Friday, August 21, 2009

Inglorious Basterds Discussion

Sam and Jordan make like Tarantino and amuse themselves with the sound of their own voices!

6 comments:

  1. Jordan,
    It seems like you may have suffered a bit from raised expectations. As I mentioned in my review expectations of a film can largely change how you feel about it. Going into it thinking "best war story ever" may have helped in making it seem a bit lacking. I went in expecting no such thing. But for the most part we seem to be pretty much in agreement about the movies overindulgence or as you put it, tarantino enjoying the sound of his own voice. How much did the crowd there piss you off?

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  2. Sam,
    You made an excellent point that the movie is going to be misunderstood by two opposing sides. I think both the torture porn side and the "DIE NAZIS DIE" side will be able to make arguements that this is all the film amounts to, but as you pointed out, I think the scene of Hitler's glee at the massacre onscreen before him shows us there is a nundercurrent to the movie, even if it is a shallow one. Tarantino is, if nothing else, making an interesting (if previously tread upon) point about how we watch movies, and what is a little crazy about that. In terms of questions for you, I have to ask: didn't you expect to see more of the Basterds?

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  3. Sam,
    The guys sitting right next to me, who HAD to be high for the amount they chuckled at even the least humorous exchanges, made me want to kill myself. Their cheering at every single death made me feel like a sepctator at a Gladiator match...and I think that might be how Tarantino wanted me to feel...-Jordan

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  4. As for raised expectations, I had been eagerly awaiting this movie for about a decade, and that did leave me feeling a bit delfated, so I'll agree.-Jordan

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  5. Jordan,
    I really expected Basterds to be just a violent romp where I can get my jollies of my Jewish homeboys bashing in heads, and for the most part i did. I think a few directors who handle the "how do we watch movies" thing are Hitchcock (macguffin stuff and rear window) and when it comes to violence in cinema the master is Michael Haneke.

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  6. I was going to reference Rear Window, and I think Tarantino is doing a bit of the ol' Hitchcock on us, but I should point out that Rear Window is a far superior movie, and even what Haneke does feels like more fully realized cinema than Basterds. What I meant, though, is that I thought they would be bigger characters in the movie...Samm Levine had MAYBE one line, and most of the Basterds were only onscreen for one scene in the movie titled after them...Like I said in the review, I'm not sure this was a bad choice, but it definitely defied my expectations...-Jordan

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