Inglorious Basterds: What Did You Think?
Friday, August 21st, 2009
Quentin Tarrantino’s new war epic has been hit theateres. Who saw it?
I did, and I loved it.
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I really liked it, some of it felt alittle slow at times, and I found myself wishing that the basterds themselfs where in it more. I think it shows just how far he’s come as a director, as it was beautifully shot.
The last 20 minutes where amazing, I found myself clapping as the credits rolled.
I loved the movie. I absolutely love the way Tarrentino makes a scene of people sitting around talking about innocuous things the most endlessly interesting and tension filled scenes ever.
The opening scene at the farm was an absolute marvelous scene, as was the scene at the restaurant eating the strudel. The sequence at the underground bar was my favorite part and I just loved the revenge fantasy mixed with old fashioned war film. I loved the naturalistic dialogue and the self-concious “let’s speak in English” at the beginning. I love how it’s about film and what kind of power it has. The ending was absolutely friggin’ brilliant.
The performances were really outstanding and there wasn’t a weak one. I particularly liked the English officer/former film critic who flubs his German. And I liked that the kid from Freaks and Geeks has a minor plot. Even Eli Roth didn’t annoy me (and I barely recognized him).
@ And I liked that the kid from Freaks and Geeks has a minor plot.
When Samm Levine was announced in the cast I freaked out. He is the WORST. Clearly it was either meant as a joke or Quentin realized he fucked up, so that’s why he ends up not having any lines.
Really? I liked him in Freaks and Geeks… though to be fair I’ve never seen him in much else. But yeah, I imagine his part is probably lying on the cutting room floor. Apparently David Krumholtz bailed out on him so he was clearly a last minute add on.
@ I liked him in Freaks and Geeks… though to be fair I’ve never seen him in much else.
That’s because no one will cast him cause he’s terrible. He’s the one Freaks & Geeks kid that no one wants to touch.
Well, I guess we don’t see much of Linda Cardinelli either. But that’s cuz she’s livin’ off those fatty Scooby Do residuals.
Cardellini was on 120 or so episodes of ER. That’s pretty steady work.
I was a little worried about this one because the trailers didn’t really do it for me. However my fears were unwarranted. Biggest surprise for me was that ended up I loving the cast! I didn’t get it when they were announcing the cast and it was BJ Novak, Mike Myers, Sam Levine (who ended up not having a single line in the movie). But the true stars of the movie are Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, August Diehl and Jacky Ido . The European cast is great at every turn. This is probably the best ensemble we’ll see this year.
Some people aren’t gonna get it but Eli Roth is brilliantly utilized in this film. When you get right down to it the Basterds are just a bunch of guys with an overly developed sense of the theatric (which discribes Landa as well) and Roth’s big scene is a brilliant illustration of that
For his second film in a row Quentin’s pacing continues to be perplexing. I can’t blame some people for being thrown for a loop when the scenes just go on and on and on. But the scenes are the length that is right for them. They’re long because that’s how Quentin builds them. And I think the choice is going to pay off in rewatch value. This movie is going to amass an audience of fans and increase in stature over time because there’s so much going on in every scene.
My vote for favorite scene is the cellar bar and I wouldn’t want to see it cut down. The scene runs the gamut. It’s funny, charming, light hearted, tense, back to charming, back to tense and then ends in blood shed.
While I agree with the pacing, I still would of rather seen this as the 3 parter or 16 episode series it was originally going to be (though only because I find myself wanting more, and imagining how things would of played out if they had more time) if it had the same cast that is.
I agree with the cellar being the best scene….except hitlers last one or the very end.
I would like to visit an alternate universe where this was a six-part HBO mini-series. Also, I like Sam levine.
RE: Samm Levine
IB is his best performance. Tarantino plays to his strong suit of standing in the background and not talking.
Compared to Death Proof, I was surprised at how tightly plotted this film was. I don’t think there was a single scene that didnt advance or juice up the story.
This was most boring pointless self-indulgent movie I’ve seen in a long time. I usually make a point not to post about stuff I don’t like but this movie actually made me mad. For the content that was integral to the plot the movie could have been an hour shorter or more even. My god was TONS of good acting (Christoph Waltz was amazing), too bad it was written and edited so badly.
(spoilers)——-
My experience was like:
-two guys are sitting at a table talking … I can see where its going why can’t they get there faster. wait there talking about rodents there’s no way he can go on for 3 minutes before he reveals the obvious point he’s making… oooh maybe that was to presumtuous of me. oh ‘lets talk in English’ that would be witty if it was original. wow 10 mintues and they are still talking.
-oh was that brad pitt? were all of his lines in the trailer? wait why did the camera waste a minute to watch a pitchblack corridor when everyone on and off screen knew what was going to happen since a much shorter version of this scene was in the trailer? there was no entertainment or tension building point to it.
-wow 45 minutes in and now were watching people at a different table I hope this doesn’t last 10 minu….oh. great he’s eating desert that’s exactly what I paid to see I hope the camera watches the food a lot…yay!… I wonder if its too late to see District 9 again? whats with this guys milk obsession? is it supposed to be quirky or weird or just pointless drivel to extend the movie a few more minutes. I bet online ‘cinephiles’ are going to explain why its one of tarantino’s brilliant character nuances or whatever they read.
-hmm its should be like half over what happened to all of the army guys from the trailer, surely all 90% of there scenes couldn’t be from the first 30 mintues…
-Christ … they are in a bar now, this is crazy…well its not like people are going to talk here for another 10 minutes .. its been over 20 minutes, was this movie funded buy some kind of historical french food guide trying to boost tourism?
-oh a fire… Brad Pitts IS in this movie and he had few funny lines and he brought they guy from the office with him. At least one of the basterds got a few lines. too bad that German guy couldn’t have shut up about dairy and rodents long enough for anyone else to talk.
———-
Ok sorry but now that I got that out I feel better. I’m going to pretend I never saw the movie and watch something good.
(sorry for the typos i cut off the tip of my index finger yesterday so im typing with one hand capitalizations and such are a bitca.)
ha ha. I had not read your comment when I posted what I did below.
I really sounds like the trailer for this really ruined the movie for you. I’ve become very guarded and defense about watching trailers.
Movies work better when you’re allowed to discover them for yourself, rather than have some trailer list out all the bullet points in sequential order.
@ I bet online ‘cinephiles’ are going to explain why its one of tarantino’s brilliant character nuances or whatever they read.
Think about the glass from two perspectives. First, it’s really the perfect metaphor for the nazi ideal. It’s white… pure… wholesome. It’s exactly what a nazi would drink.
But also think about the powerful association that glass of milk has for Shossana. The same glass of milk he ordered right before murdering her family. Is this an innocuous request for a popular beverage? Or is Landa letting her know he’s onto her?
It’s an example of how this characters manners and idiosyncracies are so choreographed that’s he’s able to fuck with her and get in her head possibly without even intended. It’s evidence for what he told us when we first met him: Landa is a natural born strategist and detective. He really is dangerous.
It also reminds me of a scene is one of my favorite Hitchcock movies Shadow of a Doubt which also uses milk onscreen to convey sinister intentions. Milk’s rich white texture catches light in a very distinctive way that makes it jump off screen (the human eye is attracted to whites). Supposedly Hitchcock hid a lightbulb in the glass to exaggerate the effect even more. Milk truly is one of the most cinematic of all beverages.
Now don’t even get me started on Landa’s pipe.
@ Compared to Death Proof, I was surprised at how tightly plotted this film was. I don’t think there was a single scene that didnt advance or juice up the story.
hmm. I’m not sure I agree. As I said above I think he continues the same odd and unconventional pacing from Death Proof (a film I love also). For instance your typical 2.5 hour movie would probably have over a hundred scenes in it, maybe even 200. This has 10-20 and they all go on much longer than convention calls for. At times Quentin seems indifferent to moving the story along; Mike Myers’ scene, Stiglitz, Wilhelm the enlisted man with the kid. Shossana’s black lover; it’s all stuff that a lot of people would put a red marker through.
While modern screen writing schools emphasis streamlining and reducing down to essentials Quentin’s style is too elaborate. Getting from A to C via B is irrelevent because the point of the story is the weird character who drifts in and then out. Or the funny reason why they met here instead of there. His whole approach is more novelistic than that of a screen writer, he’s given to details and tangents and instead of “acts” there’s “chapters”.
Just like with Death Proof I think you could argue that the pacing is wrong (and from a screenplay stand point it may be) but this is also the key to unlocking the movie. I sort of even feel the same way about people who complain about Death Proof being too long. They’re right, you cut the runtimes of both DP and IB in half if you were so inclined. But both of these criticisms miss the films whole reason for existing.
Oddly enough Mick Bay has picked up the same habit. He stuffs his movies with wtf / why is this happening moments that seem to have nothing to do with movie the story along.
Maybe I should re-examine his movies[/sarcasm]
I like that the film has a very novelistic apprroach to storytelling. I don’t something streamlined and reduced; its a Quentin Tarrantino movie, I’m used to visual and audible feasts. And I thought some of the conversation scenes were brilliant in that they featured long, aimless conversations were draped in a blanket of tension.
They were great text book showcases of subtext. That whole scene in the basement was about the nuance of language in the grand scale. In the small scale it was about these guys trying to fool a German officer that they too were German officers. You keep going back and forth in the tension “does he know? OMG, he knows… Okay, he DOESN’T know… GASP HE KNOWS!” … but what were they doing? Playing a dumb bar game.
The opening scene in the farmhouse was about Germany asserting power over the French in the grand scale of thing, in the immediate scale of things it was about this French farmer flipping out but at the same time trying to remain unbothered, protect his family and hopefully his friends in the process and the detective intimidating him in the process.
And what were they talking about? Cows, his daughters (a wonderful language use. In French ” cow” and a slur for female genitalia are the same word.) and rats. It was also very Hitchcokian in that he let the audience know early in the conversation that the family was down there listening. It let you know the “bomb” was underneath the table just like he used to use a lot of.
Sorry about the bug at the bottom, it’s been on all my posts everywhere lately. Trying to clean my computer…
So where does everyone stand on Quentin’s proclaimation that is his masterpiece?
I think its his most audacious film since Pulp Fiction.
in what way?
I think I agree. It’s definitely his movie that has the most to say as well as being the best made. I love Pulp Fiction as well but there’s a bit more in Basterds that I enjoy. Maybe it boons from a love of war movies. I dunno.
It’s not a perfect movie, but I do concur it’s his best to date.
I agree about IB having the most to say. I’ve been trying to convince one of my film-snob quentin hating friends about this. There really is a lot going on in this film as far as the frontlines of the war being propaganda films and movie theaters. I love how the warriors are actors, producers, projectionists and film reviewers. I love how the Basterds are John Wayne style badasses, they’re guys with an over developed sense of the theatric. Instead of myths, quentin gives us the myth makers. I love that The Bear Jew is a scrawny kid from Boston, whose entire legend comes from walking out of a cave dramatically.
I really think that his usual detractors should at least take notice that he’s answering his critics here. Does he make movies that are just about other movies… well, maybe movies are important.
It sounds like a cop out since I brought it up but I’ll hold of on speculating on whether or not it’s his MASTERPIECE and see how it with stands the passing of time.
Right now I couldn’t even pick a QT favorite.
Cut out about 30 mins of this and it would have been better. The first scene is basically “I know theres jews under your floor boards and I’m going to drink all of your milk until I find them” then it gets a bit better when wee meet the basterds then wee meet the annoying soldier who keeps asking out the woman who owns the cinema then the woman is taken to a restaraunt where everyone talks a lot of pi$h in which no one cares about whist she says nothing at all then they all leave and she is asked to stay blah blah blah “wait for the cream”…
okay skip forward again (plans to blow up the cinema) random annoying soldier gets a bit pushy, basterds come to reason with whats his face whsit everyone burns including the good guys for some reason, why did they stay inside the burning building and shoot people in the face instead of running? Skip forward a bit more BOOM…
“This must be my masterpiece”, pfft Pulp Fiction was your master piece this was good it just dragged on waaaay to long, but when I buy it on dvd at least i know I can choose to rewind the boring bits.
The trailers made it seem like The Basterds were going to go around killing Natzis, making jokes, getting drunk, scalping Natzis but it some how became about ending the war, drinking milk and rambling on about the cinema woman. In short too many long boring bits and not enough killing and funny scenes.
…sorry to anyone who does like this I was just pretty dissapointed.
Anyone else see these:
http://chud.com/articles/articles/21569/1/JACK-KIRBY039S-INGLOURIOUS-BASTERDS-COMIC-BOOK-ADAPTATION/Page1.html
phenomenoal. Some of of the best fan created promotional material ever. I’d kill for a poster sized set.