4: Film excerpt, Quentin Tarantino’s "Inglourious Basterds," 2009.

4: Film excerpt, Quentin Tarantino’s "Inglourious Basterds," 2009.

The 2009 film Inglourious Basterds follows a group of Jewish American soldiers who exact their violent revenge on German soldiers in Nazi-occupied France in 1944. An over-the-top fictionalized history, the movie shows one possible reaction to anti-Semitism, and to bigotry more generally—a reaction with similarities to and differences from Max, Sam, and Esther’s reactions in “Select Clientele.” Please note the potentially disturbing nature of Brad Pitt’s monologue in this scene (a graphic call to violence against Nazi soldiers), as well as his use of curse words, before deciding whether to show it to students.

Suggested Activity: Ask students for their initial reactions to the scene. Do they find Brad Pitt’s character frightening? Funny? Do they hate him, or empathize with him, or a bit of both? Then discuss: what role does revenge play after experiences of bigotry, discrimination, or violence? Should revenge ever have a place in rectifying a wrong? Compare the way that Max and Sam handle bigotry in “Select Clientele” to the way that Brad Pitt’s character is suggesting the Nazis should be handled. What are the differences in the two scenarios and in the two approaches? What role, if any, should revenge play in small-scale scenarios such as the one in “Select Clientele” versus in larger-scale scenarios such as the Holocaust?

Assign students to write about a time when they were wronged and could have taken, or did take, revenge. Ask them to write: 1. what happened, how they reacted, and whether their reaction made them feel better or made the situation better; and 2. an imagined alternate version of events in which they reacted differently (either by taking or not taking revenge), and how this would have altered the outcome.

Sources: Inglourious Basterds, directed by Quentin Tarantino (2009, Universal City, CA: Universal Pictures).

Excerpt: Movieclips, “Inglourious Basterds (2/9) Movie CLIP - One Hundred Nazi Scalps (2009) HD,” Nov. 4 2014, video, 3:10, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOcimzsviFA.