Movie Monday: Inglourious Basterds

Inglourious Basterds or The Giant Jewish Jerk-Fest Tarantino Made?

When I first saw the trailer for Inglourious Basterds my initial and admittedly bigoted response was, “A bunch of nerdy Jewish looking actors brutally killing Nazis… did Tarantino just set-up the ultimate Hollywood executive (read Jewish) circle jerk?” Needless to say, I didn’t bother to catch it in theatres. Reviews came in overwhelmingly positive from my pseudo film buff guy friends with a penchant for violence (fittingly). They promised stunning cinematography, a well-paced and cleverly written story, an Oscar worthy performance, another dope Tarantino soundtrack, and a healthy release of testosterone. After the easily foreseeable and overblown finale I was left with most of the aforementioned items matched by a serious case of blue balls. Historical revisionism has been employed here merely for the sake of another undeniably cool yet empty Tarantino film.

On the road to pointlessness there is a lot of fun to be had while watching Inglourious Basterds. Christopher Waltz deserves all the praise he has received for his performance as Colonel Hans Landa aka ‘The Jew Hunter,’ leading this impressive ensemble cast (with the exception of Brad Pitt’s rarely amusing, mostly annoying Aldo Raines and Hostel director Eli Roth’s awful acting turn as ‘The Bear Jew’). It’s a Tarantino movie so of course the dialogue is slick and absorbing and like I said before, the soundtrack kicks ass. The moving pictures are beautiful and major props are due to cinematographer Robert Richardson. The opening sequence is probably Tarantino’s best yet and the careful pacing and elegant visuals from a stationary camera (not handheld) are much appreciated.

Instead of peppering in evidence of his film buffery, movies appear to be the only real focus of Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. There are memorable characters but they serve no deeper purpose than being a part of the spectacle of vengeance and endless film related references. If you are going to rewrite history I would hope that it would be a bit more interesting and thought provoking than simply having the bad guys die in grand fashion. But Quentin would rather continue to glorify violence while simplifying and trivializing such an important chapter in modern history. A great opportunity to comment on fascism and American foreign policy was squandered in this film.

There exists a disturbing phenomenon of military personnel who masturbate to war footage captured from the cameras attached to remote-controlled drone planes. Inglourious Basterds comes off like a high budget piece of war porn. If you feel dirty after watching it I might suggest renting Joyeux Noël, the powerful true story of French, German and Scottish soldiers in the trenches of WWI breaking rules by calling a peace and spending Christmas together. I’ve heard the argument that Taratino’s excessive use of violence is somehow satirical. Oh sure…it’s about as satirical as Rush Limbaugh’s use of ‘retards.’ And for the record, some of my best friends are super Jewish.