HISTORIOPLASTIC METAFICTION TARANTINO, NOLAN, AND THE “RETURN TO HEGEL” But the image of Apollo must also contain that delicate line which the dream-image may not overstep if its effect is not to become pathological, so that, in the worst case, the semblance would deceive us as if it were crude reality. — Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy OPENING THE WOUND OF HISTORY Quentin Tarantino’s World War II epic, Inglourious Basterds (2009), con- cludes with a striking subjective shot. The viewer is suddenly given the point of view of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). By this point in the flm, Hitler has been shot repeatedly in the face, burned in a celluloid-fueled fre, and then absurdly obliterated (along with the bulk of the Nazi high command) in an explosion Landa helped orches- trate. Historical fact has been fagrantly effaced and a gratuitous and self-congratulatory revenge fantasy has taken its place. Yet in this fnal shot we are oddly and uncomfortably trapped by the camera, left to peer out helplessly through the eyes of Landa, the infamous “Jew Hunter.” As we look on, the leader of the Nazi-hunting “Basterds,” Aldo “The Apache” Raine (Brad Pitt), along with the last surviving Basterd—Private Smithson Utivich (B. J. Novak)—take a moment to admire the swastika Raine has just carved into Landa’s forehead. Raine and Utivich gaze steadily and contentedly into the camera. The fnal lines of the flm are Raine’s: “You know somethin’ Utivich? I think this just might be my masterpiece.” The self-refexive nature of the scene is obvious, if not ostentatious. Perhaps equally obvious is the fact that this fnal point-of-view shot functions to implicate the audience: like Landa, we’ve been justifably Cultural Critique 99—Spring 2018—Copyright 2018 Regents of the University of Minnesota Josh Toth