Basterds Falls Short of My Expectations
Written: Aug 27 '09 (Updated Oct 31 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: great action, high intensity, music, cinematography
Cons: convoluted story, too many subplots, implausible ending that defies history
The Bottom Line: Entertaining but too many subplots, not enough of the Basterds and implausible ending. 3.5 stars
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| criteeker's Full Review: Inglourious Basterds |
I'm a huge fan of WWII films and I'm a fan of Tarantino's film-making style. That said, I was really disappointed with Inglourious Basterds.
For those of you living under a rock, Inglourious Basterds is about a squad of Jewish-American soldiers lead by a Tennessee hillbilly (Brad Pitt) on a mission to put fear into the minds of German soldiers and the Nazis. They plan on carrying out this terror campaign by mutilating, torturing and brutally slaying any German soldier they come across.
That's a great story plot or "hook" to get me into the theater. As the film begins, I was treated to a sumptuous theme song with its roots in the 1960s Sergio Leone films - yes, the "spaghetti Westerns." Tarantino loves Leone films - as do I. That's why I could appreciate the music more than most of the audience.
But all of that shiny Tarantino style and panache quickly diminished for me. Why? Because we never get to know the squad of Basterds. There are no scenes in which we get to know them as characters. After a long day of killing Nazis, it would have been nice to have them talking about stuff like what they're going to do after the war or about their wives or anything personal. I wanted to care about them more than what they were going to do to the Germans. I mean some of the Basterds barely even speak in the film. What a missed opportunity.
Another thing that bothered me is that the Basterds seemed to take a back seat to their end mission at the climax of the film. Too much time was spent on the very funny and entertaining German SS officer Hans Landa played wonderfully by Austrian-born Christoph Waltz. I mean, he was the stand-out performance of the film and spoke four languages fluently. But is this film called "the amusing German guy" or "a Jewish girl pretending to be French" or is it supposed to be about the squad called the "Inglourious Basterds?" We spend far too much time with the SS officer and even more time on the plot for the film's climax. Too many subplots that made the longer-than-needed duration and pace suffer. At 152 minutes in duration, it should have been more focused with more action, fewer talking scenes and more about the characters in the basterds squad. In fact, the sub-terranean pub scene went on far too long with far too much dialogue. The Basterds should have had much more screen time - I wanted to see them go on more raids and smaller missions before the ending. Basically, I wanted to see them terrorize the Germans even more.
However, the film does deliver on an action level, a comedic level, the music and the sets. Robert Richardson's cinematography is rich and wonderful to look at. It should be, he's photographed huge films such as Nixon, Casino, A Few Good Men, JFK, Platoon and many others.
I found the dialogue to be clever and true to the era. The film is also a bit gruesome in parts but nothing intolerable and nothing outside of the scope of war. There are scalping scenes, much gunfire and some knife play. I loved the action but some younger viewers and the squeamish might have issues with the content.
On the one hand, all of the weapons and uniforms depicted in the film were right on the money, but one thing that bothered me was when we meet Joseph Goebbels for the first time. We're so tight on his face that I noticed the contact lenses in his eyes. Sorry, but there were no contacts back in the 1940s. They could have had him remove them for the shot. Besides the real Goebbels wore glasses so why not have the actor (portraying him) wear period eyeglasses from time to time?
Supporting Roles: A funny little scene includes funny man Mike Meyers playing a serious old British officer - great makeup on him too! I would liked to have seen more of him. Iconic actor Rod Taylor plays a convincing Winston Churchill. Samuel L. Jackson and Harvey Keitel lend their voices in a voice-over capacity. Bo Svensen, who appeared in the original 1978 Bastard film, plays a small role as a US Colonel while Enzo Castellari, who directed that film, also has a small role in Tarantino's version.
I always wondered, "Why spell both words in the title incorrectly?" I found out from some film people on Twitter, that Tarantino spelled both words that way to distance himself from the 1978 Italian-made film entitled "Inglorious Bastards." Hmm, that makes sense to me. That coupled with the fact that people might generate a buzz about that very topic makes for some clever marketing of the film.
All in all, Inglourious Basterds was very entertaining but I felt as if it was a bit flat with respect to its characters, lacked depth and was a bit convoluted. We spend far too little time with the Basterds for me to be satisfied.
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SPOILER ALERT - IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE FILM, STOP READING NOW - SPOILER ALERT
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One main reason for my disappointment with the film was that the cinema owner and the Basterds are seen killing Hitler, Goering, Goebbels and Bormann. This was probably done for shock value or perhaps something that any Jewish person would love to witness, but the fact remains that these men committed suicide before or right after the end of war. So I was immediately put off by watching this. It just didn't work for me. It might have played better if the place was filled with basic high-ranking German officers of no real historical significance.
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Guy Movie
Viewing Method: Studio Screening/Premiere
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Pacing
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