Inglorious Basterds

I have similar thoughts to AB after just getting back from it. It wasn't a masterpiece or anything, but it was a fun, enjoyable experience.

Also, there was one line that got a pretty big laugh from the audience, but it was like a stunned laughter as if they had never heard that line of thinking before. For that, I got a chuckle at the expense of the audience. Apologies for being obtuse on the line, but I never want to give anything away this early after the film came out.

 

Hate RD more, with each passing day.

Kill Bill's his best work, and remain respectful of PF, though will not grant the drooling
admiration for that work others frequently expouse, here . . . probably because I hate Revolta with such gusto.

 

Saw it tonight. I enjoyed it. Til Schweiger as Hugo Stiglitz was my fave character.

 

Goodness.

 

Over an hour on Stern...

 

Saw it last night, and loved it. Not a big fan of other Tarantino movies, but this one was pretty well done. I could've done without some of the narration and gore, but it was an otherwise solid movie.

Probably the best movie I've seen in long time.

 

I guess you could call me a fan of QT; my wife and I bonded over re-watching PF together fanboi style (and quoting every single line all the way through, we came just this close to doing the dance for our first dance). RD is awesome, JB is the closest we'll ever get to a true romance from him (pun intended). Kill Bill V1 is a classic, and KBV2 I like as much <i>because</i> it didn't try to live up to the violence and body count of the first one.

Hell, even Death Proof had one of the most exciting 45 minutes of film I've ever seen, it just stank that it was preceded not just by 45 minutes of inane chatter, but 90 minutes of another (perfectly all right) film.

Anyway, Basterds:

If you hate QT for his "cuteness" and being heavily referential, don't even bother with this one. It's more a western than a WW2 movie, and there's plenty of graphic violence to go around.

That said, we both loved it to death walking out. The first scene is truly truly amazing, and Christoph Waltz steals the entire movie out from under Brad Pitt (who gets about a dozen belly laughs out of his accent). My only real complaint is that that first scene, in one way or another, is repeated about five or six times throughout the film. I guess that makes it a theme, but it comes off just a touch one-note.

But as a fan of the man most of his work, I think this still falls solidly in the 3 spot (behind PF and KB1, and just ahead of KB2).

Spoilers beyond ...

A major complaint against it I've read is people seem to be a little less than comfortable with the revisionist side and the fact that is basically puts the evils of Nazis into Jews (albeit directed at Nazis) and some actual Jews take umbrage, in that they believe the strength of their people (in relation to the Holocaust) lies specifically in not being prone to that kind of violence. And ...


ending spoilers





seriously






the inversion of Jews locking Nazis in a big room as a group and incinerating them (rather than the other way around) is intentional and a little queasy.

That said, I didn't have any problem with it (or revisionist revenge fantasy in general). And the only reason I can imagine why is that, as a video gamer, I've been literally gunning down Hitler ahistorically in video games since I was 13. Seeing him go down by Jewish hands in a hail of gunfire didn't feel so strange.

But I'm not a Jew. It sort of reminds me of QT's use of the N word in PF. I didn't personally have a problem with it, but as a white man it's not my problem to have. I don't get to decide what that word means and when it's over the line.

 

We saw it last night and even though I've never been a big QT fan, I really loved this one. It's very suspenseful and not a lot of over-the-top violence through most of the film. Some great acting, especially from Walz. Just an unbelievable performance from him. And Pitt wasn't too bad. A very enjoyable night at the movies.

 

Kill Bill, move over.

Glorious. A masterpiece.

. . . despite the fact he could have lost fifteen minutes out of the first hour, with no trouble.

Maybe two minutes of fat in the last hour, tops.

Spectacular use of music.

If you like QT AT ALL . . . RUN to the theatre. Don't waste a minute.

 

Ah, a Wolfenstein man. Well played, sir.

Only a matter of time before Uwe Boll goes and makes an awful adaptation of that, too (Ninja Gaiden? Seriously?).

 

I'm only a partial Jew so I can't speak for how a full-blooded Chosen Person will react to the film. I had no issues with it. I went expecting to be entertained and I was. Ithink it could have been a band of Irish or Spanish soldiers and it would have been as entertaining. The fact that the soldiers were Jewish made the violence a bit more cathartic.







SPOILER RESPONSE: It had not occurred to me that it was Jews locking the Germans in the theater before incinerating them. I don't have an issue with that either. But I could see where someone might.

 

I'd agree with that. My only real complaint was that it was so slow to develop. The first scene was very well done, but after a point I found myself thinking, "Just get on with it already."

But yeah, the final hour was all payoff.