Episode 53: Inglourious Basterds (2009) (Guest: Renana Keydar)

Episode 53: Inglourious Basterds (2009) (Guest: Renana Keydar)

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Description

Inglourious Basterds (2009), written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, revolves around two plots to assassinate Nazi leaders during the closing years of World War II. One plot centers on a secret band of Jewish-American soldiers under the command of Ltn. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt)—the “Basterds”—who terrorize Nazis. The other involves Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent), a young Jewish woman who narrowly escapes death at the hands of notorious “Jew hunter” Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) and flees to Paris where she runs a cinema under a false identity. The plot lines converge at the Paris cinema where the Basterds and Shosanna are each separately plotting to kill Hitler and other Nazi leaders while they are attending the premiere of a German propaganda film. The film utilizes alternate history to explore themes surrounding the pursuit of justice against the perpetrators of mass atrocities and the complex relationship between law and vengeance.

Guest: Renana Keydar

Renana Keydar is an assistant professor of law and digital humanities at the Hebrew University, where she also is academic director of the Center for Digital Humanities and heads the Alfred Landecker Lab for the Computational Analysis of Holocaust Testimonies Professor Keydar is the recipient of the prestigious Alon Fellowship for outstanding young researchers. She holds an LLB in law and a BA in political science from Tel Aviv University and a doctorate in comparative literature from Stanford University. Professor Keydar was a post-doctoral research fellow in the Minerva Center for Human Rights and a research fellow in the Martin Buber Society of Fellows at the Hebrew University. She also previously served as a legal advocate in the Israeli State Attorney’s Office, High Court of Justice Department. Among her numerous publications, Professor Keydar is the author of “Lessons in Humanity: Re-evaluating International Criminal Law’s Narrative of Progress in the Post-9/11 Era,” which uses Inglorious Bastards to explore a range of issues surrounding international criminal justice.

Timestamps:

0:00    Introduction

2:37     Reimagining the arc of justice

8:00     Alternatives to the progress narrative

16:51     The power of violence and revenge

21:56     Counterfactuals and alternative histories

27:03     The limits of legalistic responses to atrocities

32:24     The role of cinema in Nazi Germany

39:00     Narratives of progress

44:10     Ending with a primal moment of revenge

Further Reading:

Hussain, Nadine, “‘Inglorious Basterds’: A Satirical Criticism of WWII Cinema and the Myth of the American War Hero,” 13(2) Inquiries Journal 1 (2021)

Jackson, Robert H., Opening Statement before the International Military Tribunal, Robert H. Jackson Center (Nov. 21, 1945)

James, Caryn, “Why Inglourious Basterds is Quentin Tarantino’s Masterpiece,” BBC (Aug. 16, 2019)

Keydar, Renana, “‘Lessons in Humanity’: Re-evaluating International Criminal Law’s Narrative of Progress in the Post 9/11 Era,” 17 (2) J. Int’l Criminal Justice 229 (2019)

Kligerman, Eric. “Reels of Justice: Inglourious Basterds, The Sorrow and the Pity, and Jewish Revenge Fantasies,” in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds: A Manipulation of Metacinema (Robert Dassanowsky ed., 2012)

Tekay, Baran “Transforming Cultural Memory: ‘Inglourious Basterds’”, 48(1) Film Criticism (2024)

Publication Date

1-20-2026

Disciplines

Law

Episode 53: Inglourious Basterds (2009) (Guest: Renana Keydar)

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