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The Inglorious Bastards AKA Quel maledetto treno blindato
1978. Rated R, 99 minutes.
Director: Enzo G. Castellari.
Starring Bo Svenson, Fred Williamson, Peter Hooten, Michael Pergolani.
In Europe during World War II, an enemy attack inadvertantly leads to the escape of a crew of U.S. military convicts on their way to be court martialed. Said criminals try to get to neutral Switzerland but somehow wind up in France doing a mission for the same Army that wants to court martial them. Its the type of movie where the basic construct of the story is actually pretty good but the execution isn't quite right. To make it a bit frustrating, occasionally something awesome will happen and then it'll become dull for a while until the next awesome thing happens. Part of the problem is they try to overdevelop the characters and create some sort of legendary rougue gallery. In doing this too much time is spent on these guys jawing at one another and the dialogue in these scenes isn't good enough to keep it interesting all the way through. Whenever the action picks up, its at its best. When the love story gets crammed in towards the end, its at its worse. In tone and style, what essentially have here is a bad spaghetti western version of The Dirty Dozen (especially apt since it is an Italian production). Even the tagline for the movie is "Whatever the Dirty Dozen did, they do it dirtier!" That said, it's enjoyable in the same manner as watching a train wreck. Things like 70s porn-staches and long hair on WWII soldiers, one guy dying twice during the same battle scene and the ever-so-cool Fred Williamson make it so bad it's awesome!
MY SCORE: -10/10
Inglourious Basterds
2009. Rated R, 153 minutes.
Director: Quentin Tarantino.
Starring Brad Pitt, Melanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Diane Kruger.
Plot: A group of hand-picked Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" work from behind enemy lines to hunt and kill Nazis duing World War II. Meanwhile, a Nazi hero becomes infatuated with a young French theater owner and pulls out all the stops to impress her. Inspired by 1978's The Inglorious Bastards.
The Good: As with most Tarantino fare, the story-telling is the draw, not necessarily the story he's telling. That actual story isn't one that if you only read the synopsis of would make you say that's definitely going to be a great movie. In fact, given that perhaps the most studied war of all time is highly fictionalized and romanticized to the nth degree, it has the potential to turn out really poorly. However, the skill with which the tale is told keeps you locked in. It manages to do this through dialogue that vacilates between tongue-in-cheek banter and tension raising diatribes seamlessley. We also get intense spy games and wonderfully over the top action sequences. Acting wise, there are strong performances all around but its the work of Christoph Waltz as Nazi Col. Hans Landa that really stands out. He has an ominous presence and easily conveys his characters twisted sense of humor. He makes Col. Landa arguably one of the decades best movie villains.
The Bad: Self-indulgence is a problem that continues to plague QT. In the 1990s, the pop-culture small-talk that made the dialogue in his movies sizzle was fresh, especially since it was all about recent and very popular movies. Since then, it seems hundreds of movies have used that same technique and its no longer cutting edge. Perhaps sensing this, and in keeping with this movie's setting we get lots of talk about classic, foreign and/or forgotten movies. The effect is we feel like QT shoe-horned it just to show off his knowledge of film history (though I'll admit the reference to King Kong is brilliant). Simply put, people who aren't Tarantino fans will write it off as more of the same overrated clap-trap. The other problem is that "The Basterds" don't get enough time of their own. We don't get to know any of them, other than Lt. Raine (Pitt). For the most part, they're introduced, a couple get a spotlight moment but that's really it. The opportunity for some great characters, particularly "The Bear Jew" is missed.
The Ugly: Lt. Raine trying to speak Italian.
Recommendation: Its an unusual entry into the war movie genre. It combines vengeance, espionage and a good deal of talking to create a thoroughly entertaining movie. Of course, it is Tarantino so it may be too crass, self-indulgent and just plain long for some folks. Others might be turned off by the blatant disregard of the facts in favor of the director's trademark stylized mayhem. As I heard an older lady remark to her husband while leaving the theater, "I usually like World War II stuff but that's not what that was about." Works for me. Oh, subtitleophobes beware, along with the English we get lots of French, German and a dash of Italian.
The Opposite View: Stephen Silver, The Trend
What the Internet Says: 8.5/10 on imdb.com (11/29/09), 88% on rottentomatoes.com, 69/100 on metacritic.com
MY SCORE: 9/10
My only problem with Inglorious Basterds was that the long dialogue was too obvious and not as fun as his past work.
Like for instance, Samuel L. and John Travolta talking about the trip to Europe was fun. Uma and John's restaurant scene was entertaining.
Pulp Fiction had strong characters talking about entertaining stuff where as in Basterds they were having conversations about generally boring stuff.
I can't speak for everyone, but Pulp Fiction was a movie that was so entertaining that at first I didn't realize I just sat through a movie that was 90% long dialogue(I did first watch it at about 8). In Basterds, a little kid would recognize that 20 mins in.
Oh yeah and I'm only comparing it to Pulp Fiction cause I don't remember QT's other work outside of Kill Bill.
