Inglourious Basterds
***WARNING: Contains Some Spoilers***
I must admit I’ve spent the last month looking forward to Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglorious Basterds” with the enthusiasm of a 12 year-old girl following the next “Twilight” movie- or that of a 19 year-old girl; disturbingly, there’s not much difference.
From what commercials I’d seen, I walked into the theater expecting 2 hours of Brad Pitt killing the uncensored and glorious crap out of Nazi after Nazi. Which would have left me more than satisfied.
Sad to say, by the end, there hadn’t been nearly as much Pitt-on-Nazi violence as I’d’ve liked. There was some, but not nearly enough from what I was expecting. The movie is more plot-oriented rather than violence-focused- which I guess is the true mark of a great filmmaker; Tarantino didn’t succumb to the temptation of making a 2 hour Nazi holocaust- and there are some pretty long scenes, Pulp Fiction style. Unfortunately, most of these scenes are full of superficial pleasantries exchanged between Nazis and Basterds disguised as Nazis and reveal very little about the characters, whereas in Pulp Fiction, the long conversations focused on more thought-provoking topics and helped us glean some information from the characters (What do they call a quarter-pounder.in France?) Too much of the movie feels wasted on this pointless banter, instigated primarily by the SS Detective introduced in the beginning as his sort of cat-and-mouse game with his suspects. These polite conversations drag on just long enough until the viewer begins to feel bored, but are then thankfully ended with a hostile twist in the conversation or a violent scene.
Pitt is grossly underutilized in this movie. His character, a Western-accented American Colonel with a mind focused on killin’ them Nehtzis, shines brightest in the first (and really, only) scene between the Basterds and a group of Nazis they’ve captured. Pitt is calm and amusingly relaxed when informing the Nazis of the choices they have; do what the Basterds want, or die a painful, painful death. Most of the Jewish-American men Pitt has chosen to accompany him on his Nazi hunting spree rarely display any emotional animosity one would expect towards the Nazis, and instead laugh at their bigoted insults as an executioner laughs at a name the man on the chopping block has called him. Unfortunately, the story’s plot doesn’t allow for any more than one of these scenes, which is what the majority of the commercials advertised. Pitt offers an engaging performance, but sadly the film doesn’t realize it to its full potential.
The plotline also follows one Shosana, a French Jew who escaped a Nazi shooting gallery of her family at a farm in the French countryside. After moving to Nazi-occupied Paris, Shosana opens up a cinema and eventually falls into the situation of hosting a premiere for Josef Goebbels new movie. The premiere will be attended by 350 top-ranking officials of the Nazi party. Shosana quickly becomes determined to burn down the entire theater with all 350 Nazis trapped inside. Meanwhile, Pitt and the Basterds undertake a mission to blow up the same theater with the same objectives. The Basterds and Shosana never meet, however, which allows for some loos threads after the climax of the movie. “Inglorious Basterds” is ultimately about assassinating the four topmost members of the Nazi high command (including Hitler and Goebbels) more than it is about bloody and explicit Jew-on-Nazi brutality
Not to say Basterds was a bad movie; it was great, it had several of its funny moments, and the acting is high-tier (though the German accent of the SS Detective sounds as authentic as a cardboard violin and twice as bland). And the comedic moments are funny enough to keep the entire theater laughing long after the joke’s done. Just don’t go into it expecting mass amounts of violence and Nazi-killing, or a great deal of Pitt screen-time. People should expect more “Pulp Fiction” than “Kill Bill”.
Oh, and Mike Myers makes a surprise appearance.
— 4 out of 5 stars–
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Cool! Only missing a small clockwatch with the years passing by.And yes, watch in mute.
Great review. Just like Bogdan, it gave me a good sense of what I was walking into when I saw the movie.
As for the movie, it was just okay. Not the best work done by Brad Pitt
I’m excited to see the film! Thanks for the review- it definitely helped set my expectations for when I see it. Hopefully, I’ll enjoy the violence :P
Oh yeah, the SS Detective was by far one of the more intriguing characters in the movie. His accent just didn’t sit well with me is all.
And yeah, I picked up on that irony when the Germans were laughing at the Americans getting shot as well. But then I remembered they were Nazis and I stopped feeling bad.
And you’re right, it is spelled with an “ou”. Thanks for pointing it out.
If’ve seen the movie too. I realy expected much of it because world war II movies is something I like a lot. Not because of shooting or such violent things, but more in the way of movies like Valkyrie (with Tom Cruise)
I must say, I’m not disappointed, but it wasn’t the best movie I’ve ever seen.
The acting was good but the story didn’t realy take off.
Aw, the SS detective was brilliant in the film, and his accent is authentic(because he’s a native Austrian). He was my favorite part, besides Stiglitz(?), the former SS who loved killing colleagues.
What I liked about this movie was the stereotypes that Tarantino played up on- the Germans were a******s, the Americans possessing hilariously exaggerated hick and New York(?) accents, and the Brits being tea slurping fancypants.
Someone on another website I saw said that while the Germans were laughing at us getting shot at the film premiere, it was interesting how easily it could be pointed at that we were laughing as the Germans themselves were killed.I felt bad only for a moment, and then reminded myself of what I came here to see.An alternative history film that really only used WWII as a backdrop, and the whole point was this fantasy of handing the Nazis their asses in a fun way.
I loved this movie only if it was because I know that a Tarantino film is always good for entertainment.It might not be the best,but it is never a dull thing to watch. And ‘Inglorious’ is supposed to be spelled ‘Inglourious’.