Weekend Bites: Ace vs. The Basterds

Posted By Ace

**Editor's Note: Again sorry about the tardiness on this post. It's been kind of a crazy past couple days. Hope y'all enjoy!

Overall Rating: 4 bites [out of 5]


“Describe what Marcellus Wallace looks like!”
“What?”
“Say what again! Say what again! I dare ya, I double-dare ya, mother-$%#@*! Say what one mo’ goddamn time!”

Ah yes… vintage Tarantino! I love it…

… But… I’ll be honest-- I’m not the biggest Tarantino fan.

I would even be so bold as to say that he’s a little over-rated. (Just don’t tell Jules I said that!)

Don’t get me wrong, his movies are great, and anything he touches seems to turn into an instant cult classic. It’s just that… I don’t get what all the hoopla is about.

Now before I get burned at the stake for heresy, let me just explain myself a little bit.


I can truthfully say that I have NEVER seen a Tarantino movie in theatres before. I was like 8 years old when Reservoir Dogs came out, and 10 when Pulp Fiction came out two years later. And at those ages, the only movies that had any kind of relevance for me were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 and The Lion King. Plus, there was no way in hell my parents were going to take me to watch either of Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction, especially since they wouldn’t even understand what the hell was going on.

But one day, years later, when at long last I had finally grown up, I came home to eat lunch, but mom and dad weren’t home; so I eventually came to the decision to skip my afternoon classes and stay home… because that’s what college kids do. With no adult supervision around, I was free to do whatever I damn well pleased. So I locked the door to my room, lowered the lights, slipped into something more comfortable, crawled into bed and popped in a couple DVDs (No, not those kinds of DVDs). I finally watched Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. And I thought they were “just okay.” A small part of me also felt obligated to like them based solely on the fact that they were “Tarantino movies.” If I didn’t like them, then there was obviously something wrong with me.

So, in turn, when the Kill Bills came out, I didn’t feel very motivated to go out and watch those either.

Two words— “Net” and “Flix.”

Since I had heard so much hype about the Kill Bills, I thought they’d be the perfect movies to use my Netflix free-trial on. And sadly, I was a little disappointed. I don’t know why. But if I had to guess, it’s probably because all my friends kept saying, “Dude, it’s the best movie I’ve ever seen,” or “Bro, it’s awesome! You gotta watch it!” or my personal favorite, “It’s like… orgasmic… for the eyes!”

But… I didn’t get any of that. They were both just “Eh…” to me.

So when I heard that Tarantino was coming out with another movie, you can probably guess that I wasn’t really sold on watching it. But it’s not entirely to his discredit. The economy is partially to blame (Yea, I said it). $12 a ticket adds up pretty quickly (especially when you and your friends decide to start a movie blog). And realistically, I didn’t see anything in the trailers that was convincing me to go and spend my hard earned $12, plus $10 for popcorn and Diet Coke. I honestly wanted to just sit this one out.

But… because I’m a sucker for impulsively spending my money, and can’t really withstand any modicum of peer pressure, I spent my Friday night watching Inglourious Basterds.

And I must say… I loved it! Well, “love” is a strong word—I really, really, really, liked it!

But before I go into the full on review, here’s a brief synopsis-- It’s about killing Nazis.

Just kidding… not really… the plot really is that simple, but if that doesn’t satisfy you:

The film takes place during WWII in Nazi occupied France and is centralized around three main characters. The first is the Nazi Colonel Hans Landa, played by Christoph Waltz, who’s built quite the reputation for being “The Jew Hunter.” Then there’s Shoshana Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent), the sole surviving member of the Dreyfus clan, who were brutally massacre at the hands of Col. Landa. Years later, she takes refuge in Paris as the manager of a movie theatre. And finally, there’s The Basterds, a band of Jewish-American soldiers, whose sole purpose is to kill Nazis using guerilla warfare tactics. And yes, I classify them as one character, but more on that later. Essentially, all three characters have one goal, one common agenda—to put an end to the war.

So now onto the review…
First and foremost, I would be remiss if I didn’t recognize the phenomenal work that Christoph Waltz put forth in this movie. Not only did he BRING IT as the villain, but he also acted in four—one, two, three, FOUR—different languages seamlessly. (I can’t even act in ONE language!) And like all great villains, he was able to capture the very essence of evil, that menacing aura; from the very moment he appeared on-screen, you could feel the imminent danger, and not just because he was wearing a Nazi uniform. There was something deceptively deviant about Hans Landa, hidden behind all of his charm. He spoke French, he spoke English, he spoke German, he spoke Italian; he was polite and charismatic, cerebral but with an underlying sinister tone. Waltz was able to raise and drop the tension levels at will, stringing the audience along, like a cat playing with a mouse before killing it. But maybe that was the point—to make the audience feel like they were being involved in a meta-theatrical game of cat and mouse.

And since we’re on the subject of acting… sometimes I forget how good of an actor Brad Pitt is. It’s probably because most of his recent body of work that gets any kind of media attention involves either—a) Angelina Jolie; or b) Daniel Ocean (Ocean’s 11, 12, and 13).
But Brad Pitt really held it down as Lt. Aldo Raine, the gritty, albeit eccentric leader of The Basterds. He nailed the role of badass mother-*shut yo’mouth*—if you couldn’t tell by the “Nazi-Hunting-Give-Me-My-Scalps” speech in the trailer and the gigantic scar stretching across his throat. And most importantly he was a character outside of Brad Pitt. What I mean by that is in a lot of Brad Pitt’s movies (more so in his recent films), it just seems to be Brad Pitt acting. It seems like it’s a lot of his own self, his mannerisms and gesticulations, being incorporated into those roles, and consequently, his acting chops are never really on display. But in a movie like this one, where he has to turn on a dirty Southern accent, and really get into a character role, Brad Pitt disappears and all that’s left is Lt. Aldo Raine.

Alright, I think that’s enough about individual performances… Onward to the actual movie… The movie was nothing like I anticipated it to be. Of course it had all of its trademark Tarantino-isms, but it was actually relatively tame in the violence department. It wasn’t ALL blood, guts, and raw violence like the promos were making it out to be. There was actually a lot more dialogue than gunfights and Nazi killing. That being said, you can call it trickery, or false advertisement or whatever you want, one thing is for certain, Inglourious Basterds isn’t what you’d expect it to be based on the trailers. First of all, Brad Pitt may have been the biggest name attached to the movie, but he certainly wasn’t the STAR; that title belongs to Christoph Waltz, who, as I mentioned before, absolutely stole the show. Secondly, “Inglourious Basterds” is kind of an erroneous title—Erroneous! Erroneous on all accounts! (5 points if you know where that line’s from). The reason I say that is because The Basterds weren’t really featured throughout the entire movie. They had a few pivotal scenes, but the movie wasn’t necessarily centralized around them, which segues to my earlier point about The Basterds acting as one, singular character (it made more sense in my head). Other than Lt. Raine, I don’t think any of the Basterds really stood out. All the actors worked as a collective unit to bring the Basterds to life. Granted there were a few that were highlighted, and had their shining moment in the spotlight, but after those moments faded, they just became another Basterd face.

Anyone who’s seen the movie would probably agree that it’s really driven forward by the other two characters, Hans Landa and Soshana Dreyfus. And they would probably also agree that the story being told isn’t a story about American soldiers who are fighting enemy combatants during WWII. If you peel back all the layers and really look at the basic layout of the story, you’ll probably find that the real protagonist is Shoshana. She is arguably the only character that had any semblance of an arc, as the sole survivor of a brutal massacre, and years later, who finds herself sitting face-to-face with her family’s murderer. Without giving too much away, the story is basically about how she copes with her second encounter with the legendary Colonel Landa.

Lastly, the most surprising thing about this movie is the fact that it’s basically a foreign film. A good majority of it was spoken in a different language that wasn’t English, whether French, German, or Italian. At one point in time, French and German were being spoken at the same time. And there’s something to be said about a movie that can attach itself to a mainstream American audience despite the language barrier; the fact that the audience had to read most of the movie, rather than watch it, and still feel emotionally attached to the characters, speaks volumes about the artistry of this film. It was as if to say, good art is not restricted to one language, but pervades all languages.

So why did I enjoy this Tarantino flick more than the others?
I don’t know.

Maybe it was because I got in on the ground floor. I’ve noticed that there seems to be a certain “Tarantino Experience” when you watch his movies in the theatres, when they are fresh and unadulterated by all the hype that follows. I guess that may be true for a lot of movies, but for a director who has such an epic cult following, the hype seems to raise the standard of expectation for every one of his movies. Consequently, if you’re not already in the trenches to experience Tarantino’s movies first-hand, without the influences of blog reviews and hearsay from all of your friends, you’re always left feeling like all of his movies are just… “Eh…”



Images courtesy of The Weinstein Company and Universal Pictures.