Tarantino tackles Hitler in 'Inglourious Basterds'

Dirty deeds are done dirt cheap, but notoriety comes at a hefty price

BY EMIL TIEDEMANN

"It was a ridiculous movie," blasted Brad Pitt when German magazine Stern recently asked his opinion of Tom Cruise's Hitler-era feature Valkyrie. "The Second World War could still deliver more stories and films, but I believe that Quentin put a cover on that pot," Pitt continued, this time referencing Tarantino's latest cinematic asskick Inglourious Basterds. Such blatent animosity for last year's Valkyrie may put a damper on the friendship of the Hollywood kings, but I can only assume Pitt would prefer Quentin "Aestheticizator of Violence" Tarantino in his corner than Tom "Couch Jumper" Cruise.

Enough with that Hollywood gossip shit now, let's chat about an insanely entertaining--at times--war epic as told (made-up) from the warped mindset of one of the most adventurous filmmakers of the last 20 years, Quentin Jerome Tarantino. He's the same man who resurrected tintsletown dropouts like John Travolta (Pulp Fiction) and David Carradine (Kill Bill); the same guy who dismembered Sydney Poitier et al as "Hold Tight!" by Dave Dee et al played on (Death Proof); and the same genius who transformed Michael Madsen into an ear-cutting, flesh-roasting madman (Reservoir Dogs). And now, the man tackles one of the most infamous eras of mankind, and comes out on the other side with Nazi blood on his hands.

Just when you thought we had seen every angle of WWII, Tarantino flings us back into Nazi-occupied France, though he insists that his fictionalized film is a "spaghetti western but with World War II iconography" more than anything else. Whatever category Basterds may fit squarely into, the 153-minute feature is a slick, turbulent and classy--and I use that term loosely--step back into a time when Adolph Hitler decided that he was appointed the ruler of the world and the extinguisher of all Jews.

In this alternate history of a movie Brad Pitt tries on a soldier's uniform and a Tennessee accent as the ringleader of the "arse-kicking," Nazi-killing Jewish-American squadron known as the "Basterds." They take it upon themselves to seek and destroy the swastika-branded troops of Germany's National Socialism party, using methods of mayhem that requires each warrior to bring commanding officer Aldo Raine (Pitt) 100 Nazi scalps, borrowing from the carnal procedures of the Apache Indians.

Intrigued yet?!

Meanwhile, Mèlanie Laurent is Shosanna, a Holocaust survivor who escapes Colonel Hans "Jew Hunter" Landa (Christoph Waltz) (pictured below) during a lethal interrogation of a French dairy farm. A few years have passed since she witnessed the bloodshed of her family at the hands of the strong-armed "Jew Hunter," and she's taken up refuge in the bustle of metro France, where she changed her name and now runs the very cinema that will host the upcoming Nazi propaganda film Stolz der Nation (A Nation's Pride).

Therein lies the backbone of this sometimes-savage, sometimes-elongated, most times-encompassing peek into a theatrical substitute for the truth of the demise of Hitler. Shosanna's small, but refined movie house is the one opportunity in which Hitler and his gang of senior officers will all be together under the same roof ("all our rotten eggs in one basket"), a chance for the Basterds to end the war for good, and a chance for Shosanna to retrieve the ultimate revenge for the butchery of her loved ones. But if you must know what goes down from here on in, you're gonna have to shell out the $13 and head out to your local theatre for yourself.

If you don't go check it out, your loss I guess, but don't say I didn't warn ya. Now don't get me wrong, Basterds was far from perfect. It may have stretched out longer than I had anticipated, as a couple of scenes easily couldn't been levelled, but I'm not complaining! Pitt's '40s-hick accentè took some getting used to at first, but was like music to my ears by the second hour. And being a big fan of TV's The Office, B.J. Novak (as "The Little Man") seemed far out of place, but I couldn't blame such a thing on anything but my obsession for Michael Scott & co. Other than those minor indiscrepancies, Basterds flowed like warm Nazi blood down the cold blade of a vigilante sunuvabitch, unless of course you're "The Bear Jew" (Eli Roth) (pictured above right), who prefers his trusty Louisville slugger to anything made of metal. Good stuff indeed.

"Basterds flowed like warm Nazi blood down the cold blade of a vigilante sunuvabitch"

The art of war prevails in moments of Inglourious Basterds, whether they be moments of uber intimidation (Waltz is flawless as the pipe-smoking, milk-drinking linguistics Nazi), momentous retribution (the white man samples the scalping rituals of Native-American warfare), or insidious betrayal (Diane Kruger (pictured below) is ravishing as a German movie starlet who answers to the French instead). All such moments are aspersed throughout the Samuel L. Jackson-narrated feature, which borrowed inspiration from Enzo Castellari's Italian war film The Inglorious Bastards (1978), though this current spin is no remake.

Then there's the music. Tarantino has become famous for his throwback to "classics" and obscure ditties that never made the rounds of the radio airwaves, and he doesn't refrain here either, as the two and a half hours of Fascist slaughtery are delivered as so to the sounds of David Bowie, Billy Preston and Oscar-winning Italian composer Ennio Morricone, none of whom were active during the Second World War. In fact, Bowie and Preston weren't even born yet. This allowed for that progressive feel that Basterds was drenched in, not to mention extended cameos by the likes of Novak and Mike Myers (as General Ed Fenech).

So there you have it, my thoughts on Tarantino and his motley crew of Nazi assassins...a bold tale of what never was, but what a glorious afterthought, eh?! Tarantino has a way of making moviegoers crave what they would never wish upon their worst enemies, and he gives it a spin that tests aged and current formulas of filmmaking until they interweave into an audacious cloak of cult-status bliss. "With Basterds, everything that can be said to this genre has been said," Pitt revealed in that aforementioned interview with Stern. "The film destroys every symbol. The work is done, end of story." Yeah, what he said.

4/ 5 stars

Inglourious Basterds Trailer

Inglorious Basterds is Exhilarating!

Filling the fantasy of what we wish we could have done to Hitler

BY COLIN ENQUIST

Quentin Tarantino worked on the script for Inglorious Basterds for almost a decade. During that decade the exceptional filmmaker has given us: Kill Bill (Vol 1 & 2), Deathproof (part of the Grindhouse double feature with Robert Rodriguez), and a CSI: Crime Scene Investigation two part season finale (which got Tarantino an Emmy Nomination). Not only did he direct these entire but wrote them as well (with the exception of CSI which he co-wrote) and he had minor roles in a few of the films.

This revenge war film that Tarantino has repeatedly stressed is a “spaghetti western but with a World War II iconography” takes place mostly in 1944, after D-Day but before the liberation of Paris. Inglorious Basterds is set in an alternate history of the Second World War.

Like most other Tarantino films, Inglorious Basterds has a cast of movie stars from beginning to end. Some are prominent, taking central roles: Brad Pitt and Eli Roth, others get little screen time: Mike Myers and Michael Fassbender, and a few only lend their voices: Samuel L. Jackson and Harvey Keitel. Tarantino regulars are around as well but it is the new faces in Christopher Waltz and Melanie Laurent who steal the show.

Waltz was nominated (and won) the Best Actor Award at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival for his role in this film. The multi-linguistic actor displays magnificent depth and he is: pure evil, derisive, articulate, intelligent, and absurd. Aside from Waltz, most of the other actors/actresses do not have much screen time. Even the main protagonists in Pitt and Laurent have limited screen time, despite such integral parts to the story. Pitt looks like he is having too much fun as his role of commanding officer of the Basterds.

Tarantino has used extreme violence that always pushes the boundaries and this film is no exception. This is not for those with a weak stomach. It is painful to watch some of the damage done to the human body during the times of war.

Dialogue filled and driven is the heart of any Tarantino film. I have always enjoyed this aspect of his films but I think it hurt this film slightly. Not to say the film would have been better in only English dialect but the constant reading took away from the focus on character reaction to the conversation(s) occurring.

Inglorious Basterds has some very good scenes but one stood out for me. When the Nazis are watching the premiere of “Nation’s Pride” (based off of a character’s exploits in Inglorious Basterds) they are laughing at the 300 Americans dieing on film. This propaganda film makes the Nazis so happy. A little spoiler for the ending here, so skip the rest of the paragraph if you want! Yet at the climax of both films, 350 Nazis (Hitler included!) get shot, are burned alive and caught in a giant explosion, causing the same joyous feeling to come over the audience I was watching the film with. There was no shouting and laughing like the Nazis were but you could tell the reaction was emotionally the same.

I have no knowledge (and I do not think Tarantino knows either) as to why Basterds is spelled incorrectly in the title of the film. During the film though we see Brad Pitt’s character, Lt. Aldo Raine, carry a gun holding with the title written on the barrel, so maybe the title is incorrect because Lt. Raine is possibly illiterate?

This could possibly be Tarantino’s best film since Pulp Fiction. I may throw out the argument for Deathproof to be included in that conversation of best Tarantino film. A brutal film, Inglorious Basterds draws on Tarantino’s strong dialogue to drive the story. Ending with Brad Pitt finishing his “masterpiece”, which may prove to also be Tarantino’s?

4 out of 5

SiM Poster: Inglorious Bastereds

This is the international poster for the Quentin Tarantino film Inglorious Bastereds which will hit theatres August 11th, 2009. Samuel L. Jackson is the narrator of the film while Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger, Mike Myers and Julie Dreyfus round out the stellart cast.

David Carradine's Death May Be Accidental

Suicide not completely ruled out, but not likely the cause

BY EMIL TIEDEMANN

As reported Thursday, film and television actor David Carradine's lifeless body had been discovered in his luxury hotel room closet in Bangkok, Thailand, but police officials have now focused their attention on an accidental death rather than a suicide, which is what evidence had initially pointed to.

Reporters and bloggers alike are speculating that the legendary Kung Fu actor, who was 72 at the time of his death, may have been engaged in auto-erotic asphyxiation, an extremely dangerous form of sexual experience that involves temporarily cutting off one's oxygen supply to the brain in order to heighten sexual climax.

"When I arrived, I saw the dead body with a string of rope tied around his neck, also tied around his wrist," stated Police Colonel Somprasong Yenthuam, the Lumpini Police Superintendent. The officials also claimed that another rope had been tied around Carradine's genitals.

"The two ropes were tied together," said Lt. General Worapong Chewprecha. "It is unclear whether he committed suicide or not or he died of suffocation or heart failure." Either way, there was no evidence of another person being in Carradine's room of the Swissotel Nai Lert Park Hotel at the time of his death.

Hollywood was abuzz with the actor's untimely death, as friends of the late actor immediately denounced the possibilty of suicide, including Quentin Tarantino, who directed Carradine in the Kill Bill films (2003-04) that introduced the aging star to a whole new generation.

"All we can say is, we know David would never have committed suicide," insisted Tiffany Smith of the actor's management company Binder & Associates. "We're just waiting for them to finish the investigation and find out what really happened. He really appreciated everything life has to give...and that's not something David would ever do to himself."

Carradine had flown to Thailand only last week to begin filming a French movie titled Stretch, which is one of several upcoming projects he had been signed to appear in. He had just three days left of filming. "David was apparently very happy about this new role and about filming again," claimed the film's spokesperson Monica Donati.

A chambermaid discovered Carradine's nude body in the hotel room, but no suicide note had been found. Carradine, best-known for his role in TV's Kung Fu series, had appeared in well-over 100 movies over the last 45 years. He leaves behind a wife and three children.

SiM Poster: Inglourious Basterds

Spaghetti-western war film is full of class-A Basterds!


Here is one of the latest posters released by Universal Pictures for Quentin Tarantino's WWII epic Inglourious Basterds, which is scheduled to hit theatres on August 21st. The highly-anticipated movie, which comes in at more than 2 and a half hours long (!), stars Brad Pitt as a pissed-off hillbilly looking to kick some Nazi ass! Partially inspired by Enzo Castellari's 1978 film of the same name, Basterds also features Melanie Laurent (Rice Rhapsody), Michael Fassbender (Hunger), Diane Kruger (Troy), B.J. Novak (The Office), Mike Myers (Shrek), and newcomer Christoph Waltz, in his first production.