"You probably heard we ain't in the Prisoner takin' business; we in the Nazi killin' business. And cousin, business is a-Boomin'!"
Quentin Tarantino's spaghetti western about Nazi-hunting Jews and Jew-Hunting Nazis is one of the best War films I have seen since Saving Private Ryan.
What Steven Spielberg, did for "Ryan" with the realism and the horrors of WWII, Tarantino did with the Fiction of storytelling of the horrors of mankind itself... it just happened to take place during WWII.
In my younger years I used to chastise Tarantino for "copying" other peoples movies... but as I get older and my artistic views change, I am reminded of an old saying that goes like this: "An Artist doesn't Borrow, He Steals."
And what that means is, that a true artist TAKES something and MAKES it his OWN.
Tarantino did just that with Ingloirious Basterds.
This film was great from beginning to end.
There were parts of this movie where I'm not ashamed to say I was literally wringing my hands in nervousness, trying to figure out what was going to happen next.
You see... I am plagued with intelligence. And being that I am a movie buff, I have seen me a LOT of movies. More movies in fact than anybody else I have ever met. You name the Genre and I have been through it like Mexican food through an English tourist. Love Sci-fi. Love Action. Love Westerns. Love Horror. HATE Musicals. LOVE me some War movies! But I am just sick and tired of the same old Hollywood Crap being shoved down our throats every year, just with bigger budgets, younger stars and More CGI than you can shake a broken Transformer toy at.
Ingloirious Basterds was another Tatantino masterpiece of characters. There were a few characters in the background of the story that I would have liked to know more about, but that only really sweetens the deal. Tarantino, whether you like him or not, is a master at developing a character into someone you can relate to, someone you can understand, someone you can come to care about... before he utterly destroys them.
There was a refreshing amount of special effects in this movie that were NOT CGI.
Mind you that this was in no way a cavalcade of special effects by any means... no. This was a movie about People. Just like Pulp Fiction was a movie about People.
When Quentin Tarantino released Pulp Fiction... myself and everyone I knew at the time was rocked to the core with something earth-shattering that we had never seen before. True characters, that whether they lived or died, stuck in your memory from then on.
Now, I am in no way swinging from Tarantino's ballsack here. I am just saying that as I get older and the more I am riddled with Matrix-CGI-Slow-Mo-Bullshit, the more I can Appreciate a good story with good characters. Great Dialog is something thats missing from American movies now-a-days. Snide remarks, Jaw-dropping explanations, Furious stares, Heads exploding, bullets ripping through people, big knives jammed into peoples skulls... thats just good clean American fun.
I've said it before and I'll say it again... you dont have to have an explosive budget and tons of CGI to make a good movie. If you have good actors, a good director, a good story and a inovative special effects crew, you can make an incredible movie like Tarantino has pulled out of his ass her for us now. I like Tarantino in general, but he has had his ups and downs.
Here's what I think of Tarantino's career thus far.
Reseviour Dogs = Fucking Brilliant!
Pulp Fiction = Changed the Movie industry as we know it; Couldn't be cooler.
His role in Desperado = Priceless.
His segment in Four Rooms = A Rip-off.
His role and Co-directing in From Dusk till Dawn = fan-fucking-tabulous!
Jackie Brown = A Giant piece of fly-covered SHIT.
Kill Bill = Part 1 was Awesome, Part 2... ehh. He blew his load early on that one. If they would have let him edit it his way and shown it as a complete six-hour movie with an intermission in the middle... it would have been a slice of fried gold.
Death Proof = Slow, methodical... but kicked mega-amounts of ass when the action got underway (can't go wrong with the word "Death" in a title.)
Ingloirious Basterds = Rebooting the American movie making industry again.
This movie made me want to bash in the skull of every Nazi I could find. I have always hated Nazis, even though I have some German Heritage in my bloodline... but I am AMERICAN through and through. Both my Grandfathers fought in WWII and survived with incredible stories to tell.
World War II was our Finest hour, where we stood tall in front of the rest of the world and jammed our flag in Adolf Hitler's ass and proclaimed ourselves the BEST.
And Nobody dared to deny it for quite some time.
There should be many more WWII movies made in my personal opinion, the stories and the people who fought in this war were just awe-inspiring, and I just can't get enough Nazi killing in my daily routine.
And Speaking of killing Nazis... Brad Pitt did an amazing acting job in this film as Lt. Aldo Raine: Commander of "The Basterds"... if you ask me. I think he is a very competent actor anyway, but a movie like this is where he can really shine. Carrying that big ass Bowie knife, carving his way across Nazi-occupied France with his band of Jewish Nazi-killers. I loved every second he was on screen.
I give this movie 9 smiley faces
... I would have given it 10 but I think it could have been a little more Violent.As for the Misspelled Title that everybody is having conniption fit over... well, aside from being a throwback to Lt Raine himself... I think Tarantino did it to fuck with the only real Nazi threat left in this shitty World. . .
The Grammar Nazis.