800 Words: Comparing American Films

Comparison of American films, ‘Inglorious Basterds’ and ‘miracle of St Anna’

Both films, ‘miracle of St Anna’ and ‘inglorious Bastards’ is both war reality based stories. They share varied similarities such as the themes of war, love, crime, religion, violence, etc. they also both share the underlining meaning of how the Nazi treated these people in war. The key theme in both films would be revenge.

 ‘Miracle of St Anna’ was an American-Italian war film, the genre is a historical fiction and the themes that ran throughout this film were violence, war, family, betrayal, unloyalty, sacrifice, reality, friendship and love. This film was made in 2008 and directed by Spike Lee, also adapted by the 2003 novel by James McBride. The location of this film was set in Italy mainly and in the United States.  The production companies of this film are Touchstone Pictures, 40 Acres and a Mule Film works and RAI Cinema, and were distributed Walt Disney Studios and Motion Pictures. The budget of this film was $45 million and box office was 19.4 million- this was a box office disappointment, but gained a further $10.1 million from DVD sales. ‘Inglorious Bastards’ was an American-German film made in 2009 and the genre of this film is War. The themes that ran throughout this film were violence, revenge, conflict, discrimination, etc. This film was directed and written by Quentin Tarantino, produced by Lawrence Bender and cinematography by Robert Richardson.  The production company of this film was A Band Apart, Studio Babelsberg and distributed by The Weinstein Company and Universal Pictures. The budget of the film was $70 million and made a box office at $321.5 million.  The location of the film is in England and Germany and most of the languages were set in English, German and French.

Both films share the theme of war. This is shown in ‘miracle of St Anna’ through the performance of the soldiers, the black American soldiers fighting for their country. This is also shown through the Italian family, making the audience aware that it wasn’t just a war targeting Jews, or the non-Arian race; it was also affecting the Italian, showing innocent neighbourhoods of Tuscany died. Furthermore, this is shown through Black Americans and how racism was still happening as their sergeant behaved as if he was superior and looked down upon the black soldiers.  This is also shown through ‘inglorious Basterds’  showing the harsh realities of abolishing Jews, this was showcased in the very beginning scene when the Colonel asked whether or not the man was hiding Jews; instantly shoots the floorboards where they was hiding. Also, this is shown through the ‘Basterds’ themselves by making a group to attack the Nazi soldiers, which shows their view of their revenge. Again, this indicates from the Jews perspective that they’re fighting back, wanting revenge and fighting for their rights.  Furthermore, the theme of war is presented in terms of how the French was hiding the Jews, the shows a sense of defence and how they’re protecting the Jews; indicating that there was people out there trying to save the Jews, including the ‘Basterds’ .

Additionally, both films share the similarity of having multi protagonist, making the audience see the views from every perspective. In ‘miracle of St Anna, the multi protagonists was the black American soldiers, as they was trying to fight for their country, all supporting and protecting the Italians. Furthermore, the little boy Angelo wanted freedom, he was a Jew whose family was killed in a massacre, which he escaped and protected by the soldiers who took him in as their own.  Moreover, the Italians were the protagonists as they also wanted freedom and supported the American by hiding them in. In addition, ‘inglorious Basterds’ presents this through the ‘Basterds’ themselves as their goal is to seek revenge in defence for the Jews.  This indicates that there were groups that sacrificed their lives like the Bastards to save the Jews.  Furthermore, another protagonist would be Shosanna, who survived the attack when Colonel (also known as the ‘Jew hunter’) visited the house hiding Shosanna and her family. Later in the film, we notice that Shosanna owns her own theatre where the Nazi’s wanted to visit the premier, including Hitler, and her motive was to kill the Nazis, along with the Bastards. We also uncover that the antagonist in both films is Hitler as his only goal was to take over parts of Europe and abolish many races including the black Americans, Italians and Jews.