Inglorious Basterds

[Culpeper]

It's not perfect but is probably effective.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/weinst...riousbasterds/

If you don't have Quicktime...(lower quality youtube)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcoPxyxpE9A

[patmc]

I'm looking forward to this film's release. The Dirty Dozen meets Kill Bill. Can't ask for anything better than that.

[William F. Owen]

Huge, Huge fan of Tarantino. Up there with Clausewitz, Natalie Portman, and Micheal Mann.

[120mm]

Well THAT looked completely stupid.

I imagine it will consist of every lie, misperception and negative stereotype about every WWII movie ever made.

In other words, the largely ignorant American public will lap it up.

Kind of a "Pear Harbor" meets "Titanic" bit of complete ####crap.

[Uboat509]

Well THAT looked completely stupid.

I imagine it will consist of every lie, misperception and negative stereotype about every WWII movie ever made.

In other words, the largely ignorant American public will lap it up.

Kind of a "Pear Harbor" meets "Titanic" bit of complete ####crap.

Holy cynicism, Batman!


SFC W

[120mm]

Holy cynicism, Batman!


SFC W

Ah, yes. A month and a half in the field here has exposed my superpower of "being cynical".

My job is done, here.....

[AmericanPride]

Yes. That's how the title is spelled. And yes, there are spoilers.

I did not like this film at all. I'm not a big fan of Tarantino, and I understand that his movies are notoriously violent. However, I think this film marks a radical departure, not only in its delivery but also in its reception, from his previous films. In Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, the characters were criminals. In Kill Bill, assassins. However, in this film, they are soldiers (American, Wehrmacht, and SS). The film depicts American soldiers, all of them Jewish, 1) torturing, mutilating and murdering prisoners (in one scene, a captured German soldier is beat to death by a bat after refusing to reveal the position of another German patrol); 2) shooting trapped and unarmed persons, among them civilians (several hundred functionaries of the German government, including their guests, are trapped in a burning cinema while also being gunned down) 3) and even the execution of a suicide bombing (at the same cinema). The only reason given for all of these atrocities is that the enemy are 'Nazis', but the actions of the protagonists reflect Nazi behavior more than the actual Nazis in the film. The only actual wrong-doing in the film by Nazi characters is the murder of several civilians in the opening scene (and it's not depicted). The most heroic character is actually a German sniper who is praised for his actions during a battle in which he single-handedly held off an (apparently American) infantry battalion. In the end, I almost felt sympathetic for the German characters -- only to realize that some of them were Nazis; which left me confused and bitter at the credits.

I'm also disappointed but not entirely surprised with the reception of the movie.

Thoughts?

[MikeF]

Thanks for the head's up. I think I'll skip that movie, watch G.I. Joe, and relive my childhood dream of becoming Snake Eyes.


v/r

Mike

[William F. Owen]

Yes. That's how the title is spelled. And yes, there are spoilers.

I did not like this film at all. I'm not a big fan of Tarantino, and I understand that his movies are notoriously violent.

As a novelist and some time film writing student, I consider Tarantino up there with Sergio Leone, and/or John Le Carre, plus Cormac McCarthy. I consider him immensely talented and I do like most of his work, but strangely there is very little you can learn from it, and unlike Leone, Le Carre and McCarthy, there is almost utter absence of a moral centre in his work, and this is very disturbing.
McCarthy just shows how evil endures and lives on, and despairs of it. Even with Thomas Harris, Hannibal Lechter only predates on the deserving.
The problem with Tarantino is that evil (as opposed to violence) seems "cool," and that does give me pause.

To quote Kirk Lazarus, "You never go full retard."

[Surferbeetle]

...in an imagined historical setting.

Wilf,

I too am a Quentin Tarantino fan, and have always enjoyed film/photography/art. This one was interesting, about 1/3 was in English the rest was in French and German with a bit of Italian thrown in...Christoph Waltz was amazing (his English, German, and Italian were flawless...I don't do French so I can't say definitively but he seemed to be rocking the French as well). Diane Kruger is certainly easy on the eyes and enjoyable to listen to as she traveled seamlessly from French, German, and English

For me it was an interesting juxtaposition of our hopes for civil society and the impulses of our bestial nature... as one of my literature teachers told me way back when "...it's all about man's inhumanity to man."

[William F. Owen]

For me it was an interesting juxtaposition of our hopes for civil society and the impulses of our bestial nature... as one of my literature teachers told me way back when "...it's all about man's inhumanity to man."

All for that, as long as inhumanity is shown as inhumanity, and not sport without consequence.
American Psycho is very interesting in that dimension. That being said, I feel more comfortable with the Military Art, than I do art!

[AmericanPride]

I appreciate Wilf's analysis of the absence of a moral center and it's very clear that it's also absent in IB. I agree with surferbeetle about the performance of Christoph Waltz, and while a sophisticated, precise, and amoral SS Colonel, I have a hard time seeing the character as a villian. I suppose practical amorality is preferable to outright depravity.

Surfer, what did you mean by this statement:

An interpretation of current events......in an imagined historical setting.

Also, for the group, why do you think the movie is receiving so much praise from both thte film establishment and the public in general?

[Cavguy]

To quote Kirk Lazarus, "You never go full retard."

Just saw that last night. (Tropic Thunder) Hilarious.

[Valin]

AmericanPride

It's a comic book. That's what people like Tarantino, and Robert Rodriguez do. They make comic book movies. Probably won't go see it, think I'll wait for the DVD to end up in a pawnshop, rent it from an on-line vender.

[Umar Al-Mokhtār]

actually made my opinion of Tom Cruise's acting range go up a notch (it took a couple of scenes before I realized it was him).

"No, dickhead, of course I could. A nutless monkey could do your job. Now, go get drunk and take credit at all the parties."

Alpa Chino had one of the best lines: What do 'you' mean, "you people?"

[Stan]

Byong: We no get money yet. Price now 100 million. You pay now, or tomorrow Simple Jack Die!

The remainder may not be safe for you folks at work. But, here's the link

[Umar Al-Mokhtār]

Now I want you to take a step back...

And Les has his own Facebook page! That's out there...