Warhound

What a weird series of contradictions Inglourious Basterds is. It's epic in look and feel, but it ends on a whimper and wisecrack. It never stops explaining itself (creating the illusion of complication), but at the end of this simple tale of revenge, it feels like the line from A to B has been a straight one. It's a Quentin Tarantino film about atrocity, yet none of the violence feels gratuitous (at least to desensitized me). It was as brutal as its story demanded, no more and certainly a lot less than the much-maligned original trailer suggested.

Despite my gorehound tendencies, I'm not disappointed about that. It felt mature, as did the dialogue, which was deficient of the fast-talking, pop-culture worship that has defined Tarantino up till now. In that respect, making a period piece must have been something of a personal challenge. I guess he got some references in by saluting things like spaghetti Westerns and the French new wave. That stuff's off my radar, and I can't imagine how far it is off the average teenager that I shared space with on Friday. It made me chuckle that these kids came expecting a bloodbath and were instead presented essentially a reading assignment, given the amount of dialogue and the fact that it's almost all in French or German. It felt like a very gentle fuck you. That's yet another contradiction.

At this point, you can't really amputate a Quentin Tarantino picture from his body of work -- it's all part of an ongoing discussion (and sometimes that discussion feels like one long declaration of self-satisfaction). More than any other working director, I can't help but judge all of his movies against his past work. I wonder how Basterds would be taken on its own, not as Tarantino's grown-up quasi-historical epic. For one thing, I suspect it would have been made to come in at under two hours. Basterds didn't feel bloated to me, save the entirely expository scene, in which a pointless Mike Myers explained Operation Kino (the military plot to assasinate Hitler and other important members of the SS). Still, I can see how it is patience-testing, as it is a lot of sitting around and talking for relatively obvious pay-off (although Mélanie Laurent laughing at her oppressors via a projection on thick smoke is about as good of cinematic imagery as any I've seen this decade -- that alone was pay-off to me). I felt like the whole thing was tense, though. It affected my physiologically -- my pulse elevated, my hand strained from clenching. The movie is essentially a series of uncomfortable conversations, in which some powerful bad guy doesn't and can't know the secret of the good guy he's talking to (whatever it may be). I think it did a tremendous job of conveying the claustrophobia of occupation.

I just have one more point, but it's a major spoiler, so it's going under a cut...

Ultimately, the film made me wonder if Colonel Hans Landa, the Nazi "Jew Hunter," got a raw deal. Yes, his oppressive presence is conveyed in every uncomfortable conversation he has (and as the film's arguable central character, there are a lot of those) and he's obviously just heinous, but he is honest. The film is bookended by two deals struc by Landa -- in the first, he visits a farmer in the French countryside, and (in the rare English sequence) agrees to not prosecute him if he confesses that he's been hiding Jews. After the confession, Landa maintains his end of the deal. In the final deal, struck with Brad Pitt's Aldo Raine (or, rather, his superior), he allows Operation Kino to transpire, providing that he's given amnesty and, in fact, acknowledged as having been part of the plot all along. In the very final scene, Landa's fellow solider is shot, the deal is essentially terminated and Raine carves a giant swastika in his forehead. Not that anyone of his character deserves fairness, but given Tarantino's investment in spoken communication, I thought he might have more mercy for a man of his word. If that constitutes a contradiction, surely it's the most welcome one of all.

Comments

[mary]

I think you watch too many reality shows.

"I'm just being honest!" is not a good excuse.

Otherwise I agree with the post.

[Melissa]

I suppose if he hadn't been a Nazi, I would have agreed with you.

[Brittany]

I assumed that Landa was given his end of the deal he made just with a giant swastika carved into his head, lol.

[Fembot]

Eli Roth is the hotness. Who's with me?

I, too, found my pulse elevated and breath held, waiting to find out what was going to happen and WHEN.

For once, I wasn't disappointed. In fact, it was a helluv a lot better than I expected it to be.

(Anyone else surprised at how minor B. Pitt's role was? Given the press tour and trailer, I thought he was going to be the star.)

[Fembot]

damn...i forgot one last thing. i felt like shosanna's laughing while the cinema went up in flames was a little too Wizard of Oz for me.

[liz]

I don't see how we're supposed to know whether or not Landa actually did keep his promise to that family after they turned over the Jews - the scene ends with Shosanna's escape, never to be heard from again.

[liz]

The farmer's never heard of again, that is. Shosanna, of course, is.

[Jim]

But Landa couldn't be allowed to go on without the swastika, could he? We needed that scene to cement not only that his character itself was deeply corrupted, but also that Aldo and the Basterds were never about what was right or fair, but their own bloodthirst. I felt like it was the final confirmation that we had just watched an entire movie without a good guy which was, in its way, oddly satisfying.

[Vagabondblogger]

Landa scarred the Jew hider's home, and, in the end, he too was scarred with his secret. I loved the ending. When the deal was made there was a question of who was going to screw whom. Landa got what he gave.

Btw, I just think there's a few possibilities for Oscars/ Golden Globes here - the women were outstanding, and the actor who played Landa, as well. Mike Meyers - not! I almost fell asleep during his scene.

[CR]

I really like the movie and I totally agree that (1) the violence wasn't gratuitous and (2) that the film was incredibly tense. Just wondering Rich (or anyone else) WARNING MINOR SPOILER why do you think Landa let Shoshana go at the beginning?

[Ella]

ahem, this movie was atrocious.

pitt was unbearable as an actor. shit, even my dog could have done a better job acting. wasnt he supposed to have a southern swagger, a purpose. URGH. horrid. im surprised this movie even found a distributer.

[Nicole]

I'm with you, Fembot. I thought Eli Roth was wayyy hotter than Pitt.

[Billy D]

Brad Pitt was completely useless. The best part was him sticking his finger in Diane Kruger('s leg).

The whole story should have been about Shosanna and Landa (although that would have been very--well, exactly--Kill Bill). It would have been so much more satisfying if she had actually taken him down, in some way (not necessarily in the theatre).

[Liz M Librarian]

RE: your last point. I think you touched on something that a lot of people are missing in this film. QT is is someone who does push the envelope, and doesn't worship the heroes in his film (One can remember His comments regarding 'Kill Bill', saying that Vernita Green deserves revenge just as much as The Bride does), he makes them flawed and, at points, makes us wonder how much better they are than the people they hunt. I would guess that QT knows that Landa's fate isn't entirely fair, but I think that's his point- and he wants us to wonder if he deserves fairness at all.

Granted, you can say all of this better than I can. That said, I'm sure QT would absolutely love this review.

[forrestunknown]

We don't know if he actually kept his word to the farmer .... it cuts out before we actually knows what transpires.

Because if it was following what generally occurred during the war, since they had been housing jews ... punishments would have been dealt out .. perhaps not death .. but more like a beating and possibly rape particularly since it was mentioned how comely all 3 daughters were.

[Telly]

CR -

In the script, Landa has a little joke to Hermann about how lousy he thinks Shoshannah's chances of survival are now that every Jewish family in the village has been killed or rounded up. He also makes a point of saying he doubts she's very dangerous "for an enemy of the state," suggesting he recognizes the hypocrisy of the Nazi agenda and reinforcing QT's themes of irony and communication.

[Furniture removals Melbourne]

Oh great! Really enjoyed reading this debate I got a lot to catch up! Thanks for posting.

[jobs in nz]

Sorry about the Landa topic but I can’t help but notice this: Brad is gorgeous! But his is not as gorgeous as he was in his younger years.

[CR]

Thanks Telly.

[Laya]

I definitely enjoyed the movie, but the King Kong thing kind of made it for me. I laughed my ass off - just as much at people's reactions as the scene itself.

I agree that you can't really look at Tarantino's movies without looking at his entire oeuvre. I found myself being taken out of the moment because I was thinking: "Wow. This directly overhead room-to-room continuous shot is remarkably like the one in Kill Bill Vol. 1. And with another blond!"

I also thought a lot about how his movies are gritty and gory and all those things, but when you get down to they're fairy tales. These things don't happen. Events never fall so neatly into place. People rarely get what they deserve. Despite that this setup was probably his most fanciful, I felt like the outcome here was the most real. You get your payoff scene at the end, but somehow it's not as satisfying as, say, the Bride crying at the end of Kill Bill or the "Circle of Death" at the end of Death Proof. I think that's why it *almost* feels like Landa is getting a raw deal.

[becky]

"conveying the claustrophobia of occupation."

that's such a good point! i hadn't thought of it that way...
thanks for the review!!

[liz]

I don't want to read this review until I've seen the film! I hate spoilers. Off-topic, I've been obsessively reading all of your ANTM recaps, and I have to say, they are better than watching the show. Hilarious!

[Vagabondblogger]

Just a note - something my son brought to my attention. The beginning of the movie, Landa compares Jews to rats. In the cinema, as my son pointed out, the people were running around chaotically, and running over each other - just like a bunch of caged rats. As someone mentioned earlier, we don't know what Landa and his troops did after they shot up the farmer's house (even though he was quite taken by the daughters) and as with the rats, quite possibly the swastika on the forehead was an indication of how he (Landa) dealt with the farmer's family, i.e. how deals were made ("understood").

[Wiggs (The Beholder)]

I waited until I'd seen the film to read your review - I totes agree with you about the tension in every single Landa scene. There were times I thought I was going to jump out of my skin just from watching him.

I thought it was an incredible movie, but would have been better if I didn't walk out of the theater wondering what Tarantino's point was. I didn't come away with any insights about the cultural or military history of the war. But maybe I was hoping for too much.

Also, I could never see Pitt's character as anything other than Brad Pitt with a ridiculous accent. My husband completely disagrees, but I for one am getting a little sick of his flippant acting style. I feel like he plays every character with his tongue firmly in his cheek.

[Melissa]

Wiggs! I agree with you. I have never seen a movie with Brad Pitt (and Tom Cruise, actually) that made me for one second believe they were anyone else. Just not great actors, IMO.