Inglourious Basterds Review (8-22-09)

Not that anyone will see or care about my opinion...but I saw this movie for the first time about three weeks ago, and I'm still not sure whether I liked it or not. The pacing in the movie was really awkward to me, and I never really settled into the movie. Overall, I liked the acting, though I think Brad Pitt went too far with his accent, but was too far over the top. I get, that they all had that aspect, but you can still carry it too far.

Christoph Waltz, was awesome however. Landa, was by far the most effective character in the movie, and his scenes were all excellent.

i see alot of your points spoony and your right, but i personally liked this film alot. then again, as a jewish person, i am always biaed towards films about "killin' natzees"

I saw it today it was awesome. It was some what a thinking mans movie and the movie had great tension. Brad was great you have to know he is exaggerated. The corneal was a great villain. Every one did great all around. If your a fan of tarrintno's work you will love it. It you came for a pop corn action flick you'll hate it. If you like to turn off your brain and watch a film you will hate it.

This movie is AWESOME, end of story, Aree-va-dirtcha!

This was a strange film, but in the end I think I really enjoyed it. The subtitling doesn't bother me in the slightest, I'm more than used to watching foreign films with subtitles, I don't think it detracts from the experience. But I found this movie to be quite clever and thought provoking. I thought the acting was good, and as you mentioned in the review, myself and my friends were impressed with the SS Officer. My French friend was impressed at how perfect his English and French were, along with the other languages he spoke in the film.

I particularly enjoyed how it switched from the tension of the "talking over the table" scenes, to the scenes involving the Basterds, which often involved the small bursts of violence with some tongue-in-cheek humour. It was strange but I thought it worked well. Either way, I enjoyed the movie and I'd recommend it. And completely agree with TTL.

oook with the exception of christoph waltz.. he was great

hated it..
brad pitt acted bad
til schweiger acted bad as usual
all other actors acted bad..
^^

I spit out my drink when he did his impression of Mike Myers' character. "They coll them the bastads." Perfect.

I went back and forth on this film due to my own inexperience with Tarantino style movies.

I think I went in expecting that deep characterization after the first scene went on and then watched 5 newly established characters gunned down in a tavern. :P It was a three prong attack going from the commercial advertisements, the first scene or so and then the rest of the movie.

This is actually something that QT does a lot, and it never looses the effect. \when you watch a QT movie you never know quite what to expect...any of the characters, no matter how well established, can die at any moment.

It's what makes his flicks so much fun to watch!

Interestingly enough, there were real life "Inglourious Basterds"--Jewish Commandos who had to scurry behind enemy lines to gather intelligence and avoid confrontations lest their cover be blown. Needless to say, these guys weren't exactly thrilled with the portrayal in this movie.

Nontheless, this movie kicked ass. Didn't mind at all that the Bastards were secondary characters to Shoshanna. In fact, it was quite a pleasant surprise and it worked out for the better. The tension was thick, especially the scenes with Landa. That man was as fiendishly clever and upredictable as the damn Joker from the Dark Knight.

As for Tarantino's so-called commentary about excessive violence, I think the only irony to be had here is that the Nazis are laughing and cheering whilst savoring their night of triumph, blissfully unaware of the horrible fate in store for them.

If you want to see a movie which are full length bastards only, see Inglorious Bastards from the 70ies. :) I didn't even know a new movie existed, but i watched the old one recently. However, as far as character depth is conserned, the old movie is lacking too.

And hey, your judgement of Europeans being able to speak at least 2 languages, though pretty much correct, it applies to the French the least of all. It's usually somewhere between very basic and very awful, sometimes up to fairly correct but tainted by an dreadful accent. There must be something wrong with their education system and old beliefs. Also i think there's no relationship between distance to UK and English knowledge, as we don't really learn it to go to the UK, but because it's the communication language of international business and science.

For far the best film of this year. Very intelligent and lack of action as ever good movie has to be, unlike the idiot movies that are all about unstopable action to entertain the great stupid audience.

This film remember Kubrick's random style and exotic sense of humour. Surprisely Tarantino looks to be improving, and shoots this film very different from Kill Bill 1 that was a piece of shit.

The way you felt when you saw this film, Spoony, is the way I felt when I saw Twelve Monkeys.
I will definitely see this movie. Thanks for the review!

(German not a problem, as a Swede I understand alot of it anyway. OH AND WE HAVE POLAR BEARS OF COURSE).

*Rolls eyes*

I wasn't bothered by the multilingual dialogue at all. As I am learning German, it was kind of like a little game for me to try and watch the movie without subtitles, which was pretty fun.


Overall, I loved this movie. Definitely one of the top picks of the year.

Good review, glad you've taken to not eating your dinner during the review re:Dark Knight.

So Spoony, I have a question... I noticed in Inglourious Basterds that QT made A LOT of nods to Alfred Hitchcock's style of building so much tension and suspense that you're almost yelling at the screen to get it over with... Did you notice that?

@Barabbas

I am from Germany and friends told me that. Well people here are that stupid and no one cares about your age, they just want your money :D
Well I had WW2 also in school, but very late. About 10th grade (?)
People here are really so stupid. :D

@Lookheed

Where did you hear that?! XD
You have to be at least 16 in germany to get into this movie, plus the historically inaccurate ending shows that this movie is not based on actual events...
So, I guess some people in germany are stupid enough to think that, but very few, believe me^^
We got the WW2-history in school so often and detailed, I'd like to think most people are smarter than that.

But of course, maybe I'm just naive^^

That's a BINGO!

Those Christoph Waltz, who played Hans Landa can speak those four languages fluent.

And the funniest thing about the movie is, that the german Kids think now, that the inglourious basterds really exist :D I was kinda embarrassed when i heard that.

Sorry for the double post but I just remembered something I thought was mentionable, but forgot to include it on a previous post. The complaints about the subtitles is really irritating. Yes for an American made movie there was a good deal of subtitling, but nowhere near enough that I can take criticisms of it seriously. In my opinion it was used in a manner to contribute to the "being out of the states" atmosphere, and was very efficient.I wasn't sure how to take the "Being your home may I ask that we switch to English since I have exhausted my French" technique, but in retrospect I now think it was effective almost to perfection. I hope no one commenting here takes this as a personal insult, but that particular criticism makes me believe the person is extremely lazy if a bit of reading actually is found tedious..

*spoilers ahead, but I will try to keep them minimal *

I can understand the recurring criticism due to a loss of perspective with the very thin line separating the Basterds/Allies/Shosanna from Nazis as heroes/ villains. However, anyone who attempts to argue that the various Nazis are executed in a unjust manner is fucking retarded. The Nazis in the film are dispatched exactly how they should have been in reality. In fact some of them get off much too easily, and should have had a cattle prod taken to their balls for a few hours before death. When you compare the basterds' methods to Nazi practices such as filling a public showering area full of Jewish Men, Women, and Children gassing them, incinerating their bodies, and then disposing of the remains in the same manner a person would dispose trash is in my opinion enough to regain your hold on who you should be routing for. The Basterds flip the unwavering cruelty of Nazis right back into their faces. Bitching about the Basterds lack of morality is an argument that when used makes me believe the commenter had no business seeing this film.

You know what...I'm going to take that back. It's a great movie, because the end more than makes up for the douchey characters.

In a sense, every character in that movie is a villian...not an anti-hero. What is an anti-hero? Well, I think an anti-hero still would follow some type of code...but none of these characters besides Brad Pitt's did...and ironicly, the main villian. I was expected both of them to just kill the people anyways, but they didn't. That's not to say I at all agree with the Nazi bastard, but if a damn Nazi has some code of honor, shouldn't you?

To hell with the characters. Really.

It's overall a good movie--don't get me wrong--but I can't overlook that. I don't know about you, but hypocrites and douchebags piss me off to no end.

I just got through watching the movie...and all I can say is...didn't do it for me. All the characters besides Brad Pitt's were unlikeable, unhonorable hypocrites, and I have a real problem with that. Maybe I value honor too much, but you know what? Fuck the unhonorable.

I will list some of my very few cons first, but let it be clear that not only was I satisfied leaving the theater, but I was also wondering how long until the unavoidable Director's cut DVD will take to be released so I can buy it. This, Watchmen Ultimate, Star Trek, and District 9 are going to chew up a chunk of my DVD shelf space.

Spoilers ahead!

I was a bit disappointed by the lack of screen time the "Basterds" were given, in retrospect wanting to see more of them just shows how entertaining their presence was. The basement shoot out scene was a bit too fast for comprehension for a first time viewer. It happens so fast you are left wishing you had a remote with a rewind , and slow down function. I would kind of compare it to ripping a band off extremely quickly to minimize the pain, but I still would have preferred a little more time to identify who killed who, how, etc.... Finally I remember watching an interview with the cast where Eli Roth was talking about the background of "The bear Jew", and he mentioned that the bat he used was signed by many of his Jewish neighbors in NYC. I would have loved to see that scene(if it was filmed) simply because it would have added a bit more humanity, and appreciation from the audience for their actions. However, I thought it was obvious that QT did not want anyone taking the film seriously to the point of making it more disturbing then over the top.

There is really too many things I liked to list them all, so I will try to mention some of the more obscure reasons. I can't believe I am saying this but Mike Myers actually worked for me. I was concerned at first but after seeing his cartoon like nature I immediately understood. I loved to hate the "Jew Hunter", talk about a great villainous performance. After the scene of his introduction, tension would mount with each of his on screen appearances. I am really getting irked by the people complaining about this not feeling like a QT movie. The film was made partly as a homage to old war movies, so anyone who knew about the film should have known this wouldn't be his typical work. He was complimenting the filming styles of past directors with his own personal twists. If he was constantly staying predictable his popularity would have faded years ago.

Finally the fate of Hitler scene was fucking awesome. I was almost embarrassed at one point when Hitler's face turns into Swiss cheese. The epicness made me laugh out loud, then half the audience gave me a really evil look, while my Dad turned to me and said "You are sick". I can't be the only one who got a kick out of his the fate he truly deserved.

I fully agree Mr. Spoony!

The villian (Landa if I am not mistaken) was GREAT, a challenging villian who seemed to be 2 steps ahead of even the audience.

Brad is a supporting character mostly, but he does well and is entertaining.

I thought it was well paced, I never felt bored and I felt that the length moved quite quickly.

To me it didn't feel like a QT movie, it wasn't the action hyper violent gore fest that I expected.

All in all entertaining but more of a drama than an action.

I really liked this movie. To be honest, I did go in expecting a lot of violence, just because of his previous movies. But that didn't turn me off. The violence I felt (mainly the first scene in the beginning) really made a point and was quite brutal despite not really seeing anything graphic. I was disappointed at the lack of basterds in the movie but after watching your review of it, I almost wonder if he did that on purpose.