An arty action film, a film with inside jokes about the industry. Alternating scenes of tension (with that great German actor) and comedic near-slapstick.
Surreal, somehow upsetting. WWII gave us a wealth of stories of heroism and cowardice, shame and honor, why do we need a parallel universe WWII?
What is funny about people burning in a cinema? Scalping? Of course things like Fargo go over my head for the same reason.
I am still puzzling over it; I suppose it was worth a bit of my day. Besides, that German fella really created a character.
Another thing was the large number of uniforms in the background. I have no idea if they were historically accurate, but they kept me looking. (Too much time in the Army, I suppose.)
(Did you see the chaplain in the cinema lobby? The Nazis had chaplains?)
I caught the 12:01am showing this morning. I was initially disappointed at how little screen time the “basterds” get. We got to see the aftermath of a firefight and then there was a large jump in time that I guess was full of what I had expected to see - sneak attacks, sabotage, killing, and harassment of Nazis.
Christoph Waltz’s Col Landa was a great and noteworthy performance.
I wasn’t sure what the audience was supposed to take away from the ignorance and futility of having two simultaneous plots to destroy the Nazi theatre patrons. There was never a doubt that Shoshana’s plan was going to work. So in stacking the obviously more ill-fated basterd-run plan on top of her’s was supposed to make me __________? Think of the futility of war? Rejoice in the overkill? Think on the “power” of film? Really, once Shoshana’s plan is hatched, everyone is as good as dead. The dynamite and machine guns of the basterds just killed them twice. Perhaps Hitler and the entourage in the opera boxes could have beaten the fire to the lobby, but you’d think Shoshana would’ve accounted for that in her plan.
It was a weird and entertaining flick. Thin in the places I expected the most meat, though.
I noticed all of the uniforms in the lobby, if that’s what you mean. I missed the chaplain. I probably need to see it again, the midnight viewing left me pretty tired. I didn’t expect it to be that long.
Two people are talking in the lobby. On the viewer’s right the crowd is moving toward the auditorium and one of those background characters is in feldgrau but wearing a high collar with a crucifix. Funny how I notice uniforms.
Just popped in to say you can put me down in the love it camp.
Couple of things - has anyone heard whether there was ever going to be an explanation for the scar on Brad Pitt’s neck? Just wondering whether there was going to be a flashback that ended up being cut. Might explain his passion for knifing!
Second thing - it was nice to see Brad Pitt look all of his years!
Finally, was the waitress in the bar in the basement, the one invited over to play that guessing game with the drunk Nazi’s one of the daughter’s of the dairy farmer in the opening scene?
I felt it was ok. Still not sure how to think about the whole rewriting of the end of the war thing.
What the hell happened to the rest of the team? There’s 8 of them. Two die in the bar, two die in the theater, and two escort the Germans to friendly lines. What happened to the other two?
Why did they agree to a suicide mission? Or did I miss something and the two in the balcony were caught unawares by the explosion?
Where the heck did the soldier with Brad Pitt come from at the end? He wasn’t in the theater with him. How did he get captured?
Well it was a Tarantino film so I knew to go in without any of the usual cinematic expectations. I liked it. In hindsight like the other poster I suppose I could have felt somewhat misled about the premise of the movie based on the trailer which implied itself to be entirely focused on the antics and mission of the Basterds. But I was so engrossed that I didn’t end up noticing.
I had heard QT was going to play around with suspense in this one and it shows. The scenes where a Nazi and a non Nazi were cordially sussing each other out were fantastic each time.
I like that the good guys weren’t entirely honorable, the bad guys weren’t all stupid, and a whole bunch on both sides met their doom.
I didn’t recognize Mike Myers until the last second.
There were a bunch of things that seemed kind of random that I suspect were little references to things I’m not privy to.
The two plots to destroy the cinema did seem to make it inevitable but I suppose the girl in the booth getting killed made her plan a little suspenseful. I’m surprised both plans ultimately worked though both encountered hitches…
We liked it a lot…even though I was a little bit leery of the whole “Naaatsi basterds” trailer.
When the Scot held up three fingers, I knew that was a giveaway!
Don’t know if it is just a German thing, but as an American who lived in Berlin for 14 years, it doesn’t take long to figure out that the thumb is number one, the pointer finger number two, etc. You only have to order two beers (American version, sort of like a peace symbol) and instead get three beers delivered to you - and then you learn quickly how to count in German on fingers.
Nice art design, great photography, cool colors, fun “chapters” and all-in-all, a surprisingly entertaining film. Still - somehow I am waiting for my students on Monday to ask, “was that a true story?”
I was bothered that they had 8 basterds but some wound up on the cutting room floor (who knew Tarantino cut anything)??
There wasn’t enough story/script to justify that many. I don’t have a problem with rewriting history, the movie was sold as a fantasy.
In the reviews I did not see mentioned that more than half the movie was subtitled. The 7pm show was packed and I bet some of the Kill Bill/Pulp Fiction fans weren’t expecting to read so much. It was necessary because in some of the scenes, it was vitally important that characters could not understand each other.
The first thing I said to my wife after we got to the parking lot was “That guy really really enjoys what he’s doing”. I don’t get that same feeling from any other director.
Side note: they showed the trailer for Avatar…I predict a BOMB. Just a hunch.
I was surprised by the number of senior citizens (WW2-era?) in attendance at the theater I went to. I’m wondering if they were expecting a traditional WW2 movie? I saw more than a few of them walk out right around the baseball bat scene!
It’s a Tarantino movie! How could they not expect something like this?
[side-topic rant]
I saw The Beast at a horror film festival. Right there in the program guide, it said, “A creature with a monster-sized penis that spews gallons of jism across the screen.” Right at the beginning there’s a scene of horse breeding, with horse-sized penises spewing pints of jism across the screen. The couple in front of me walked out. What part of the program guide didn’t you understand? Did you think they were bluffing?
[/side-topic rant]