Inglourious Basterds [sic]

Started by brockly, May 20, 2003, 06:05:39 AM

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New Feeling

my review for the local university newspaper (my first):

What if you could kill Hitler? Would you put your life on the line to do it?  Would you enjoy it?  In Quentin Tarantino's 6th film, the curiously titled war-fantasy Inglourious Basterds, he asks these questions and then answers them loudly in the affirmative.  After more than a decade of rumors and speculation about Tarantino's perpetually "next" project, it finally rolled onto screens around the world this week to the bewilderment of audiences everywhere, and while they may be scratching their heads as to what Tarantino was thinking when he took it upon himself to change the course of history for the more satisfying, few are questioning it's entertainment value.  For there is little doubt that this unique meditation on the power of Cinema closes out the summer movie-season at a high point, and is easily one of the best films of the year.   

Mega-star Brad Pitt turns in an appealing comedic performance as Lt. Aldo Raine, the southern-boy commander of the titular Basterds, who with his rag-tag band of Jewish troops wages psychological war on Nazi soldiers behind enemy lines in occupied France using Apache resistance as their inspiration.  Collecting scalps and desecrating the dead so as to strike fear into the hearts of Nazi's everywhere, they seem to be doing a pretty good job when we catch up to them, by now even creating concern for the Fuhrer himself.  And while the individual Basterds are given much less screen time than one might expect, when they do have their moments they shine, in particular Til Schweiger as the vicious German Basterd Hugo Stiglitz, and director Eli Roth as Donny Donnowitz, "The Bear Jew", who occasionally beats uncooperative German soldiers to death with a baseball bat.   

Perhaps the biggest surprise in a film full of them is that Aldo and the Basterds are the secondary concern of the story, which is actually more interested in the fate of Shoshanna Dreyfuss, (Melanie Laurent) a Jewish girl who escapes the execution of her family, and who after mysteriously becoming a movie-theatre owner a few years later, is cornered into the perfect opportunity for revenge by the hand of fate.  Laurent fulfills the now familiar role of QT revenge queen with great restraint and beauty. 

As "The Jew Hunter" Col. Hans Landa, the previously-unknown Christof Waltz gives a command performance, making the movie his own, and indeed if there is a primary character in this true ensemble piece, it is certainly he.  Equally sophisticated, silly, and psychotic, he takes his place among the great villains in screen history.  An incredible opening scene in which Landa questions a French farmer who may be harbouring Jews sets the stage for a half-dozen set-pieces that make up the majority of the movie, which in typical Taranitno fashion is broken into five distinct titled chapters, each of which brings it's own style and group of new and unforgettable characters.  Indeed if the film has a major shortcoming it is that one wishes they could spend more time with virtually every character. 

It is little surprise that a man who re-wrote the Holy Bible to serve his purposes (see: Ezekiel 25:17), would go so far as to re-write the story of World War II, but it is some surprise to see how refreshingly original movies can still be in these times when it feels like we've already seen it all.  In a firey climax that references Potemkin, Rambo, Carrie, and The Wizard of Oz among who knows how many other cinema classics, Tarantino one-ups them all by going to the next level of his imagination, and in doing so reminds us that while history may be set in stone, for the artist anything is possible. 


Stefen

I loved it. I can't wait to see it again. I caught the 10:30 showing last night with a couple friends and we all had a great time. I don't know why I keep doubting QT. I did it for this movie and I'm sure I'll do it for his next. It wasn't perfect but it was ten times better than that weak sauce that was Death Proof. Everyone was on fucking point in this. It felt like a movie that consisted of only 6 or 7 scenes; did anyone else get that impression? It never really dragged. Some parts got slow but the dialogue always kept my interest. The ending brought the house down. During the last 10 minutes people were screaming at the screen and clapping. Normally this type of shit gets on my nerves but it was awesome in this instance. Everyone really seemed to be enjoying themselves.

SPOILERS.

Eli Roth didn't get on my nerves as much as I expected. By the end, I actually liked his character. I think a lot of the problems I had with him was 50% Eli Roth and 50% how much screen time his character got in the draft of the screenplay I read. In the final film Quentin either cut out, or didn't film at all a whole back story for the bear Jew. Was this the role Adam Sandler was being considered for? I would have liked to see him as the bear Jew. In the draft I read the he gets killed in the bathroom during the premiere when a Nazi the Basterds had previously branded recognizes him and they shoot eachother. I liked his actual fate in the film a lot more. At least he didn't go out like a punk.

In the previews/trailers for this they never touched on the whole Shoshanna storyline which I always thought was because in the script, QT had specified that the storyline would be filmed in French new wave black and white and he didn't want the audience to think it was a black and white film because the audience he has attracted the last few years don't watch black and white flicks but that wasn't the case. It was all filmed in color. I wonder why they never showed any of the Shoshanna storyline in the previews/trailers.
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

pete

SPOILERS

one thing that really bugged me was how easily and readily they blew themselves up.  thoughtS?
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

New Feeling

It's called a suicide mission.  Soldiers have been doing them as long as there's been war.

Kal

Yeah if you just finished burning down a theatre full of nazis and blew up Hitlers face with thousands of bullets I think you can die with no problem and the mission has been successful...

I don't know what the deal is with Eli Roth. There is something there. He does a good job in the movie but I still dislike him. Not sure why and that bothers me a little.

Gamblour.

Another thing that had me thinking a lot during the film was QT's play with foreign language. During the opening chapter, I noticed that Christoph's "Merci" wouldn't be translated as "Thank you" but simply subtitled as "Merci." However, the Frenchman would be translated to "Thank you" on several occasions. And this happened throughout the film, where certain instances had simple French translated and others where they were subtitled in the original French. I don't think it has any real meaning, but it definitely wasn't just a casual translation.

I really want to see this again. And again. I haven't thought about a movie this much since TWBB.
WWPTAD?

New Feeling

same thing with "wunderbar" which I thought was particularly funny.

pete

Quote from: New Feeling on August 22, 2009, 01:44:05 PM
It's called a suicide mission.  Soldiers have been doing them as long as there's been war.

it's logical, but the soldiers just seem kinda casual about it.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

Stefen

I don't think it's a suicide mission. I'm pretty sure their plan was to set the timers on the dynamite then GTFO but it all fell apart and they were just like, "fuck it!" and started blasting away at all the Nazi's down below.
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

pete

well, colonel landers called out their mission to raines and the little guy and described it as a suicide bomber type mission, comparing them to terrorists.  that was when I realized it was gonna be a suicide mission.  still the way it was carried out seemed kinda casual.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

socketlevel

SPOILER***

they didn't know the explosives were there, probably high on the killing nazi's and were going to leave after all their mags were out... but didn't get the chance.  if i'm not mistaken didn't the jew hunter plant it there?
the one last hit that spent you...

MacGuffin

Quote from: Stefen on August 22, 2009, 12:20:07 PMIt felt like a movie that consisted of only 6 or 7 scenes; did anyone else get that impression?

I felt like it was in five chapters.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

brockly

chapters are the perfect structure for his films the way he's writing nowadays.

OrHowILearnedTo

#433
apparently roth's character's backstory included a scene where cloris leachman played his grandmother who christens (or rather, whatever the jewish equivalent is) his bat, but it was left on the cutting room floor. It was the crew's favourite scene but interrupted the flow of the film.

It wont be on the dvd because Quentin plans on using it if he does a prequel, ie. we'll never see it.

matt35mm

A cinema in Sweden is the wrong place to find out that half the movie's dialogue is not in English, as Swedish subtitles don't help me.

But, I figured out what was going on and enjoyed the movie a lot.  I'll have to see it again to actually enjoy the dialogue, but it's a credit to the simplicity of the story (which I think is a positive thing anyway) that I was never confused about what was going on.