This is the seventh feature length film I've seen by director Quentin Tarantino. I chose to watch this film based on previous good ratings I've given other films by this director and to better my favorite directors by algorithm listing.
Inglourious Basterds
I've seen all of Tarantino's films. And since I've become a fan I've made to sure to see all of them in the theatre. There are a lot of things that irk me about his style. Some of them irk me while giving me delight at the same time. But I always find the films entertaining.
This film starts right out with a scene that was clearly modeled off of one of the very first scenes of my favorite film of all time The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. I know this to be Tarantino's favorite film of all time as well, so I wasn't too surprised. But Tarantino really has me being pulled back and forth violently regarding my admiration for this scene. My joy at wanting to call it a delightful homage and my disgust at what seems almost like straight up plagiarism are constantly at war trough my viewing of this scene.
The segment starts out with the subtitle "Once Upon a Time in Nazi Occupied France" which is another in the long line of "Once Upon a Time..." titled films started by The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly director Sergio Leone with such films as Once Upon a Time in the West and Once Upon a Time in America. Then we hear the music of Ennio Morricone who became famous for providing all of the music in all of Leone's films from A Fistful of Dollars onward. Now the scene being referenced is our introduction to Lee Van Cleef's character, or "the bad". In The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, we see him riding up ominously to an isolated farmer's home. The farmer has a long, tense meal with the farmer. It begins with very few words and ends with mass murder by guns. There are endless similarities in structure, character, and tone.
Tarantino's use of characters talking about movies is another point of tension for me. It's cool to see references to other films and film personalities of that era, but sometimes it seems a little unrealistic or forced the way these things are discussed. Is Tarantino trying to show us how cool and knowledgeable he is about film, or is he naturally just so that it comes out.
Brad Pitt is super fun in this movie and would have been the most memorable character if he wasn't completely blown away by the revelation that is Christoph Waltz. Thank goodness Tarantino brought this guy to my attention. I'd never heard of him before despite the fact that he clearly has tons of talent and experience and a long filmography of European films. Here's hoping this guy will get more worthy parts. Anyone have any suggestions for his older films to see?
*What follows may be a spoiler of sorts. There was a while as the plot was building that I felt like there was a lack of tension because what the protagonists were trying to do would alter the outcome of major World War II history was we know it. Since I already knew how the war ended, I felt like I knew if certain aspects of the plot would be successful or not. But as we neared the climax I realized there was no reason to feel like Tarantino of anyone would stick to straight history over his own sense of what would make a film the most exciting. It's an alternate history as a form of exploitation filmmaking that isn't apparent at first.
It was a little strange to watch this film right after Mother Night. Although the films are quite different, because they both deal with Nazis and even some on screen representation of real famous Nazis I almost got a few scenes mixed up in my head. At least some of the themes of the two films entwined themselves in my mind. It made an interesting thematic double feature of sorts.
Quentin Tarantino:
Total feature length films seen: 7
Previous average film score: 9
New average film score: 9
Rating: 9/10