Inglourious Basterds

[PureX]

haha

Well, I like movies about killing Nazi's as much as the next guy, and hearing pretty boy Brad Pitt try and sound like a Tennessee hillbilly is worth the price of admission.

BUT having a group of Jewish Americans throw the Geneva conventions out the window - not accepting surrender, desecrating dead bodies, and finally shooting men and women in the back trying to escape a burning building...

Not to say that the Nazi's don't deserve it...

But one of the greatest things about WWII is that America still had dignity, and this movie has none. Not to mention ... what does this say about Jews?

It's a movie, not a history documentary. The whole purpose of it is to entertain. And I found it entertaining. I wasn't upset by it because I know it wasn't real. And I know it wasn't promoting or encouraging that behavior, nor was it saying that anyone should have done this back in the day.

It was just a film that was playing off several old film genres.

 

[BucephalusBB]

It's a movie, not a history documentary. The whole purpose of it is to entertain. And I found it entertaining. I wasn't upset by it because I know it wasn't real. And I know it wasn't promoting or encouraging that behavior, nor was it saying that anyone should have done this back in the day.

It was just a film that was playing off several old film genres.

Amen!

 

[Kathryn]

Yes, it was just a movie, and therefore, like other artistic expressions, it will appeal to some people, offend some people, and some people will just walk away shaking their head saying, "Not the quality of work that I care to pay for."

 

[PureX]

Yes, it was just a movie, and therefore, like other artistic expressions, it will appeal to some people, offend some people, and some people will just walk away shaking their head saying, "Not the quality of work that I care to pay for."

Yes. Quentin Tarantino is not for everyone. I really like his films, not because I like violence, I don't. But his films are smart. His scenes are smart. His dialogue is smart. He's not at all afraid of complexity, and he doesn't "talk down" to his audiences. He works hard at making his films as entertaining as he can, and I'm usually engrossed when watching them.

 

[d3vaLL]

I can't believe that someone would think that crazy captian nazi guy was one dimensional. That was an excellent portrayal of how a psycho's mind works.

My boyfriend is Jewish... only ethnically, and he wasn't offended. He appreciates off the wall art and creativity. He said about the same as I did.

Twisted crazy awesome!

Don't get me wrong, Christopher Waltz was ridiculously good in the movie as Landa. I want to see more of that guy. But what I mean by 1 dimensional is that none of the characters showed any internal struggle besides maybe in the Soshonna story.

Yes. Quentin Tarantino is not for everyone. I really like his films, not because I like violence, I don't. But his films are smart. His scenes are smart. His dialogue is smart. He's not at all afraid of complexity, and he doesn't "talk down" to his audiences. He works hard at making his films as entertaining as he can, and I'm usually engrossed when watching them.

I love Tarantino- but this movie was his worst.

 

[Vasilisa Jade]

I just realized how much I suck with remembering names. lol.

The owner of the dairy farm who gave away Shoshannas family displayed internal struggle, everyone at the bar where everyone got shot up displayed an internal struggle, especially the Von Hammersmark lady, and finally the war hero guy. His internal struggle was trying to get Shoshanna. It came out when he got violent with her.

You don't think so?

That scene threw me off. She just shot him, rightfully so, and then she looks at his film and goes down beside him in a empathetic regretful sort of way. You know when he moved I expected him to shoot at her right then, but her kneeling beside him and THEN him shooting her? It added a strange twist to that scenario. I cannot for the life of me see why she would display that emotion. I was perplexed and when he shot her I think I jumped out of my seat cause I was like... in deep thought. lol.

But we all learned a valuable lesson. If you are going to carry and shoot a gun, be good enough to nail them in the head on the first shot.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

But we all learned a valuable lesson.

I saw the tragedy of war: our young people should be falling in love rather than killing eachother.

 

[Vasilisa Jade]

I saw the tragedy of war: our young people should be falling in love rather than killing eachother.

Why so serious?

lol

I was being sarcastic when I was talking about getting people in the head..

Like Kathryn I also saw the movie poking fun. The audience of nazis watching and laughing about a war, us watching and laughing about a war...

The repercussions mentally/physically that happen to the victims of war...

The different mindsets of the people caught up in it...

So yeah, there shouldn't be wars. But there always will be cause people are ego maniac idiots. There will always be either a need for defense or some supposed need for attacking others. If it doesn't exist, some maniac will fabricate one.

At least movies about wars make people think about it.

 

[Troublemane]

Yeah I had a mixed reaction to the film myself. (1) it was beautifully shot, (2) actors were amazing, (3) the story was complex and engaging.....***BUT ***...(4) there were numerous scenes where the dialogue was torturously long and was put in there just to pad the movie out (example, the bar scene which lasts 20 minutes, only to have everyone kill each other in 5 seconds...what a freakin waste of time,) (5) the jew hunter who seems to be everywhere, while played by a great actor with great complexity and many levels to him, is a problem because when he finds out about the plot he doesnt tell his men he just..lets see, STRANGLES the woman with his bare hands and THEN helps the Basterds with their plan. I was thinking the whole time ***??? It makes no sense whatsoever...(6)the woman who escaped after her family was killed sets up a death trap for all the main nazis, and as she prepares to kill them DAVID BOWIE music is playing...***??? (7) and finally [but not the last screwball thing] Eli Roth as the Bear Jew shooting Hitler's face off...that never happened in reality, so the movie is about a fantasy revenge slaughter, not set in real history.

That last part is what ticks me off, even more than the spanish guitar playing in the beginning of the movie (the scene of the frenchman selling out the jews under his house which was otherwise quite stirring and powerful), and beethoven playing along with it....Is that its all a big fantasy. Almost like saying its all a dream. But actually, as screwed up as the movie is (the closeup of the cream which makes no sense and has no bearing at all, except partially relating to the girls family had hidden at a milk-farm,...or the image of Goebbels having sex with the french interpreter, wow i think i may need therapy to remove that image!)...I guess I gotta just shrug it off and say YEP thats what drugs will do to you.

Because thats really what has happened. Q.T. has done so many drugs and he is so arrogant and fried, that he believes anything he does is the work of a GENIOUS! and the slugs in hollywood go along with it. Im slightly amazed the Weinstein brothers are OK with this but them, meh. They just like money, and are quite used to whoring themselves out for a buck. If this the best that hollywood can offer, I would welcome the big asteroid in 2012 or whatever it is thats gonna wipe us out!

w000tz!~ :trampo:

 

[Nepenthe]

...there were numerous scenes where the dialogue was torturously long and was put in there just to pad the movie out (example, the bar scene which lasts 20 minutes, only to have everyone kill each other in 5 seconds...what a freakin waste of time,)

I agree that the bar scene could've been edited down, but I don't think it was padding. Tarantino's rambling dialogue is one of his strong points imo.

the woman who escaped after her family was killed sets up a death trap for all the main nazis, and as she prepares to kill them DAVID BOWIE music is playing...***???

I thought the soundtrack was phenomenal! The film uses the spaghetti western music of Morricone, Ferrio's stuff from The Alamo, the blaxploitation track Slaughter and Bowie's song for Cat People (which lyrically matches Shoshanna's character in the montage scene) all to great effect. The music fits pefectly; it's all about spaghetti westerns and 70s exploitation films. Just like Kill Bill was a celebration of the kung fu and women-getting-revenge flicks (as was Death Proof of course), Inglourious Basterds is a film that's in love with exploitation films. It just replaces blaxploitation with Jews.

and finally [but not the last screwball thing] Eli Roth as the Bear Jew shooting Hitler's face off...that never happened in reality, so the movie is about a fantasy revenge slaughter, not set in real history.

That's exactly what I got too, but I saw it as a positive. There's no attempt to be historically accurate, the actual setting isn't even that relevant, but the themes of revenge riddled with dark humor and a sly wink towards the films that influenced Tarentino are what matter. The main setting is a movie theater, Brad Pitt plays Aldo Raine (a nod to Aldo Ray who mainly played macho redneck types in war films), the historical oddities, etc.- all show how Tarentino's intent was not a historical drama but a screwball darkly comical alternate history that wears its love of exploitation films on its sleeve. Like Reservoir Dogs and Pulp fiction (but not necessarily Jackie Brown which I think is way underrated) Inglourious' borders on satire at times, but pulls back just slightly before and straddles that thin line between melodrama and outright comedy.

 

[Quagmire]

Aside from the fact that the Aldo Raines role was screaming for Woody Harrelson the movie was somewhere around OK.

I loved the premise; turn the Nazi's own psyche-warfare tactics against them, let them know they're being stalked by psychopaths.

At that point the Nazi's had already had most of the air taken out of their superiority/invunerability complex in Russia. Now they were facing an invasion spear-headed by a mostly unknown variable; the Americans.

Germany had had centuries of dealings with their European nieghbors and had come out of it convinced that thy were the natural alpha-dog (in spite of getting their butts kicked in WWI).

The Americans were mostly an unknown; the Germans didn't know what to expect.

The IB were meant to be sending a pretty clear message, "Here's what you have to expect--something even worse than you".

In that sense it was genius. I think it would have been a better movie if they'd have stuck to that theme *CAUTION: SPOILER AHEAD**instead of having the IB actually putting an end to the war with a depressingly generic bomb plot.

 

[Kathryn]

Yes. Quentin Tarantino is not for everyone. I really like his films, not because I like violence, I don't. But his films are smart. His scenes are smart. His dialogue is smart. He's not at all afraid of complexity, and he doesn't "talk down" to his audiences. He works hard at making his films as entertaining as he can, and I'm usually engrossed when watching them.

See, I got something TOTALLY DIFFERENT out of this. I think that Tarantino was distinctly making fun of his own audience - and he's just smart enough to do this, and get away with it with most of his audience (but - haha! NOT ME!).

Remember the LONG scene where the Nazis are all watching all the gratuitous violence in the movie - where everytime someone got killed in a more and more glorious (excuse me, GLOURIOUS) manner, they grinned and gestured and obviously enjoyed themselves in a rather low manner?

Don't you at least see the irony in that? I see more than that - I see Tarantino ubiquitously making fun of his own audience's love of violence - violence that is so blatantly excessive that it actually loses the effect that a more subtle touch would impart.

 

[Troublemane]

I think thats the problem with it, frankly. The fact that its so blatantly a sneer at reality. That Hitler and company get killed so brutally, with their names written above their heads, and that brief documentary on how flammable film is (like hes winking at how stupid he thinks the audience is)....because its such a blatant satire, it undercuts whatever moral relevance it may have had if he'd played it straight.

Maybe QT is just too confused and contemptuous though to do that. And also, I found the constant references to spaghetti westerns to be not only trite, but I think he was making fun of them not paying homage to them. The titles at the beginning all in different fonts, PALEEZE.

hes just gone too far. if anyone wants to know what real cinema is, go see the movies hes trying to copy. Heres my favorite scene from one of the best spaghetti westerns of all time:

YouTube - Once upon time in the west - Final showdown

 

[PureX]

YouTube - Once upon time in the west - Final showdown

That is excellent. No doubt about it. But there are several scenes in Reservior Dogs and Pulp Fiction that can rival it. I think you're being unnecessarily hard on Tarantino.

 

[PureX]

Don't you at least see the irony in that? I see more than that - I see Tarantino ubiquitously making fun of his own audience's love of violence - violence that is so blatantly excessive that it actually loses the effect that a more subtle touch would impart.

I think Tarantino is a post-modernist. The irony you saw was aimed as much at himself as at us. He'd be the first to say that he makes the movies that he wants to see. The fascination with ultra-violence is his own. If we like it, too, all the better.

I think that's true of the corn-ball stuff as well. And the fact that he can mix it up so easily is impressive. I think some of what you're seeing as flaws are really deliberate artiface.

My only complaint about this movie is that because his last on didn't do well, I think he was sort of throwing everything and the kitchen sink into this one.

 

[Vasilisa Jade]

My only complaint about this movie is that because his last on didn't do well, I think he was sort of throwing everything and the kitchen sink into this one.

Sukiyaki Western Django?

That was a bizarre movie.

 

[Nepenthe]

Sukiyaki Western Django?

That was a bizarre movie.

I assumed he meant Death Proof- Grindhouse flopped. And Sukiyaki Western Django was written and directed byTakashi Miike; Tarantino only had an acting role in it.

I loved Sukiyaki' too btw.

 

[kiwimac]

OK, great call. Next war - don't call us, we'll call you.

As I recall we didn't. You did not enter WW1 until 1917 when we had been fighting for 3 years and WW2 until 1941 when you were attacked yourself.

 

[Caladan]

"Inglourious Basterds" stirred concern among those who argued it trivialised the Holocaust by showing the fantastical triumph of Jewish brutes and an SS colonel who is both seductive and sinister. Its tone lurches between horror and black comedy. Tarantino's Israel visit included a trip to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and he said he was keen to gauge his film's reception in the Jewish state, which was founded in the wake of World War Two and has fought regularly with its Arab neighbours. "That's the curiosity factor involved. American Jews are going to respond to it differently than European Jews, and I have to assume that Israeli Jews are going to respond to it in their own particular way," he said.

Full article: Tarantino sees Basterds saving Weinstein brothers | Reuters

 

[PureX]

Sukiyaki Western Django?

That was a bizarre movie.

I was referring to Grindhouse.