Miscellaneous Movie Musings

[Ghoulish Delight]

Finally saw Inglorious Basterds last night.

It left me a little conflicted. On the one hand, it's a great movie, Tarantino doing what he does best. Reminded me in pace and story telling of Jackie Brown, one of my favorite and often under appreciated Tarantino films. Can't say a bad thing about it as a movie.

But I still don't like watching Nazi movies. Even if it was fantasy Nazi slaughter pron. The serious Jew-hunting scenes just depress me, and I can't even delight in the fantasy slaughter 'cause, well, it didn't happen that way, it never could have happened that way, and no amount of fantasizing changes that.

Not that I spent the whole movie crying over the Holocaust or anything, but I just found myself unable to indulge in the feeling of vengeance the movie was trying to illicit.

[Gemini Cricket]

They're prepping for Indy 5

I just let out a Charlie Brown-esque "Auuuggghhh!" just now.

[flippyshark]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

They're prepping for Indy 5

I just let out a Charlie Brown-esque "Auuuggghhh!" just now.

Ugh. Truly, haven't these people got anything better to do?

Well, whatever they come up with, my expectations are sub-basement low.

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

They're prepping for Indy 5

I just let out a Charlie Brown-esque "Auuuggghhh!" just now.

In the linked article, Harrison Ford says:

Originally Posted by Harrison Ford

If the script is good, I'll be very happy to put the costume on again."

I'm assuming he is using the version of the word "script" that is synonymous with payment.



Otherwise his statement makes no sense at all.

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

They're prepping for Indy 5

I just let out a Charlie Brown-esque "Auuuggghhh!" just now.

That's what I felt and sounded like with the announcement of another POTC film.

[Gemini Cricket]

Inglorious Basterds

I saw it today. I have a lot to say. Sorry if this post is uberlong.

Dirty Dozen with a dash of Cinema Paradiso and a splatter of Reservoir Dogs.

Let me do bad stuff first:

1. Too long. Tarantino seems to have the George Lucas air about him that people around him are worried about telling him the stuff he's doing needs to be cut. The first table scene in the movie is dull. Now, if it built suspense, like the last five minutes of the scene did then it would have been a different scene altogether. But it didn't. At least, not for me.

2. Too long deux. There were chunks of this film that could have been featured as deleted scenes on the DVD release. I mean if long sections of a scene don't lead up to anything and doesn't move the story along, it's not needed.

3. It's built up to be this sort of Dirty Dozen with us following the Basterds around. Uh, not exactly. It's like he wanted to make one film at first and then thought... hmm, let's change course. What's the point in building up characters like the Bear Jew and Hugo Stiglitz when they are introduced as major players and then are nothing more than less than secondary characters? I know Tarantino likes to do the "ooh, you didn't expect that didn't you" thing but surprises still can be pertinent to the story.

4. "Fu ck a duck!" and referring to a guy's dick as a "weinerschnitzel" pulls me right out of the movie. They are totally modern day references that distract from the movie's intent of trying to convince you that you're in the mid-40's.

5. The gore didn't affect me at all. I was expecting it and now I don't even wince at it when it happens in a Tarantino flick. Yeah, we get it you have the brain of a teenage boy.

6. I wasn't on-board with the Aldo Raine character. Again, Brad Pitt being Brad Pitt with an accent. Pulled me right out of the movie... There's a point where certain actors become parodies of themselves on screen. I started feeling that with Pitt around Ocean's 11...

7. When the film ended, I thought what's the point of this movie? Yes, it's historical fiction, a fantasy version of what happened. But I have no idea what Tarantino is trying to say here other than "wouldn't it have been cool if..."

The good stuff:

1. Two words: Daniel Brühl. He first caught my eye in Ladies in Lavender and again in this film. So very cute and not a bad actor. But I love how he was portrayed as being so likable until you find out more and more about him. Nicely done.

2. Tarantino knows how to use music. The music choices in the film were great. But again, it pulled me out of it at times.

3. The montage of Shoshana getting ready for the premiere is wonderful.

4. Christoph Waltz is a delight to watch. So jolly then so evil.

5. The Reservoir Dogs standoff scene in a French basement. I liked it. The camera loves Diane Kruger.

So, did I like it? I guess. Did I love it? No. Did I hate it? No. I guess I'm on the fence on this one. Great moments, great choices here and there but a long-winded script is still a long-winded script no matter what.

[Alex]

Strongly opposing reaction for me. The prologue (assume what you mean by "first table scene" is probably the best single scene I've seen in recent memory.

According to Google Books, "**** a duck" has appeared in print at least back to the early '50s. "**** a duck and screw a pigeon, that's the way you'll get religion" is a piece of bathroom graffiti that I now learn originated in a 1955 novel.

My dictionary tells me the wiener/penis connection is about 100 years old. Don't know how long it took for the first wienerschnitzel joke to be told.

That said, it didn't take me out of the movie even if it is modern swearing. I remember hearing David Milch asked why he had his characters in Deadwood saying "**********" all of the time. His answer was that he wanted to true to the foul mouths of the characters but that we'd laugh at what was considered profane at the time. So it is spiritually accurate if not linguistically.

Loved Aldo Rains and am glad the movie wasn't actually a chronicle of the basterds exploits. That would have been boring.

To me, a big part of what the movie is saying is "how comfortable are you with brutality and slaughter when you agree ideologically with those doing it." We in the audience are condemning the Nazi's for their pleasure at a chronicle of the slaughter of U.S. soldiers and are immediately dumped into ourselves taking some positive feeling from the slaughter of the Nazis (and what exactly is the distinction between Zoller as a hero and Audie Murphy as a hero?).

To me it actually took a little bit away from that to have Hitler and the rest of the leadership there. It took away from the ambiguity. Very hard to feel any sympathy at all for Hitler. More questionable would be the slaughter of a hundred mid-level officials and their families.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

7. When the film ended, I thought what's the point of this movie? Yes, it's historical fiction, a fantasy version of what happened. But I have no idea what Tarantino is trying to say here other than "wouldn't it have been cool if..."

I believe this is all that Tarantino is ever trying to say with any movie.

I dug this one. While the music choices and language obviously clashed with the period, I enjoyed that, as it was his way of saying that while they didn't say "kick ass" back then, they meant the same things. (At least this is how I rationalized it.)

I was also rather bummed to not see more of the cool characters. I was struck by Tarantino's usual mark of not making any of the characters stupid or bumbling (which I believe Alex mentioned earlier). Everyone was smart, everyone did the best they could, for good or evil. I'm so sick of movies where you end up shaking your head at the stupid choices that don't make sense within the characters. This was much more enjoyable.

ETA - agreed with Alex, the first table scene was awesome.

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

But I have no idea what Tarantino is trying to say here other than "wouldn't it have been cool if..."

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

I believe this is all that Tarantino is ever trying to say with any movie.

And this is why I just don't find his work as interesting as many other filmmakers'. (Though, good point about his occasional subtlety - I hate Michael Bay's films; I don't hate Tarantino's - they just annoy me.)

[flippyshark]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Finally saw Inglorious Basterds last night.

It left me a little conflicted. On the one hand, it's a great movie, Tarantino doing what he does best. Reminded me in pace and story telling of Jackie Brown, one of my favorite and often under appreciated Tarantino films. Can't say a bad thing about it as a movie.

But I still don't like watching Nazi movies. Even if it was fantasy Nazi slaughter pron. The serious Jew-hunting scenes just depress me, and I can't even delight in the fantasy slaughter 'cause, well, it didn't happen that way, it never could have happened that way, and no amount of fantasizing changes that.

The whole fantasy revenge angle is what has kept me away. I didn't relish the idea of inhumanity being met by gleeful revenge inhumanity, no matter how justified. It sounded like a nasty pretext for nihilism on paper. But several reviews I've read have indicated that such fears may be groundless, and in any case, I totally loved Jackie Brown. So, hmm, I dunno. Probably wait for video, but I'm too intrigued now to avoid it.