How World War II was won, Quentin Tarantino-style.
I liked it overall, it's very entertaining at its best, and there are some incredibly memorable characters and moments, but I do think it drags on a bit (2 hours and 40 minutes or thereabouts) and that as a whole, it's not as satisfying as it ought to have been. Also, the ads and trailers are misleading as it's not quite the gung-ho, rah-rah, "killin' Nazis" film it purports itself to be. I mean, yeah, it's super violent and a lot of Nazis are killed, just not the way the ads make it seem.
I'm posting the short-form review I did on my site below (SPOILERS!). Also, "Inglourious Basterds" is exactly how the title is spelled:
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (***)
When you go to a Quentin Tarantino film, the best thing to do is not resist and place yourself in his hands. You're subject to his whims, his exuberance, and his desire to tell you his story the way he wants to tell it for as long as he wants to tell it to you. You're not going anywhere anyway for two and a half hours so either you enjoy it or try to enjoy it. Inglourious Basterds turns out to be a Tarantino-imagined alternate reality version of World War II told in five chapters. Four of the chapters, vignettes roughly 30 minutes in length, I thought were really good: The opener where a French farmer surrenders the Jews he is hiding to the Nazi Colonel nicknamed "The Jew Killer". The chapter detailing how a Nazi war hero/movie star chased after a French cinema owner and arranged the premiere of a Nazi propaganda film in her theater with all the Nazi High Command in attendance. The scene in a tavern basement that turns deadly violent. The final chapter in the theater where all points converge and Tarantino imagines a unique ending to the war. These descriptions really don't even do the events in the film justice. A big surprise is how un-interesting and cartoonish the Basterds themselves are. None of them are three dimensional characters and you don't much care for any of them. But then so little time is actually spent with the Basterds that it hardly matters. Despite the marquee cast lead by Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, and BJ Novak, Inglourious Basterds really belongs to three actors: Gorgeous Melanie Laurent in a star-making (to American audiences) performance, Daniel Bruhl as the Nazi war hero-cum-movie star infatuated with her, and Christoph Waltz as Colonel Hans Landa, one of the most mesmerizing and fascinating villains I've seen in a film in a very long time. Landa is instantly one of the best movie villains ever and Waltz is a lock for an Oscar nomination, if not the victory itself. I also really liked how the gestapo colonel spotted the British officer posing as a Nazi by how he made a three sign with his hand and the Basterds' pathetic attempt of posing as Italian filmmakers. Mike Myers' brief presence is also the funniest he's been in years. Inglourious Basterds is bloody violent with its fair share of main characters meeting inglorious ends. It doesn't add up very satisfactorily as a whole, but it's very entertaining moment-to-long-drawn-out moment, and Tarantino keeps you guessing throughout. Even Hitler himself would have been shocked at how the war turns out in Quentin-land.
I noticed a number of callbacks to Kill Bill. Shosanna's cinema seemed to be styled in the theme of the House of Blue Leaves, straight down to cinematography. Several musical cues were also used from Kill Bill 1. Even the film itself, which could've been the war version of KB (one superbad soldier takes down a stupidly high number of the enemy) and in the middle of the film one of the Jews shot down seems to take a very similar fall into a shallow pool as one of the Crazy 88s.
Of course, the irony of this film is its closing. It's been a while since a movie has moved me to the point that I wanted to jump out of my seat and cheer and scream out loud. ...But if you do so, where does that place YOU in what you've just seen?
...
But don't worry I've gotten over it. Overall, the best film of the last forever and only thing that was weird is that for somebody that said like three words in the picture, I sure seemed to see Ryan Howard everywhere.
Basterds was pretty great. The dude who played Hans Landa needs an Oscar, stat. I love that Tarantino not only did 3/4 of the movie in subtitles, but cast actual German and French actors. They made all the Hollywood actors look like total hams (tho none of them went so hammy that it didn't work. Mike Myers was virtually subdued, the only problem is that he's done a British or Scottish accent schtick so many times it doesn't work anymore). I got a pretty big kick out of half the Basterds not even getting lines or screen time, very Dirty Dozen.
Eli Roth looked fine, but his "Bah-stahn" accent made me want to shit. I wish Adam Sandler had taken the part as intended. The dude from SLC Punk was great, and so was the British guy. The dude from The Office and the dude from Freaks and Geeks were completely unnecessary casting choices. They were in it so little that their presence served only to distract. Tho BJ Novak being all "wait, my nick name is the Little Man?" was pretty funny. I'm assuming they're just buddies with Tarantino like the rest of the guys playing the rest of the line free Basterds [the actor (really just a friend of Tarantino who started acting like 2 years ago) who was in the theatre raid with Roth has a GREAT stage name. Omar Doom. That's fucking TITS].
The opening scene and the bar scene were both suspenseful as all get out, and the endgame was ridiculous (good way, not bad way), but even tho the 2.5 hours flew by the overall pacing still felt choppy. The chapter breaks, and the giant cartoon lettering that would show up in the middle of a scene, and the sudden bursts of Samuel L Jackson narration were all retarded and unnecessary as hell, since all they did was tell us shit the dialogue or plot already had. I know that's his thing, but it really failed to work for me this time. I liked the music choices, but that David Bowie song only worked for 50% of it's length and was almost as jarring and scene ruining as the Leonard Cohen track in Watchmen.
Despite the flaws, total thumbs up tho. And I think I get the joke with the misspelled title...
Inglourious Basterds is carved on Aldo's rifle butt.
Aldo is a hick.
Hicks can't spell.
Hence Tarantino's version of Inglorious Bastards becomes Inglourious Basterds.
Originally posted by CxMorgadoAnd I think I get the joke with the misspelled title...
Inglourious Basterds is carved on Aldo's rifle butt.
Aldo is a hick.
Hicks can't spell.
Hence Tarantino's version of Inglorious Bastards becomes Inglourious Basterds.
One reviewer theorized that since we're already in an alternate reality wherein the entire Nazi high command dies in a theatre fire in 1944, another detail of this reality is that the words 'inglorious' and 'bastards' have different spellings than they do in our reality.
Kirk, crackers are a family food. Happy families. Maybe single people eat crackers, we don't know. Frankly, we don't want to know. It's a market we can do without.
Originally posted by CxMorgadoAnd I think I get the joke with the misspelled title...
Inglourious Basterds is carved on Aldo's rifle butt.
Aldo is a hick.
Hicks can't spell.
Hence Tarantino's version of Inglorious Bastards becomes Inglourious Basterds.
One reviewer theorized that since we're already in an alternate reality wherein the entire Nazi high command dies in a theatre fire in 1944, another detail of this reality is that the words 'inglorious' and 'bastards' have different spellings than they do in our reality.
That is the stupidest fanwank theorizing I may have ever heard in my entire life.
Yeah, that seems like a really big stretch to me. I'm going to stick with thinking it was just a little in joke.
Another good in joke: Pitt going on about how you can't fight in a basement. And along the lines of what Super Shane Spear alluded to, the fact that the Nazi movie audience hooting and hollering and cheering watching American soldiers die mirrors the real life audiences hooting and hollering and cheering watching Nazis die in Basterds is a pretty great mindfuck.
Also on this train of thought- Hitler telling Goebbels the film is a masterpiece, the last shot is of Pitt saying it's his masterpiece. The swatzi getting carved in the floor in the Nazi movie getting huge cheers, the swatzi getting carved into *****'s head getting huge cheers. My friend Matt got to watch the movie like 3 weeks early and interview Tarantino for The History Channel about it (they used it for those bumper things before commercials all last week), I'm gonna ask him if they talked about this.
Originally posted by CxMorgadoThe swatzi getting carved in the floor in the Nazi movie getting huge cheers, the swatzi getting carved into *****'s head getting huge cheers.
Eli Roth shot the film within a film, so I wonder if that came from him or QT. The way that he described it when he introduced the film in Montreal, QT just gave him a camera and sent him off to do his thing.
Waltz has an interesting anecdote about his first script reading with Tarantino. I couldn't see the Charlie Rose interview with Tarantino, so sorry if he brings up the same story.
I saw this afternoon, I liked it. I don't think its his best work, but he defiantly made it one of the better movies in a rather lackluster year. The Jew Hunter makes you feel uncomfortable every time he is on screen. I did think the British were unneccessary even with the Meyers cameo. There needed to be more screen times with the Bastards. I didn't mind the subtitles since most of the words were subtitled in their language of origin.
I don't know if its an alternate universe or not, but it really made the film with the mass killing at the end. I am also felt bad for the Nazi sniper until he went into the projectionist room. I do think it felt like two movies, one movie is a throw back to the 1970s bloody War films and the other film is about a Jewish woman's final revenge against the Nazis. I think Tartino probably believed he couldn't due an adult film with the woman's revenge, so he added the bastards to get people into the theater while he told a rather awesome adult and moving story about revenge.
I just saw it today and I wasn't really in love with it. It had some good scenes and some nice effects at the end, but overall I thought the characters were weak which made the Tarintino drawn out conversations a bit of a bore. Chopping a half hour or so off wouldn't have hurt.
Originally posted by lotjxThere needed to be more screen times with the Bastards.
I think the movie would've been even better without them. They really weren't necessary.
Having seen the movie a number of times, I now wonder about Basterds # 10 and # 11. There's a guy with a long neck that I don't think ever gets any lines or barely any screen time.
Idea on car ride home from movie:
"Inglorious Basterds 2: THe Basterds Go to Japan."
I don't really see what COULD be cut out, as every scene was pretty much important to the movie. Pitt was just awesome, especially in the basement scene and his "Even Stonewall Jackson knows..." line.
Yeah, that card playing scene felt like it was half an hour long. Somebody could have cut that down to five minutes and I don't think it would have affected the story one whit.
Originally posted by StaggerLeeI don't really see what COULD be cut out, as every scene was pretty much important to the movie.
The card playing scenes maybe.
I think you could have gotten away with only one of the card games. I don't think you needed to show the first one, since the Major explained the rules the second time.
If I had to vote for anything that was too long, it was the stuff in the theater after the fire and shooting starts. could have been trimmed a little.
Also, while great, the Hugo Stiglitz origin story was pretty superfluous.
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RIP. I once again feel the need to apologize for the Mission Impossible series being somewhat popular due to pissing all over his character. He was awesome in whatever he was in.