Without needing to watch any part of the film you can already tell that Inglourious Basterds is post modern from the miss spelling of the title to the films creator Quentin Taratino who borrowed the name from Enso Castellari's 1978 Italian war film. This is a typical trait of Taratino and in a lot of his films he borrows camera shots and ideas from other directors in who he admire's to put into his own films, which is very post modern and is known as Pastiche.
Within the actual film there are many elements that particuarly stand out to make it post modern. For example he uses Parody, Irony, Bricolage and Hyperreality. At the start of the film he has some text saying 'Once Upon A Time..' which is a classic line from a fairy tale and to have a World War 2 film set up with this ironic seeing as the war didn't have much of a fairy tale ending to it, although in this film it does as we see the whole higher ranks of the Nazi party killed in the burning down of the cinema, but also Hitler shot to death by two of the 'basterds', and even though what they did was imhumain and shocking they are presented as the 'heros' of the film. Throughout the whole narrative the good guys are the basterds and Suzanne the Jewish owner of the cinema, and the bad guys are the Nazi's and so when they do all end up getting killed, it is sort of like a fairy tale ending because they bad guys are dead and the good guys have got their revenge and justice which is what the film is basically about - revenge on the Nazi's on a macro level but its mainly Suzanne's revenge which triggers the micro level after Hans Landa kills her entire family.
But as we well know this isn't how it really happened in history, which is where hyperreality is set into it. World War 2 is slowly but surely becoming the words of just written history and not just from stories of actual first encounters, so it may seem to be more acceptable to 'change' the history in what happened in films, to give a more hyperreal and all together satisfaction at the end of the film, that the 2nd World War was ended in such a heroic way by a group of American Jewish men set out on their revenge on the Nazi's. It represents American's to be strong heroic men, full of courage and bravery going around Germany, killing Nazi's and scalping their heads, but also leaving Nazi's symbols on high ranked Nazi officials including Hans Landa.
Which we know is completely unrealistic, as 12 odd Amercan's didn't bring down the whole Nazi high official party. Its quite riduculous story line, also humorous which is another trait of postmodernism and has been used by Taratino is this film to a great extent.
For example, when Hans Landa kills Suzannes family at the beginning of the film, he asks the man who is hiding the family if he can smoke, the man is already smoking and Hans Landa brings out a ridiculously large pipe, but at the time as tension is created you don't know whether to laugh as its such a serious subject. This is also seen in a lot of post modern films, the use of parody and taking the micky out of the characters or situations, as in Inglourious Basterds they take the micky out of the Nazi's, particuarly Hitler who is seen to be a completely ridiculous character.
Also Brad Pitts character, is a comical representation because when he has to pretend to be Italian at the premiere he sounds very stupid, with his hill billy accent, and it does make you laugh. But in other films Brad Pitt has played quite comical characters also such as in Burn After Reading by the Coen Brothers, where he plays a gym instructor who is also very funny, and quite unrealistic in the way this character is portrayed. But this idea of Brad Pitt being an American icon, is played with in the film as he is an American symbol, a hero and this adds to the revenge on America and how Americans are very proud - 'God Bless America' - Pitt's character represents America and what they stand for, it sets up the image of America.
In the film Taratine also go against the narrative of the film and take away the linear, to create out of context mini stories to describe parts of the main narrative. For example Taratino shows a short documentary on how flamable nitrate film is, and he even shows old footage from other films, which is very post modern and this little part of footage in the film sets up what is going to happen at the premiere.
