who rather than deriving moral Clarity
and courage from his Simplicity simply
derived Simplicity as yesterday's
positive report card shows children's do
learn Team America for example recast
these Heroes as bumbling culturally
oblivious morons who always miss the
target every frame of this movie is
depicted through the lens of American
ignorance Paris streets are tiled with
croissants modern day Cairo is portrayed
as sand and camels like its agraba from
Aladdin and foreign languages are
reduced to nonsense Allah muhamed Jihad
the movie is so deliberate in its
cultural ignorance that it fails to even
achieve proper xenophobia when a
stereotypical French boy bumps into a
Taliban type terrorist we hear
this except this song is Turkish not a
country associated with the Taliban or
Al-Qaeda because to Americans even if
part of the country is in the Middle
East it's all basically agraba or
consider Borat God this movie is a
classic the whole joke hinges upon the
fact that Americans are so clueless
about the world that they'll believe
that a 40-year-old man puts his disabled
brother in a cage and ceremonially
shares cheese made from his wife's
breast milk she make it from a milk from
teth however it would be a mistake to
interpret this as a wholesale rejection
of the American identity derived from
the frontier hero Borat pretty much
boils down to an American Cold War
victory three lap and Team America
ultimately concludes that these Cowboy
Antics though flawed are essential for
combating evil although they put it a
bit more crudely implicitly cultural
ignorance becomes a kind of global
status symbol a privilege Americans
enjoy due to our cultural and Military
triumphs and making fun of it doesn't
threaten it it actually sustains it I
think the South Park guys pretty much
nailed it in the H 100th episode think
of it an entire nation founded on saying
one thing and doing another and we will
call that country the United States of
America this Duality lies at the heart
of American identity the critique of
cultural ignorance Allah Calvin candy
doesn't contradict the celebration of it
Allah Aldo Reign it's within this
tension that a cohesive concept of
American identity emerges one that
intertwines self-criticism with
Shameless bravado acknowledging the
Calvin candy legitimizes the Aldo Reign
and Cinema has been a powerful tool in
curating and perpetuating this evolving
American identity and Tarantino's films
especially these revisionist fantasies
are an acknowledgement of that however
as director Harmony Karin recently said
in variety movies are no longer the
dominant art form it's all social media
and video games now and with that shift
are significant cultural consequences
fundamental to the message of in
glorious bastards is a recognition of
Cinema's cultural and ideological
potency the plot revolves around the
premiere of a propaganda film many of
our main characters are actors or ciles
and the Third Reich is ultimately
defeated by flammable film reels the
idea is essentially that just as Aldo
etches a SWAT stia into land's forehead
so that he'll never forget Cinema builds
social cohesion around narratives of
Good and Evil and makes sure that the
world never forgets the evils of
national socialism and the Triumph of
American values over it but when you
watch the final installment in
Tarantino's revisionist fantasy series
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood it's hard
not to see the nostalgic tale of an
actor's fading relevance as a
melancholic acknowledgement of Cinema's
waning influence today and I would argue
that as Cinema's grip on our Collective
Consciousness diminishes so too does the
prominence of an American self-
understanding earlier this year theorist
bong chol Han published the crisis of
narration in which he laments the
consequences of a culture that has lost
the value of Storytelling as narratives
create Community by giving it an
identity narratives like Cinema are what
Han calls a concluding form basically by
having an ending where there's some kind
of lesson Epiphany or value statement
narratives can express the mood of a
time and solidify a sense of community
and identity however these concluding
forms are increasingly eroding in favor
of information dissemination and
information is directly opposed to
narrative social media content are just
bits of visual information that quickly
disappear telling us nothing there's no
closure to social media it's just people
vying for attention that actually works
in opposition to creating Community this
for Han is the current crisis of
narration without a shared identity that
narrative brings populations get more
and more fragmented in miash his book he
describes a plot device from another
book called a myty bing pill an
imaginary tablet that instantly erases
one's metaphysical angst although not a
complete remedy like the myy Bing pill
stories function similarly they provide
content text for our existential
concerns alleviate their burden and
create a shared framework that unites a
community and if I'm being really
self-aware I think that partly explains
my lifelong obsession with movies
they're like little 90-minute mydy Bing
pills so revisiting in glorious bastards
was a Bittersweet experience the film's
playful rry and a unified American
identity coupled with its celebration of
Cinema's power to reinforce that
identity made me nostalgic for a time
when this powerful narrative technology
was more Central to everyone's lives it
reminded me how storytelling can shape
and reflect communities and how its
diminishing presence leaves a void in
our Collective Consciousness a void that
really really sucks hey y'all thanks for
watching shout out again to ground news
for sponsoring this video don't forget
to check him out by clicking the link in
the description or the pinned comment
below it's a great way to stay informed
a great way to stay aware of any
political slant and a great way to
support the channel hope you guys are
having a great fall and I'll see you
