Inglorious Basterds: You all ready?

It was different but yet so similar to Once Upon a Time in the West, Dirty Dozen, and many others. It was entertaining and worth seeing.
 
A friend of mine who usually has good taste in movies also said that it was really good. Did something change dramatically from the Cannes screening, where the film was panned (or atleast that's how I remember it being received)?
 
Saw "Inglourious Basterds," from screenwriter/director Quentin Tarantino, and I really liked it, despite its two and a half hour length and greatly varying pace.

The local theater here in Marble Falls was full on Saturday night and everyone, young and old, male and female, seemed in general to accept the bloody violence, even if cringingly, laugh at the often macabre wartime humour (I felt this spelling was appropriate) and appreciate the revisionist spirit in this over the top saga of imaginary events that actually never happened in Nazi occupied France before the D-Day invasion.

I believe the Germans, at least all those nasty Nazi ones, certainly had it coming to them, didn't they?

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I thought Tom Cruise's "Valkyrie" made a lackluster, plodding movie out of real, interesting to read about, actual happenings.

However, I believe Tarantino's made a masterpiece, IF YOU ENJOY HIS BRAND OF MOVIEMAKING, out of events that never took place.

If you liked Pulp Fiction," I think you'll dig this stylish, though somewhat overlong and at times balky, talky, cinematic tour de force.

It could have been edited down about a half hour more to better fit my tastes and bladder capacity, but I'll bet Quentin did cut out a whole lot of what he conceptualized and/or filmed to even get it down to this length.

I enjoyed it.

The Link

Spoilers ahead!!!!!!!










Brad Pitt's used strange accents for his movie characters before, but this one was like Woody Harrelson might sound if his tongue's tip was snipped off and his mouth was still numb from dental injections.

I can report, however, that Pitt did sound better than Bob Dylan did, "singing" on his current tour.

Brad got laughs, while Bob made no new fans.

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Those viewers who choose to wait for the DVD will find that having subtitles for Pitt's vocalizations, in addition to the ones used on the big screen for the German and French language speakers, will be helpful.

This flick was like an inmaginative, though mostly meaningless, Mad magazine made movie having great style and nice cinematography which gave realization to a lengthy, but otherwise entertaining, screenplay.

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The part about the Inglourious Basterds terrorizing German soldiers after parachuting into France brought to my mind the wanderings of the three convicts in "O Brother, Where Art Thou," if George Clooney and company had been killing and scalping folks instead of singing and grinning.

Seldom, IMHO, have cruelty and comedy been blended on the silver screen so well.

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The part about the German war hero's story being made into a propaganda film and the movie's premier sometimes had the vibe of "Springtime for Hitler" from Mel Brooks' "The Producers."

I thought this portion of the movie might have been a good place to edit out a bit more.

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The part about the German actress who was a double agent was good too, especially the scenes in the tavern.

The Nazi officer who intruded upon our covert heroes there reminded me of Christopher Walken with his loquaciousness and deadly charm, but I believe Tarantino could have edited this portion of the flick down some more also.

It was all good and entertaining, but the slow pace added to the overall length, even though suspense and better character development were our rewards.

Other screenwriters and directors probably would have given us less, but Tarantino's films are not written or directed the same as others do it.

I certainly got my money's worth of what Quentin Tarantino was selling.

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And the part about the Inglourious Basterds attending that same propaganda movie's premier in Paris was a little like Pitt's character was channeling Bob Crane's behind the enemy lines comedy chops a la "Hogan's Heroes" towards a climax which out shot and out exploded Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch," while annihilating Hitler, Goebbels, Goring and a host of evil Nazi leaders along with two brave heroines and some basterd heroes.

The whole thing was like "The Dirty Dozen" mixed with almost Groucho Marxist humour, plus lots of Ramboesque death and destruction with a nod to all the dark, satiric fun poking of Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb."

And, IMO, deliciously so.

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If those ingredients are able to be be made into a cinematic masterpiece of black comedy and bloody violence, I think that's exactly what Quentin Tarantino's done.

If you don't like his movies or just can't enjoy such a mixture then I doubt you'll like it.

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I enjoyed it, but was somewhat surprised that the large audience I was in seemed to like it too.

I know Tarantino fans will dig it, but all the males and females, young and old, whom I viewed it with also seemed to appreciate this film on some level.

I didn't take my wife because she believed and I agreed she probably wouldn't like it.

Now, I'm not sure that would have been the case.

I think QT got it pretty much right, after he made some changes in response to what I've read about preview audience reactions.

I was truely amazed at the overall acceptance this flick seemed to get.

And I can't help but wonder how well Quentin Tarantino might do with a comedic/tragic movie reimagining of Hiroshima?

I mean, I think those dirty Japs, at least the sneaky ones, certainly deserved that too, didn't they?

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I saw it Saturday and liked it.

QT kinda bugs me, or should I say his movies bug me. Maybe that's because I read some prior comments about his penchant for referencing and visually alluding to other movies, but I found some quirks in IB that bugged me.

The movie was entertaining, but had a temporary feel to it. Kind of sugary, meant to be enjoyed a bit at the moment but not so much afterwards. Part formula, part hodge-podge of prior movies, part semi-comedic splices to interrupt a semi-serious mood: it lacked good editing.

QT seems to hung up over himself. A better name for the movie would have been Springtime for Hiter: Part Zwei.
 
Shadowdancer and I are planning to see it tonight. I'll ask him to post his thoughts, as he is much better at dissecting movies than I.
 
After reading the imdb write-up I was reminded of the "spaghetti western" moment at the beginning of the movie. That bugged me. I feared this was going to be a poorly mixed movie montage. It wasn't as bad as I thought, but I'd still rather see a "regular QT" movie than a "QT splicing bits and pieces of what he thinks is cool" movie. Or maybe that is a regular QT movie?
 
Early in "1984" Orwell has a section where his main character goes to the theater and sees a film in which one scene has soldiers gunning down people in a lifeboat; he really likes one bit where a woman is holding up her baby for the soldiers to save; they shoot them both as I recall.

Orwell uses the bit to illustrate how Winston Smith's tastes have been degraded by a malignant culture.

That is my problem with Tarantino, who has undeniable talent at catering to the pleasure of people who enjoy displays of gratuitous violence and cruelty.

Like a lot of the posters here.

I put on a dvd of Hud last night, which I had not watched in 20 years. Not much violence, just extraordinarilly good acting and production values in a thoughtful movie. Maybe you guys would like the scene where they herd all the infested cattle into a pit and shoot them. Though probably not, they show the cowboys shooting into the pit but nothing graphic in the way of blood splattered cattle.


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You know, there is a lot violence in this movie. But, I never thought it was gratuitous. On the contrary, I thought it perfectly reasonable for the movie I was watching.
 
Christoph Waltz won the Best Actor Award in the 2009 Cannes Film Festival for his role in the movie. They couldn't have hated it too much given that is the highest individual honor they give out there.
 
Christoph Waltz was incredible.




SPOILER****************************************8







He has to be one of the most disturbing evil men in recent movies. You ALMOST wanted him to show compassion...in fact I was rooting for it but in the end he got the perfect payback.
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If you went to see IB looking for stuff that could irritate you, you would need a notebook. I looked for stuff that was interesting and entertaining and pretty much found a feast. Look at the trailers. If you can't stand 'em, don't go to the movie. I liked the trailers and I enjoyed the Movie. QT did things in the movie that most wouldn't. He broke some unstated rules -- going John Madden drawing attention to details. I liked it. Cristopher Waltz was a masterful villain. Whoever played Hitler should be given an award for going over the top. As much as I've always found Hitler detestable -- QT took it to a new level.
 
saw it tonight and thought it totally rocked...

You can definitely tell it's a QT film but it's not tripping over itself to remind you it's a QT film.

and yes Pitt is awesome in this...
 
I thought it was great. I readily admit I'm not much of a Tarantino fan, but I really liked this film. I never got bored, which is saying something in regard to violent movies. But there wasn't as much violence as I'd been led to expect after reading this thread.

SEMI-SPOILER ALERT!!!








About the only time I got antsy was in the big theater scene, and that was only because I was anxious to see how the whole thing was going to go down. It didn't disappoint.

And that dude that played Lando was amazing. Watching his face when he interacted with people was like watching a shark smile.
 
Greatness! I totally loved this film for many reasons.

I never knew Milk could be so important. I am glad I went to go see it, finally.
 
It was okay.

I love Brad Pitt's character, I loved the violence. But the long drawn out annoying eating scenes or just talking scenes drove me nuts.

I came expecting greatness and came away with "it was good, not great."
 
The "long drawn out scenes" are part of the magic. It takes a lot to pull that off without having violence or boobies in your face at the time. There was some great acting to make those scenes interesting and important to some of the violence later on. I like a rounded out movie that does not have to rely on violence. What was cool about the violence in this was it was so over the top in a typical Q way.

I think Q is a fun director, not a great one.
 
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