Some people absolutely love Quentin Tarantino, and I'm one of them. Bring on the long, drawn-out conversations filled with quirky quips, the awesome soundtracks, the chapter titles, and the grab-bag of surprises including drawing on the screen and sudden narration. That's his bag, and God Bless Him. It'll take a while for me to decide if Tarantino's latest WWII Jewish Revenge Fantasy is my favorite of his films, but I'm thinking it just may be. Read on for my discussion of this awesome movie.
Going into this movie, I thought it was going to focus solely on a gang of unruly American soldiers, looking to give the Nazi's a taste of their own merciless medicine. That certainly is an enjoyable part of it. Brad Pitt's Aldo Raine, may be a caricature but if you're not smiling as he basketball pivots to the camera explaining his scalp quota, there's something sad about you. There's also plenty to like about the "Bear Jew" and the pleasing presence of B.J. Novak. Novak is great on television, but that bizarre face with its lop-sided Dali-esque melting eyes shines extra-bright on the big screen.
However, the Basterds are only a part of this movie. The other half is focused on the story of Shoshana - and that's actually where the movie begins. Shoshana is played brilliantly by a beautiful french actress Mélanie Laurent, however, the true stand-out performance is that of Austrian actor, Christoph Waltz. Waltz plays the uber-villian, Col. Hans Landa, who comes across a lot scarier than Hitler or Goebbels. When he strikes up a conversation, people freeze and sweat. He's the Jew Hunter, and he's gonna getcha. Waltz won the award for Best Actor at Cannes and I wouldn't be surprised at all if his name comes up at Oscar time.
Thank goodness for Tarantino. He writes and directs in such a way that I find both funny, kitschy, and brilliant. At two and a half hours long, I was suspecting some points of serious drag, but I never found them. Truly a new favorite for me!
Sunday, August 23, 2009
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Even when we didn't undestand 2/3 of the dialogue, it didn't seem too long or drag.
ReplyDeleteBut I do wonder, why the movie is even called Inglorious Basterds. I would say that they are well less than half of the movie, but maybe I just felt that way because of the lack of comprehension.
I also have some questions about how the big bang went down at the end, but I want to see it with all the necessary subtitles first, because maybe we were missing more than we thought we were.
Definitely ditto on Christoph Waltz. He's amazing. I was also really impressed by the French guy in the very first scene, but he was only in the movie for like three minutes.
I liked both the women as well. I was really worried that after Troy, Diane Kruger was just going to turn into eye candy, but I thought she was great in this, and so was Laurent.
I'm glad you're going to see it again, and in English. If I had more time, I'd even go see this again in the theaters.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the Basterds probably do take up less than half the film. I was talking with Greg about how maybe this is another movie that could have been in two parts. Part One: The Basterds - how they assembled, how they got to Europe, initiation ceremonies, etc... then Part Two: Shoshana's story and the finale that brings everyone together. Definitely this film left me wanting to spend more time with the characters.