Jojo Rabbit would not be possible without Inglourious Basterds
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by Blender Dumbass
Aka: J.Y. Amihud. A Jewish by blood, multifaceted artist with experience in film-making, visual effects, programming, game development, music and more. A philosopher at heart. An activist for freedom and privacy. Anti-Paternalist. A user of Libre Software. Speaking at least 3 human languages. The writer and director of the 2023 film "Moria's Race" and the lead developer of it's game sequel "Dani's Race".
Quentin Tarantino told numerous times that the two places which gave the strongest reactions to his 2009 film Inglourious Basterds were Berlin and Tel Aviv. Why? Why reactions? Well... prior to Inglourious Basterds films about the subject of conflict between Jews and Nazis in World War II were largely serious pieces of cinema. Think Schindler's List. But as I pointed out in my review of Schindler's List, there was a considerable amount of effort on the part of Steven Spielberg to make the movie actually watchable. Tarantino with Inglourious Basterds made a movie that is not merely watchable, but outright enjoyable. He made a movie about this conflict where the audience are allowed to laugh. Taika Waititi's 2019 film Jojo Rabbit takes this premise and dials it to 11. ↩ Reply
Watching this film you will almost outright notice how utterly, almost offensively this film refuses to take Nazis seriously. Taika Waititi himself ( who's Jewish, by the way ) plays a parody version of Hitler, in the most hilarious way possible. Rivaling Martin Wuttke who played an annoyingly absurd version of the same character in the Tarantino picture. But while Tarantino makes the Nazis rather scary, inspiring a considerable amount of tension and sometimes outright horror with their presence. Taika Waititi's Nazis, on the other hand, are such bafoons that whatever Spielberg did to Nazis in the Indiana Jones movies, could be seen as outright respectful. ↩ Reply
The movie shellshocks the audience in indulging in outright, almost fun kind of Nazi bafoonery. In a way the film feels surprisingly pro-Nazi, if you read its beginning only on the superficial level. I know some people view this film as rather offensive. On the other hand, the bafoonery, even though, makes light of the evilness of the regime, is a sort of criticism of the regime, which works on quite the next level. c:0 ↩ Reply
The film does a kind of double corruption / anti-corruption of the audience in the same time. It corrupts the audience with the fun Nazi stuff in the beginning, just to get them on an emotional journey that will result in them utterly de-Nazi-fied. In a way it is genius. People who already are anti-Nazi will ( hopefully ) see the satire. While the pro-Nazi motherfuckers will get lured in by the fun bafoonery of it all. Just to be thrusted with the main character on a journey of de-Nazi-fication. c:1 ↩ Reply
The actors in the film are all surprisingly great. Roman Griffin Davis deserves the most praise. He plays the main character Jojo, a 10 year old with rather complex emotional turmoil. With a seriously multilayered arc. And the kid has the range to pull off anything from comedy to tragedy to love so convincingly, no wander Hollywood still works with him all these years later. ↩ Reply
Obviously for him to pull off these things, he needed help from his co-stars. Mainly, I think a lot of help in pulling off the love emotion, he got from Thomasin McKenzie and her utterly amazing character. If Roman doesn't actually have a crush on Thomasin, that was some great acting. But I believe even Edgar Wright has a crush on her. So yeah... ↩ Reply
And by the way, her character isn't too sterile either. She is not the most likeable at first. She pretty much almost abuses him in the beginning. She is introduced in a horror scene. Obviously it is a somewhat satirical horror scene. But she is kind of awful in the beginning, and grows into a person that the main character and the audience love to love. ↩ Reply
Scarlett Johansson ( who's Jewish by the way ) does a very interesting thing here. She is the connection between Jojo Rabbit and the movie I mentioned in the beginning of this review Inglourious Basterds. After being in a film by a different Jewish director ( Michael Bay ) that had a theme of holocaust ( with a gas chamber scene and everything ) The Island, here she does a reference to Quentin Tarantino. There is a big emotional arc in the film regarding Scarlett Johansson's feet. And strangely enough, Quentin's choice for the leading lady in his World War II film Shoshanna ( Mélanie Laurent ) also appeared in a Michael Bay picture. Mainly she plays the ex-CIA operative in 6 Underground. ↩ Reply
Is Jojo Rabbit Bayhem!? No! ↩ Reply
I mean there are explosions. And there is some rather nice understanding of what those explosions sound like from a far. But the film style more resembles a watered down version of Wes Anderson instead. Waititi doesn't go too much into Anderson's way of filming. The shots are not too perfectly composed and stuff. But the feeling the film captures is very reminiscent of the style of Wes Anderson. ↩ Reply
And on that note... ↩ Reply
Happy Hacking!!! ↩ Reply
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Troler
c:0 April 05, 2026 The movie shellshocks the audience in indulging in outright, almost fun kind of Nazi bafoonery. In a way the film feels surprisingly pro-Nazi, if you read its beginning only on the superficial level. I know some people view this film as rather offensive. On the other hand, the bafoonery, even though, makes light of the evilness of the regime, is a sort of criticism of the regime, which works on quite the next level.
⤴ ViewThe people who view the film as pro-Nazi, lack the ability to think between the lines. Why would a Jewish director make a movie that directly lauds Nazis?
Troler
c:1 April 05, 2026 The film does a kind of double corruption / anti-corruption of the audience in the same time. It corrupts the audience with the fun Nazi stuff in the beginning, just to get them on an emotional journey that will result in them utterly de-Nazi-fied. In a way it is genius. People who already are anti-Nazi will ( hopefully ) see the satire. While the pro-Nazi motherfuckers will get lured in by the fun bafoonery of it all. Just to be thrusted with the main character on a journey of de-Nazi-fication.
⤴ ViewBasically getting people hooked on a drug, then telling them how utterly malignant it is. Or how dramas show a gay relationship, just to have it be torn to pieces by revealing the husband is a rapist.
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