Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt) Grading/Discussion

[firehawk12]

Re: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt) Grading/Discus

Wikipedia cites a NYT article that places it in 2008, but I'm almost certain I've seen some long before that. I can't remember though.

 

[Jono]

Re: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt) Grading/Discus

Found it to be a pretty average movie, though I'm not a Tarantino fan.

 

[Derishton]

Re: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt) Grading/Discus

I think this is definitely Brad Pitt's most engrossing and memorable performance since 1999's Fight Club. He's been in a few clunkers (The Mexican, Troy) and some decent but self-indulgent films (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). Besides the Ocean's films, it seems like he was really having fun with Lt. Aldo Raine in Inglourious Basterds.

I think he's having fun in Burn After Reading.

 

[Daedalus12]

Re: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt) Grading/Discus

You know, I'm surprised no one made a Valkyrie one. "Tom Cruise tries to kill me... Tom FUCKING Cruise. The asshole who believes in fucking Xenu thinks he's better than me!"

I am pretty sure I saw a Valkyrie one. Just search for it on youtube.

Actually when I saw the cape wearing Hitler screaming "Nein! Nein! Nein! Nein!" I thought there was going to be a clever Downfall parody in the movie.

 

[Trekker4747]

Re: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt) Grading/Discus

Inglourious Basterds

Rated R:

My Grade: A-

-------------------------------------------------

Let me preface this by saying that I am not a Tarentino fan. His films tend to be more style and slickness over substance and while I admit his style has an "appeal" and it's "good" and admire that he at least HAS one instead of a paint-by-numbers one many directors use his style isn't one I always enjoy.

Much of style bogs down IB for me.

The movie takes place in Nazi occupied France as a troop of American Soldiers are set-out to kill as many Nazis as they can and their path crosses with an escaped Jewish woman who owns a theater where a Nazi-made movie is set to premiere; she then plans to torch the theater.

The two stories cross coincidentally in the narrative but it's really two set of stories sort-of crossing without every really connecting with one another. Sort of like dilithium and antimatter.

The problem for this movie for me is multi-folded. First of all the titular Basterds, overall, aren't given a whole lot of screen time or much development, they're just there as fodder for the "violence" and Tarentino-ian gore. There narrative bits are set up nicely (like an early scene with a Gestapo Commander looking for hiding Nazis talking with a French farmer and a later scene with some Basterds meeting an informant in a basement-level bar and done well but, really, it's just an excuse to build up to the Tarentino-ian violence play.

Which, OK, is done alright if over-stylized.

I enjoyed this movie, I just wish it had given us more with the characters, more with the story, and just less focus on nonsense. In fact, this movie is almost an example of why I don't like Tarentino's films. There's no substance to them. They're all style and violence with nothing to it.

I enjoyed the movie, I just wanted "more" from it. A director less in love with himself and his sense of style (and red-food dye colored corn syrup) could've done more with it, focused on Basterds more, developed the characters more -most notably the escaped Jewish woman- and just had a better story. It also would've been "nice" if the movie didn't completely rape history. Not saying that the events in it really had to happen, them killing a theater full of Nazi brass is all fine and good but when Hitler is in theatre? A bit over the top in bending the suspension of dis-belief.

Ok movie, nice performances, could've been more.

But, again, I'm not a Tarentino fan.

 

[T'Baio]

Re: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt) Grading/Discus

...like an early scene with a Gestapo Commander looking for hiding Nazis talking with a French farmer and a later scene with some Basterds meeting an informant in a basement-level bar and done well but, really, it's just an excuse to build up to the Tarentino-ian violence play.

No offense. After reading that, I can honestly say, in my opinion, you don't get it.

Which is fine, it's not for everyone.

 

[ITL]

Re: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt) Grading/Discus

^ I found those two scenes to be the best ones in the film - so much tension! And great acting from all concerned. I was on the edge of my seat.

 

[Trekker4747]

Re: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt) Grading/Discus

^ I found those two scenes to be the best ones in the film - so much tension! And great acting from all concerned. I was on the edge of my seat.

No, no, they *were* good scenes, the better ones in the film, but at the same time they serve no much purpose other than to lead up to the violence. (Less so with the opening scene.)

I mean, the scene in the bar is a great scene it would've been better if the characters in it had been developed more (the Basterds, that is) so it mattered when they were killed.

Instead the great scene just builds up to the end result of everyone dying.

I guess I was expecting more "Saving Private Ryan" and less "violence for the sake of it."

 

[Kelso]

Re: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt) Grading/Discus

It sounds like you were expecting something Spielberg-ish but got something Leone-ish, instead.

It happens.

 

[Trekker4747]

Re: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt) Grading/Discus

It sounds like you were expecting something Spielberg-ish but got something Leone-ish, instead.

It happens.

I wasn't expecting anything "Spielberg"-ish but I guess I was expecting a movie called "Inglruious Basterds" to focus a little bit more on the titular characters and the movie ended up being, for me, more style than anything else.

I "liked it" (I did, afterall, give it a favorable grade) it just wasn;t what I was expecting.

 

[T'Baio]

Re: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt) Grading/Discus

It wasn't violence for violence's sake. It was a microcosm of war...from the nicety to the diplomacy to the tension to the threat to the outbreak of violence. It was downright Hitchcockian in it's portrayal of personalities trying desperately to avoid the seemingly inevitable. The scenes weren't even that violent in a visual sense, especially not by Tarantino's standards, or even the standards of violence elsewhere in the film.

And it totally mattered that those characters died, because it completely screwed up their plan, which forced Lt. Raine and the others into an even more compromising position. It ratcheted up the tension and the stakes for the remainder of the film.

 

[davejames]

Re: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt) Grading/Discus

No, no, they *were* good scenes, the better ones in the film, but at the same time they serve no much purpose other than to lead up to the violence. (Less so with the opening scene.)

I mean, the scene in the bar is a great scene it would've been better if the characters in it had been developed more (the Basterds, that is) so it mattered when they were killed.

Instead the great scene just builds up to the end result of everyone dying.

I guess I was expecting more "Saving Private Ryan" and less "violence for the sake of it."

I can kind of see what you mean, but for me the absolute brilliance of the writing and directing in those scenes is all the "purpose" I really need.

When most of the movies we see nowadays are so incredibly fast-paced and plot-driven, it's great to see a movie where every word and action really matters. I just love when a director like Tarantino or Kubrick or Malick really slows down and takes a HOLD of a scene like that, where every camera move and every gesture a character makes is incredibly important and interesting to watch.

Plus it's just a lot of fun to watch a director like Tarantino play around with his characters and his dialogue the way he does, and to play around with the audience's expectations. Yeah you might reasonably expect everyone to die at the end of this movie, but the real FUN is watching how he maneuvers and plays around with the story and characters to ARRIVE at that point.

 

[Trekker4747]

Re: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt) Grading/Discus

It wasn't violence for violence's sake. It was a microcosm of war...from the nicety to the diplomacy to the tension to the threat to the outbreak of violence. It was downright Hitchcockian in it's portrayal of personalities trying desperately to avoid the seemingly inevitable. The scenes weren't even that violent in a visual sense, especially not by Tarantino's standards, or even the standards of violence elsewhere in the film.

True.

And it totally mattered that those characters died, because it completely screwed up their plan, which forced Lt. Raine and the others into an even more compromising position. It ratcheted up the tension and the stakes for the remainder of the film.

Also true, but I'd argue deus ex machina there.

But, whatever, Tarantino isn't my thing and this movie was very much his "style" of story telling. I was expecting a bit of "growth" from him, I guess, and getting a "deeper" war movie that followed the soldiers and their quest to "kill Notzees" across Europe and seeing the Tarantino-ian deaths along the way. I guess I was expecting more along the lines of the early scene with Pitt and his chrages in the ravine and seeing these guys march across Europe and seeing THOSE characters grow more than I was the goofy actor/soldier kid hit on comely Jewish chick.

It was a "good" movie, just not what I was expecting.

 

[T'Baio]

Re: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt) Grading/Discus

And it totally mattered that those characters died, because it completely screwed up their plan, which forced Lt. Raine and the others into an even more compromising position. It ratcheted up the tension and the stakes for the remainder of the film.

Also true, but I'd argue deus ex machina there.

How so? Did everyone's plans in World War II always go exactly according to plan? In the end, especially with the Jew Hunter's offer to help, everyone in that theatre would've died one way or another, no matter what plan would've ended up working...the Basterds original plan, the revised plan or Soshanna's plan. That's Tarantino playing with his audience here. We all know Hitler et al must die and will die. But how is it going to play out? Not the way we, or any of the characters, expect.

But, whatever, Tarantino isn't my thing and this movie was very much his "style" of story telling. I was expecting a bit of "growth" from him, I guess, and getting a "deeper" war movie that followed the soldiers and their quest to "kill Notzees" across Europe and seeing the Tarantino-ian deaths along the way.

You seem to contradict yourself here. You say you wanted growth from Tarantino, but then say you wanted more Nazi killing with "Tarantino-ian" deaths along the way. That's what most people expected.

I think Tarantino grew greatly as a filmmaker here. All of his previous films were a "riff" on a particular cinematic style, genre or impact. Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction were riffs on film noir and crime films, Jackie Brown on blaxploitation and feminist exploitation films, Kill Bill on Asian and martial arts cinema and Death Proof on grindhouse b-movies. Inglourious Basterds, to me, is the first film he's made where he's taken his knowledge of film, used that, but boiled it down to something unique. There are still homages, without a doubt...the opening alone is an internally admitted homage to Once Upon A Time in The West. But he's not riffing on one thing, or making something enjoyable because of its links to cinematic history. He has made something that is influenced but new, an alchemy of the cinema he knows. And he has made more of a point than just "this is the cinema I found cool, and I'm gonna' show you why it's cool." He has made a film that is about violence, his violence, our violence, and the effect it has in our lives and in our cinematic experiences. During the climactic scene in the theatre, it wasn't only you watching the film...it was the film watching you.

I guess that's kind of a review, isn't it...

 

[Trekker4747]

Re: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt) Grading/Discus

All I'm saying is that I wish the movie had focused on, and followed, the Basterds. From the moment Brad Pitt gives his "pep-talk" through the theater scene at the end (which shouldn't of had a certain someone in it). If it was just them marching through france killing Nazis and scalping them the movie would've been great. It wouldn't of even had to focus on the characters' lives and growth that much, just have them marching around killing Nazis, have the bar scene, have the ravine scene, have the infirmary scene, and the theater scenes. To "set up" the theater scenes it still would've been possible to of had the Jewish girl but making her less central and less with the flirtations of the Nazi soldier.

Simply, the movie needed more of the Basterds and more of that thread.

You seem to contradict yourself here. You say you wanted growth from Tarantino, but then say you wanted more Nazi killing with "Tarantino-ian" deaths along the way. That's what most people expected.

I guess by "growth" I meant more depth and concentration on the characters, the Basterds not the Jewish gal and the Nazis.

You know what the scenes with the Basterds felt like? They felt like shorts, intermissions or something like the "host segments" in MST3K. The movie was about and escaped Jewish woman and her plans to kill a bunch of Nazis in a burning theater and every once in a while this story stopped so we can have a scene with the Basterds doing something "funny"/"greusome."

I mean, the bar scene was a great, great scene. It would've been better if I was following the decoy characters through most of the last hour or so of the movie rather than Jewish gal and her dim-witted war-hero suitor.

 

[Derishton]

Re: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt) Grading/Discus

Shoshanna and the Nazis were characters in the film .... the title needs to be understood in light of the whole film, not the other way around.

 

[Roshi]

Re: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt) Grading/Discus

Does anyone know the first time it was done?

The first time it was done, no. But the first one that I saw was the one at the end of BSG Season 4 Part 1, with the fucking long hiatus.




Nein, nein, nein, nein ,nein, nein!

 

[Harvey]

Re: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt) Grading/Discus

You know, two thoughts.

In Kill Bill (volume 2) a (female) killer comes to off the Bride, but lets her go when she finds out she is with child and about to become a mother. In this film, Max has just become a father, but that doesn't stop the German actress from killing him. A reflection of Tarantino's daddy issues (he was raised by a single mother)?

Second, this film has a smooth talking British film scholar turned soldier in the Operation Kino chapter. His books strike me as far too specific for film studies before the Second World War, but that's not the important part. The important part is, for all his detailed knowledge of German cinema, he gets himself killed because he doesn't possess a piece of common knowledge--how to properly sign three in Germany. Tarantino's comment on the usefulness (or lack thereof) of film scholars?

 

[Roshi]

Re: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt) Grading/Discus

 

[Starkers]

Re: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt) Grading/Discus

God damn, I said god damn QT annoys me!

There are bits of this that are brilliant, actually mostly bits that don’t feature the basterds so much (they were essentially pointless). The opening scene in the farmer’s shack is brilliant (well maybe until Landa pulls his ridiculous pipe out) and the bit in the cellar was fantastic (shame the Brit guy bought the farm) I also found myself really liking the young German sniper guy until he become a 2D villain late on.

Firstly; much like Kurt Russell in Death Proof QT sets Landa up as a cunning and dangerous opponent in the first half of the film, before basically neutering him in the second. Secondly, the violence. I have no major issue with violence in films, but the scalping and swastika cutting was unnecessary, at the very least the film loses nothing from doing it off camera. Similarly Eli Roth beating that German soldier to death with a baseball bat. Just nasty, especially when the guy seemed like an honourable soldier. Shooting Hitler in the face, fine however! Thirdly. Mike Myers- enough said! Fourthly taking a serious WW2 film and just dropping comedy Americans into it (although Brad Pitt was funny) The Dirty Dozen is a classic example of mixing humour and war, the film essentially getting less funny and more serious as it goes along. Fifthly enough with the on screen captions already!

And finally (well all I can be bothered with anyway) the laziness of reusing a Kill Bill musical score at one point!

On the whole though I did enjoy it more than I thought I would. Probably give it 7/10, but there are bits worthy of 8 or 9, but too much that might barely get a 5 or a 6!

I think Tarantino really needs to make one movie at a time, rather than trying to make two at once. either make a black comedy war film or a serious WW2 film but trying to merge the two togeather just didn't work for me.

As for a men on a mission film? Thanks but I'll still take Where Eagles Dare, The Wild Geese and the Dirty Dozen over this.