‘Inglourious Basterds’ (2009) is a universal studios action thriller written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Diane Kruger and Melanie Laurent. The film is set in 1941 (Chapter 1), then june 1944 (Chapter 3) in Nazi occupied France.
Inglourious Basterds was produced by Lawrence Bender, William Paul Clark and Christoph Fisser with a budget of around $70 million and $322 million worldwide, making it a huge success.
The main themes of the film include war, violence, survival, death, courage, conspiracy and deception and as well as its’ action thriller genre, Inglourious Basterds also includes many elements of the comedy genre, in particular black comedy, due to the dark humour and it’s morbid sources.
In contrast to this, ‘Miracle At St. Anna’ was released in 2008, and is a Touchstone Pictures war drama directed by Spike Lee. The film stars Laz Alonso, Derek Luke and Michael Ealy, amongst others.
Miracle At St. Anna is based on James McBride’s 2001 novel of the same name, and he also wrote the screenplay for the film.
The film begins in Harlem, New York in 1983, however the majority of the film is a flashback to 1944 in Italy during the second World War and is therefore a multi - time period film.
Many of the main themes of the film such as war, violence, survival, death, courage and deception are very similar to that of Inglourious Basterds, however, other themes that are present in Miracle at St. Anna which are less evident in Inglourious Basterds include friendship, struggle and mystery.
Miracle At St. Anna had a budget of $45 million but sadly only made $9 million at the box office. The producers of Miracle At St. Anna were Spike Lee, Roberto Cicutto and Luigi Musini and it was distributed by Walt Disney Studios.
One of the first and most apparent similarities we can draw between these two films from the offset is the fact that the majority of both films are set in 1944, during WW2, which would therefore naturally lead to further similarities in terms of the context and plot.
However, we can also already identify a key difference between the two films already; that of the setting. Inglourious Basterds is set in France and Miracle at St Anna in Italy and the United states.
Likewise, it is clearly to see from the opening sequences of the films that the narrative through which they are both told is very different.
In conclusion therefore, it is clear to see that there are many similarities and differences between the two films in terms of narrative, genre, production and perhaps the most evidently, in the way in which the films were received.
