If you read my review on the movie "Surrogates", you will notice my anxiety anticipating for the movie Inglourious Basterds, a new film from Quentin Tarantino, one of my favorite Hollywood filmmaker since Pulp Fiction in 1994. This is a movie created by Tarantino where most of its character and events are purely fictional albeit set in world war II, because Tarantino would just love it to bend history only to tell the audiences his own wacky version and also as a template of reason to display a series of stylish action violence. Though the main reason i would avoid this movie is due to Brad Pitt's participation, he turned out to be just alright and though i don't quite like him, he certainly has a gift in convincingly playing psychotic, sassy and wacky characters like those displayed in Twelve Monkey(1995), Kalifornia(1993), and Fight Club(1999) and of course in this film. Now back to Quentin Tarantino. Quentin has an intesting journey to become one of the most notable moviemaker in Hollywood. He didn't actually have a formal filmmmaking education like other common directors. He, Paul Thomas Anderson, Kevin Smith, and Richard Linklater are examples of notable Hollywood directors who develop their skill of moviemaking NOT by attending school, instead they gained it by watching literally thousands of video in their adolescent years. One of tarantino's trademarks is the interesting dialog between the characters, and they are smart ones in most of his films. Things, that we normally know by heart or even unconsciously but never fully realize it, and when the moment of realization is unleashed as the film is unfolded before our eyes, we know that we are experiencing a smart film. Having said that, I realize that there are a lot of people out there (including you) who don't share my views of the importance of having clever and smart lines or dialogs in a movie to be more enjoyable.
Unfortunately, the film while still enjoyable lacked that smart dialogs i was talking about. In this film, they are rather boring, not really interesting and contribute a little part or almost nothing to the plot of the film as a whole. In Pulp fiction, the dialogs seemed random but they are actually pertaining to the story or at the very least they are interesting. Here, Tarantino brutally injects thousands of random outbursts going nowhere. Unlike Pulp fiction where the dialog is as exhilarating as the action, in this movie I can't help myself to uncomfortably move a little part of my body in discomfort due to seemingly never coming action part of the film. But when it did come, I was satisfied, it is typical stylish and gory Tarantino violence (exemplified by the vicious Nazi killer, played by Eli Roth) mixed with stylish action sequences. By the way, Brad Pitt's character in this movie seemed to have more enjoyable lines than the others, they are rather funny in a dark way of course. Not to discriminate, but it is a relief to have Americans character in a film mainly centers around Europeans. One big clap is for Christopher Waltz playing the German high officer, Col. Hans Landa. It was a brilliant performance. Once, Tarantino had a plan to cast Leonardo Dicaprio for this rather eccentric and evil character, but I am glad he canceled it because, despite being a character-based actor, Leo would have a hard time to pull it off like Chris does. He should merit a consideration for best supporting actor award.
Another notable trademark about Tarantino’s films is its female characters. Female characters in Tarantino’s movies are always depicted as being tough, macho, mean, and sometimes deadly. He doesn’t seem to be interested to portray female as a weak, sensitive, and lovely character, instead he would just go ahead and really treat women like men in Tarantino’s world of emancipation. One particular female character, Shosanna Dreyfus, played by the beautiful and sweet French actress Melanie Laurent is an esthetical relief for a film with blood and guts. Despite that, she is a vicious and vengeful young lady who would stop at nothing to accomplish what she wants including terminating the very life of a man who naively had a crush on her. This film contains a lot of violence toward female and it immediately really reminds me of his other movie which I love to death, Kill Bill and a mediocre Death Proof section of The Grindhouse. Unfortunately, they were not strong enough which is understandable since this is a movie based on world war II where level playing field is mostly occupied by men. All and all, this is still a very good movie to see though I am disappointed by the fact that it really could be Tarantino’s masterpiece (like the lines Brad Pitt’s character uttered at the very last violent sequence of the movie) if it were not due to those unnecessary rubbish dialogs in the middle.
“Inglourious Basterds", a The Weinsten Company and Universal Pictures release is rated R for strong graphic violence, language, and brief sexuality. Running Time: 152minutes. Three and a Quarter stars out of Four (B+)
-Mulyadi Tjoa, Software Developer @ PT Switchlab Indonesia, Jakarta-
Unfortunately, the film while still enjoyable lacked that smart dialogs i was talking about. In this film, they are rather boring, not really interesting and contribute a little part or almost nothing to the plot of the film as a whole. In Pulp fiction, the dialogs seemed random but they are actually pertaining to the story or at the very least they are interesting. Here, Tarantino brutally injects thousands of random outbursts going nowhere. Unlike Pulp fiction where the dialog is as exhilarating as the action, in this movie I can't help myself to uncomfortably move a little part of my body in discomfort due to seemingly never coming action part of the film. But when it did come, I was satisfied, it is typical stylish and gory Tarantino violence (exemplified by the vicious Nazi killer, played by Eli Roth) mixed with stylish action sequences. By the way, Brad Pitt's character in this movie seemed to have more enjoyable lines than the others, they are rather funny in a dark way of course. Not to discriminate, but it is a relief to have Americans character in a film mainly centers around Europeans. One big clap is for Christopher Waltz playing the German high officer, Col. Hans Landa. It was a brilliant performance. Once, Tarantino had a plan to cast Leonardo Dicaprio for this rather eccentric and evil character, but I am glad he canceled it because, despite being a character-based actor, Leo would have a hard time to pull it off like Chris does. He should merit a consideration for best supporting actor award.
Another notable trademark about Tarantino’s films is its female characters. Female characters in Tarantino’s movies are always depicted as being tough, macho, mean, and sometimes deadly. He doesn’t seem to be interested to portray female as a weak, sensitive, and lovely character, instead he would just go ahead and really treat women like men in Tarantino’s world of emancipation. One particular female character, Shosanna Dreyfus, played by the beautiful and sweet French actress Melanie Laurent is an esthetical relief for a film with blood and guts. Despite that, she is a vicious and vengeful young lady who would stop at nothing to accomplish what she wants including terminating the very life of a man who naively had a crush on her. This film contains a lot of violence toward female and it immediately really reminds me of his other movie which I love to death, Kill Bill and a mediocre Death Proof section of The Grindhouse. Unfortunately, they were not strong enough which is understandable since this is a movie based on world war II where level playing field is mostly occupied by men. All and all, this is still a very good movie to see though I am disappointed by the fact that it really could be Tarantino’s masterpiece (like the lines Brad Pitt’s character uttered at the very last violent sequence of the movie) if it were not due to those unnecessary rubbish dialogs in the middle.
“Inglourious Basterds", a The Weinsten Company and Universal Pictures release is rated R for strong graphic violence, language, and brief sexuality. Running Time: 152minutes. Three and a Quarter stars out of Four (B+)
-Mulyadi Tjoa, Software Developer @ PT Switchlab Indonesia, Jakarta-
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