Inglorious Bastards Reviews

its not a bad movie, its not a good movie, its definitely not a necessary movie.

quentin taratino is not my favorite moviemaker, but i do typically like his movies. he's a cheesy film nerd lustful style revisionist. for the most part taratino movies are purposefully gory, "naughty", over the top stylized, and full of film buff masturbation. and yeah he is good at it. most of the time his films are just raunchy fun.

thats is of course what he is up to here as well. except he has decided to take on more loaded material; namely hitler and the holocaust. when i heard about this movie my mind says "really, why?", i picked it up from goodwill on a whim (tells you how long this movie has been out before i actually got around to seeing it). a number of times i was looking for a movie to watch and would pick it up, read the box, and my mind is still asking "really, why?" its just so questionable for taratino to be slopping around on this subject. i couldn't imagine that he'd do anything good with it.

finally, some months later, i put the movie in and sat down to watch it, not really knowing what to expect. did he do a serious film? it certainly didn't sound like it from the box. even the title "inglorious bastards" suggests its a comedy.

the verdict: at least my verdict: its a typical taratino stylized exploitation film. its not at first noticable. brad pitt provides the first hints of it with his purposefully bad acting. he does it surprisingly good...which is of course bad (you see what i mean right....its good because its bad, its bad so its good. its bad acting which we're suppose to respect as being good...fuck it). he's not the only one in the movie with, way over the top bad acting, but he's by far the most grating.

plot: there are 2 actually that come somewhat together but only by coincidence and never actually aware of each other. one which starts the film about a jewish family which is caught and slaughtered by "the jew hunter" except he lets a young girl go. she later becomes a cinema owner. the second is pitts military unit who is sent in to provide extra cruel exploits to create fear in the minds of germans. he does this by creating a 'persona' on nicknames, etc, and by taking scalps and carving swastikas in the forehead of the very few he lets go to tell the story. all this comes together at the cinema where the top heads of german propaganda and hitler himself are screening their newest film. the jewish girl passing as Italian plans her revenge by burning down the cinema with them in it, and pitt's men are planning an operation to blow up the cinema with them in it. they are unaware of each others plans. of course there are other 'events' etc. but that is the main plot of it.

of course taratino has to use historical people to make this work. goebbels and hitler, etc, as well as a number of similar to actual people, and then wildly unlikely characters. all combine to act out this WII fantasy revenge film. I'm still, after watching this, left with the uneasy feeling of "really, why?" what was i suppose to take from that film? i know, i know; its just a bunch of silly exploitation nonsense. yet this is a subject where it seems, more than unnecessary, but downright disrespectful of the gravity of the subject. even if i buy into the idea of this being, like any other subject, material for creative story making, there still isn't much to gain from this film. like most of taratino's films, its pointless. but making this one somewhat exceptional there is clearly political issues and there are clearly more 'touchy' subjects which are being avoided. (although he does love to throw in this 'take that' moment of a loving relationship between the cinema woman and a black man). its like taratino wants to push buttons but also knows he has to hold back. it leaves the film with a sort've sigh. if you're gonna do it, do it. as it is this is taratino at his meekest. so again: "really, why?"


of course it could be said that there are a lot worse movies coming out on a weekly basis...so its not especially bad for a movie either. and its watchable enough to at some point probably see again....or at least i wouldn't not watch it again.

(6/10)