INTRODUCTION:
Oppenheimer (2023) Director: Christopher Nolan. A historical biographical thriller which explores the life of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and the moral weight behind the creation of the atomic bomb.
Inglourious Basterds (2009) Director: Quentin Tarantino. It is a revisionist war film that reimagined world war II, in bold and stylized storytelling. Exploring the “What if’s” in an imagined scenario.
Why Oppenheimer & Inglorious Basterds?
The main reason for referring to these two films is their relevance to history and fantasy. However my film is not inspired specifically from any codes or conventions from these films. But their plot is the best reference to “Palimsest” , demonstrating how historical events can be reinterpreted through a subjective lens. In Oppenheimer the history is explored psychologically, focusing on moral consequences and possession of knowledge, aligning with my film’s theme of generational impact and responsibility. Meanwhile Inglorious Basterds directly exemplifies speculative history by rewriting the past, showing how cinema can reshape historical outcomes to explore narrative control. Together these films validate my approach of speculating today’s perspective, using historical context not as fixed truth, but a narrative space open for reinterpretation.
Subjective / Alternative Historical perspective:
Oppenheimer speculates the history of the Manhattan project through a psychological lens. Instead of presenting recorded facts the narrative moves around hearings, memories, and fragmented timelines. Showing how J.Robert Oppenheimer remembers the development of the atomic bomb and aftermath of atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Speculating the emotional depth of how history is internally experienced. Emphasizing the guilt, fear and imagination of events. Suggesting that history is not a fact but a memory which can have different interpretations in different minds.
Inglorious Basterds directly presents a speculative or alternate ending of World War II. Changing a known reality of Hitlers death. Playing around the “what if’s” , it is shown that hitler was killed by Jewish American soldiers in a cinema in Paris. While in reality hitler died in Berlin. Imagining a different scenario in a constructed fictional world the film asks what if the history had unfolded differently.
My film provides a similar plot by altering the history of the Battle of Plessey. It challenges the emotional narrative of post colonial citizens who believe that if the sub-continent was never colonized their life today would have been much better. The film Palimpsest blends the sequence of historical events in a constructed world where actual character time travels to future and a fictional character from future travels to past and changes the historical event how he feels it to be correct. With that the film asks what if stopping British colonization could have led to French colonization and French losing to Germany in world war II led to german control over the sub continent. By altering history based on feelings may not give the desired results but could be worse or better.
Hyper-reality and Fantasy:
In Oppenheimer the abstract imagery of particles, cosmic energy and imagined destruction gives an unreal physical form of forces as these things could not be seen in reality. This symbolism of reality turns the scientific reality almost into a mythical spectacle.
The Inglorious Basterds exaggerates the violence turning it into a theatrical experience rather than a realistic violence. This stylization takes the film away from reality into a mythical revenge
In my film the myth of time travelling is shown as an ordinary occurrence rather than an extraordinary one. Instead of a scientific or a spiritual explanation behind time travelling it is shown as a Magical reality. If wireless communication and atomic bombs feel like a myth for the people of the past then time travelling could be a myth in future for the people of present time. That’s why in my film time travel does not occur through a scientific time machine nor from any spiritual power but from a magical dial.