A Canvass for Carnage

The other night I watched the film "Inglorious Basterds." It reminded me of why I normally avoid Quentin Tarantino movies--he glorifies violence. I can hear someone saying that the violence portrayed was for a good cause--the annihilation of Nazis. True, but even in pre-Christian Greek drama all the really graphic stuff happened off stage so that it could be muted by the imagination. It was the Roman gladiatorial games that took things beyond the pale and reveled in graphic violence.

This doesn't mean that there isn't anything to learn from the movie. The characters sacrifice their lives without thinking twice and Brad Pitt's character is cheerfully courageous in the face of danger. But their courage doesn't seem to be grounded in human dignity. The film is not so much about rescuing the dignity of the victims but about revenge on the perpetrators. The Basterds don't even plan to escape from the final destruction they are planning for the Nazis. They are going to touch off Vesuvius and die on its slopes in true Nietzschean fashion. The movie devalues human life by portraying bodies as objects of slaughter. Bodies are Tarantinos canvass for carnage. The film is permeated with the sense that since life is meaningless creative revenge is the only way to die.

This is obviously a far cry from the Christian courage that led Dietrich Bonhoeffer to put his life on the line. If we are created in the image of God we may stand for life and die with dignifying courage. Someone has said that "without mysticism man is a monster." Even the good guys in Tarantino's film are monstrous.