Inglorious Basterds
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?
Bookmarks