Inglourious Basterds: Tarantino Breaks His Own Mold
!!!MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD – THIS MEANS YOU!!!
With his World War II period piece, Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino retains his indulgent signature style – sans pop culture references – and pulls off one of the greatest scenes of wish-fulfillment in movie history. Everything you’d expect from a Tarantino movie is here: lengthy dialogue scenes, aesthetic violence, womens feet, creative use of language, and Harvey Keitel (he’s uncredited, but I’ll eat my shoe if that wasn’t him on the radio with Pitt). But Tarantino managed to do something else that, for me, he’s never really achieved before (besides not making a cameo in his own movie). He created a scene of purely visual, cinematic gold. The kind of scene blurbed about in film study books. In future courses, professors might mention the climax of Basterds alongside the Odessa Steps scene in Battleship Potemkin, the Train Station Steps scene in The Untouchables, and the Courtroom Steps scene in Bananas. I guarantee they won’t, steps aren’t involved, but the scene is academia all the same and a testament that Tarantino is capable of truly shocking us with more than gore and Uma Thurman’s Skeletor Feet.
My focusing on this particular scene is not meant to take away from the rest of the movie. As a whole, it’s better than most shit that came out this summer. Austrian actor Christoph Waltz is perfect as Hans Landa, the “Jew Hunter” who comes off as charming despite his murderous occupation. This relatively unknown and inexperienced Austrian manages to out-act everyone in the movie, including lead Brad Pitt, who plays the Foghorn Leghorn leader of the Basterds, Aldo Raine. The whole theater cheered for Eli Roth, as Bostonian slugger Donny “The Jew Bear” Donowitz, when, after bashing the head of an SS officer in with a bat, plays announcer and shouts out Fenway and Lansdowne. (I’m sure being in MA had nothing to do with that.) The pace of the movie felt clunkly in places and the potential suspense in major scenes is never fully realized, but I just want to talk about the climax so…
I assume if you read this far you saw the movie, so I’m not going to write a synopsis of the climax. So, dear readers, what did you think of this scene? Tarantino boldly flips history, puts the Nazis in an oven, and kills Hitler. I’m sure this fantasy has been done before in alternate history comics and novels, but the difference here is that it’s not an alternate history; Tarantino doesn’t ask “Well, what if Hitler and his minions were killed in ’44, ending the war then and there?” Hitler just gets shot in the face 5,000 times by Donowitz, the Nazi leaders burn, and the movie ends shortly after with Raine getting in the final line: “This might be my masterpiece” – a playful bit of self-indulgence by Tarantino. As the theater burns with the Nazi heads inside, as Basterds Donowitz and Zimmerman (Michael Bacall) stand in a balcony mowing them down, the vengeful spirit of Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent – see below – she looks like a more attractive Juliet from Lost) is projected onto the smoke, triumphantly laughing at her orchestration from beyond the grave. It’s a vision of Nazi-Hell on Earth. And it’s beautiful.
A lot of critics are saying how this movie is a meditation on evil; examining what people are capable of. But that’s just academic jerking off. Thin Red Line this is not. I never questioned if what the Basterds were doing was “ethical.” Like Raine says in the movie, the Nazis have no humanity. They don’t deserve mercy, scalp the shit out of them. I know that, despite what their personal beliefs were, German men didn’t really have a choice but to enlist (see: the current Pope was in the Hitler Youth), but this is fiction and all Nazis are scum. Something tells me Tarintino isn’t a pacifist philosopher challenging his audience to take a look at themselves in the proverbial mirror. I thought the movie had more to do with the role of movies/propaganda than anything else. The movie within the movie, “A Nation’s Pride,” acts as a Triumph of the Will and examines how the Nazi image was presented to the public. But what if, in the end, Tarantino just wanted to make a movie where Hitler and the Nazis get theirs in the most satisfying way imaginable? Well then mission accomplished, amen.
August 22nd, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Great write-up of a great movie, dude. If nothing else, Basterds definitely resonated with me. I’ve been thinking about it all day, wanting nothing more than to watch it again. It succeeds on a couple of levels for me – as an investigation on the power of propaganda, as a hilariously ruthless bloodbath, as the usual typical Tarantino banter, and finally, as a visually stunning film.
August 22nd, 2009 at 8:16 pm
I had a great time watching this. The shot of Roth turning Hitler’s head into dust was fantastic.
And hearing the whole theater groan during the first scalping scene was priceless.
August 22nd, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Amazingly this movie’s dialogue didn’t make me want to kick Tarantino’s ass with a ball point pen and a dictionary. That being said, it was phenomenal. Completely and utterly fantastic. Its a shame that people are stupid enough to believe that it “didn’t live up” to the “hype”. Thank you for once again Doing another fantastic movie write up. oh and Eli Roth really takes this movie to a whole different level. Without him it might have just been good. But he really brings the entire vibe of the movie up.
August 22nd, 2009 at 10:27 pm
I would agree on all of the throwbacks to the famous stair scene, loved the original and love this version of it. This movie was great, I’m glad he finally got to put this out there.
and good wrapped up on the movie man.
August 22nd, 2009 at 11:58 pm
You’re kind of an idiot.
and the scene in question takes place in 1944 not ’42.
and it’s Omar Doom who plays Pfc. Omar Ulmer, I don’t think there’s a Zimmerman character in the whole movie.
Shit, just do a little fuckin research.
August 23rd, 2009 at 1:11 am
woooooooah, harsh film school.
But yeah I’m still J-ing my D to some of the kills; fucking loved the bar scene where the dialogue was dragged out forever building the tension to the kill scene and then every died in two seconds. That was genius.
August 23rd, 2009 at 1:28 am
I honestly didn’t even listen to what Roth was saying when he “stepped up to the plate.” I couldn’t get over how different he looked, so . . . beefy (I read he put on something like 30 lbs). I’m going to have to see it again because I well . . . damn he was just so good, and because I had to sit up front in the theater and missed a ton of captions. I secretly want to bring my friend who speaks fluent German to see if Tarantino was fucking with us at any point.
And Harvey Keitel HAD to be the commander’s voice at the end there. Sammy J’s voice was in the movie, too!!!
I loved some of Tarantino’s subtle ironies as well. Shosanna Dreyfus was the epitome of the Aryan Race (blond hair/blue eyes) AND their wartime hero was irreversibly smitten with her. Appearances, not being what they may (of course as in propaganda), are a major contributor to all the carnage.
But, and while it’s not a Thin Red Line, it does succinctly sum up what will be drawn out in the academic world at length, there will be a Philosophy and Inglourious Basterds book out by Christmas. It won’t just be the “pacifist philosophers” weighing in asking people to look at themselves in the “proverbial mirror” (while a clever line Mr. Mars, English students rejoice, it was rather glib, but hey, I hear glib and snark are in these days, so rock on). I do read what you’re saying though, and I semi-agree. I felt Tarantino dealt more with the idea of “accountability.” Fuck the reason why you committed the “evil,” you’re still accountable, hence the carving of the swastika into the SS foreheads (Mark of Cain, what, what!?!). That is, in fact, the last scene Tarantino leaves us with. In my opinion, the last line is more meant to play-off Goebbels pat on the back from Hitler for Nation’s Pride but also, quite probably, Quentin killing two birds with one self-indulgent stone.
He wasn’t trying to be terribly coy with said message which I appreciate. He just . . . told it (created it) like he saw it and said believe it, dig it, or storm the fuck outta the theater.
August 23rd, 2009 at 8:45 am
Great write up. I loved this movie even more than I thought I would–Tarantino’s revenge theme just gets better and better for me. And even though his character was almost totally unsympathetic (which wasn’t really the point anyway), Daniel Bruhl was amazing as Frederick Zoller. I looooved him in Good Bye Lenin, so stoked to see him again.
August 23rd, 2009 at 9:22 am
@the cock of Johnny Thunders – Michael Bacall plays PFC Michael Zimmerman. IMDB it. I’ll go in and fix the date, thanks, you handsome devil.
August 23rd, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Is Major Spoiler a character in the movie?
August 23rd, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Thank you, Cobra.
August 24th, 2009 at 12:19 am
I think the acting was out of this world, apart from Eli Roth. But Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger and Fredrick Zoller all destroy in multi-fucking-lingual performances. French is my fist language and I gotta say the germanophone’s did an impeccable job in French. I couldn’t imagine how stressful it must have been to act in your third language on a such a huge stage.
I would have liked to get to know the basterds a bit more though. I also want an Aldo the Apache saturday morning cartoon show.
I’m not sure how strong the second weekend will be from a box office point of view…
The Weinstein’s are gonna guarantee an oscar nod for Christopher Waltz no question.
August 24th, 2009 at 12:19 am
winston churchill was also the shit.
September 2nd, 2009 at 12:15 am
he has this epic theme of justifying violence.
great addition to the series.
final scene undeniably made the movie. it is all that matters, and admittedly it did seem to take just a little too long to get there.