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The worst reviews for "Basterds" came from critics with the B-more Sun and the Philly Inquirer...I read them both and disagreed wholeheartedly with their arguments for why they hated it. I urge those who are on the fence about the film to go see it and then make a judgment.
I loved it. Here's a critic who verbalized his love of it far better than I could: [www.sfgate.com]
@Allen_Richards: The Dirty dozen was inspired by an older italian film called Ingorious Bastards, and this film is inspired by the Dirty Dozen.
I just saw it, and to be honest didn't have high expectations going in- of course I was letting my dislike of Brad Pitt cloud my judgment. Tarantino makes bad actors seem good all the time (Travolta and Jackson were never as good as they were in Pulp Fiction- not before and not after).
I'll stop rambling- point is, it is as original as a WW2 movie can be, and I should have expected nothing less from Tarantino.
@BlueBeard: You've it wrong there. INGLORIOUS BASTARDS, a terrible movie if I've ever seen one, was released in 1978. THE DIRTY DOZEN was '67.
On the INGLORIOUS BASTARDS 3-disc set, which I have, is an interview with QT talking with the director and how he planned to update the IG. While I don't doubt the influence of TDD on this production, as QT is a fan of the "men on a mission" subgenre, you certainly have your "inspired by's" a bit off.
Whatever anyones opinion about tinkering with history. No one can argue that Bon Jovi finding the Enigma Machine in U571 was one of film/historys biggest cock-ups. Almost as bad as Steve McQueen jumping the fence in The Great Escape, riding through Germany dressed as an American and never getting caught....gotta love it. Everyone should read 'Moonless Night'...that will tell you how hard it was to get out of a Nazi Camp.....bloody hard!!
laughingacademy promoted this comment
CoffinDodger (If the typos crap. Blame my keyboard) was starred
CoffinDodger (If the typos crap. Blame my keyboard) was unstarred
@CoffinDodger (If the typos crap. Blame my keyboard): Unless you're talking about Stalag 13 in which case all it takes is a mop, a wily Frenchman, various sympathetic hotties, and a radio in the coffeepot.
Also, you will soon regret this post after Bon Jovi and his legion of bottle-blonde undead cyborgs hijack the timeline and alter history, making his role in U571 reality, and erasing you from existence.
You may find yourself livin' on a prayer. Best address that prayer to your future god, Bon-Tron 3000.
@CoffinDodger (If the typos crap. Blame my keyboard): One of the earliest rental lists I created for Netflix was based on historically inaccurate movies. In my research, historians consider U571 and TEH GREAT ESCAPE as two of the worst offenders at re-writing history, and most folks chalk up BRAVEHEART as the worst offender. Some of the films on the list were pretty surprising, but most have been notoriously "revisionist" for decades.
I get why these movies take the liberties that they do, and it's primarily for storytelling purposes. Sure THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI didn't go down like it did, and MARIE ANTOINETTE couldn't conceive because the King had a giant Swartz(man) and she had a small vajayjay. In most cases, these changes are for dramatic purposes and geared towards making the character's struggles worth investing for the audience and their time.
In Tarantino's defense, he's stated that his movie ends the way it does because he's staying true to the characters adn never wanted to betray them. If that means re-writing history, so be it, and I can accept this argument without issue. Their goal was to kill as many Nattzees as they could, adn work their way to the Big Dog, and they just what they did.
@laughingacademy: Well whatever happens...in which i mean, i forgets, im old and have an awful memory!! Steve McQueen is the man. Im just not sure how he got that height!! Let alone the few yards up the grassy verge. Maybe he should have escaped up the tunnel ON a motorbike. Now thats worth the watch!
I would love to see Taratino's take on the space opera. Could you imagine drug using aliens, space ship crews in black suits and thin ties, and pop culture references where the expository dialogue should be?
I love how people are getting mad over this saying "that never happen"
"this never happen"
QT never said it was an Accurate movie or based on a true story.
it's a alternate history movie as he's said so many times
I appreciate the parodies, they are always amusing, mainly because the acting is top notch. Though the original scene is pretty compelling given its where Hitler realises that the game is finally up, and everything he's strived for is coming to an end.
My showing had a slow laughter filling the audience after the big climax. I was shocked. It was so crazy that you couldn't laugh. In fact the entire movie was filled with laughter. I would call it a dark comedy.
@OW-Holmes--Serious Face.:
After the big scene, it was dead silent in my theater, like everyone was trying to figure out what they just watched. Then on guy let out a 'FUCK YEAH' and the whole theater started laughing and cheering and everything. It was fantastic.
@OW-Holmes--Serious Face.: Yup, I laughed almost all the way though. I’ve always been pretty neutral on Brad Pitt, but he did an awesome job. Great line delivery, great timing. This makes two great movies in a row (after seeing District 9 last week) I’m going to get spoiled.
Well some of your questions have already been answered as Tarantino has stated that some of the characters in BASTERDS are decendents of characters that populate his already named Tarantino version. You could say that's the earlier films populated this universe, as you put it, and I can't remember if anything in those other films contradicts that idea in so much that I cant' remember any WWII references about the German's winning the war in those other movies. (please, feel free to correct if i'm wrong on this. if you know of any Germany-winning references, let's here 'em)
As for BASTERDS, I walked out a few hours ago thinking that I'd never seen a movie with so many great scenes that wasn't itself great as a whole. It's a pretty blah movie that meanders around with zero direction. Taratino definitely knows iconic cinema imagery, but unlike, say, KILL BILL, where he was able to wrap that imagery around a solid story, there's not much cohesive material here. There's great performances, but all for characters that are never really developed.
The two stories that run throughout could have been developed into their own films and fleshed out, at least to a degree where one could actually care what's happening on screen rather than just taking it in a cinema sensory overload.
its not really alt reality if the ww2 part is just a setting. its a work of fiction that uses the war as a device, it has nothing to do with history. i think this is a huge stretch, next you will include westerns as alt history because X gun battle didn't actually happen at the time of american western expansion....
Isn't any non-biographical war movies alternate histories? Tarnantino just had changed one major event instead of placing characters in events that they never were apart of or didn't act that way.
It's funny because I was watching The Final Countdown the other day and thought: Man if they remade this, in the new version you're damn right they'd stop the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. They'd blow the shit out of the Japanese fleet and the audience would go fucking crazy.
Still, I don't know that it is alternate history when you're changing events but not really getting into the results of changing those events, as Lauren mentions.
I think Quentin's film reflects the contemporary feeling that reality is whatever we want it to be, both in politics and our lives. Even historical events and figures that were once considered sacred are now questioned and revisited. While I personally think this kind of mentality is an extension of our continuing disconnection from other people and ideas, it makes for interesting cinema.
Hollywood has always played fast and loose with history.
Imagine my frustration as a student of history trying to explain again and again to my mother that no, just because you saw it in a 50's movie, that is not how it actually happened!
But is only genuinely interesting if its going somewhere. Consider Phil.K Dicks the man in the high castle, where in he explores the idea of the Germans and Japanese winning world war 2, and the impact of their victory upon America. That's an interesting alternative history.
Fact of the matter is, IB is not really rewriting history. Hitler and the Nazis were defeated, but not by a misfit bunch of American GIs or a Jewish Cinema owner. They were defeated by the combined efforts of several nations and the sacrifices of millions of lives (particularly the Russians).
@KhaiJB: Yes it is. It's great. I'd go as far as saying it's his best work since Pulp Fiction and even then, better than 75% of that movie. I am not a Tarantino groupie either, actually I thought the guy had turned into kind of a hack (dialogue in 'Death Proof' cemented this opinion for me) until I saw Inglourious Basterds.
@DuckofDeath: I guess I'm in the minority, as a Tarantino fan, I thought it was only slightly better than DEATH PROOF. A number of great scenes with nothing to hold them together....
2) How everyone else reacts is secondary to how I react. That other people get off on watching people being tortured and mutilated is their fascination not mine.
@CodenameV: If you're suggesting making movies out of Harry Turtledove novels, I say "No". I don't care if Tarantino re-imagines them to include hella dialoging and the odd mexican standoff, the answer is still "No".
@twophrasebark: surprisingly that makes me feel better. i feel like having some brandy and forgetting that the battle of candor hasn't taken place and that ayren sun never met up with john chriton.
09/04/09
I loved it. Here's a critic who verbalized his love of it far better than I could: [www.sfgate.com]
08/22/09
08/22/09
08/22/09
08/22/09
I just saw it, and to be honest didn't have high expectations going in- of course I was letting my dislike of Brad Pitt cloud my judgment. Tarantino makes bad actors seem good all the time (Travolta and Jackson were never as good as they were in Pulp Fiction- not before and not after).
I'll stop rambling- point is, it is as original as a WW2 movie can be, and I should have expected nothing less from Tarantino.
08/23/09
On the INGLORIOUS BASTARDS 3-disc set, which I have, is an interview with QT talking with the director and how he planned to update the IG. While I don't doubt the influence of TDD on this production, as QT is a fan of the "men on a mission" subgenre, you certainly have your "inspired by's" a bit off.
08/22/09
08/22/09
Actually, he ends the film in the cooler. Or are you indulging in some revisionism of your own?
08/22/09
Also, you will soon regret this post after Bon Jovi and his legion of bottle-blonde undead cyborgs hijack the timeline and alter history, making his role in U571 reality, and erasing you from existence.
You may find yourself livin' on a prayer. Best address that prayer to your future god, Bon-Tron 3000.
08/22/09
I get why these movies take the liberties that they do, and it's primarily for storytelling purposes. Sure THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI didn't go down like it did, and MARIE ANTOINETTE couldn't conceive because the King had a giant Swartz(man) and she had a small vajayjay. In most cases, these changes are for dramatic purposes and geared towards making the character's struggles worth investing for the audience and their time.
In Tarantino's defense, he's stated that his movie ends the way it does because he's staying true to the characters adn never wanted to betray them. If that means re-writing history, so be it, and I can accept this argument without issue. Their goal was to kill as many Nattzees as they could, adn work their way to the Big Dog, and they just what they did.
I just wish they did it in a better movie....
08/22/09
08/21/09
08/23/09
08/21/09
"this never happen"
QT never said it was an Accurate movie or based on a true story.
it's a alternate history movie as he's said so many times
08/22/09
To what great purpose? To see a Hitler look-a-like get killed in a Cinema, whilst Brad Pitt and Eli Roth goof about?
If you want to see Hitler die in a humiliating manner, watch Downfall. The entire film is about his last days and his humiliation.
08/22/09
@Kadayi: Downfall is pretty great. And that scene where Hitler yells about being banned from WOW was priceless.
08/22/09
I appreciate the parodies, they are always amusing, mainly because the acting is top notch. Though the original scene is pretty compelling given its where Hitler realises that the game is finally up, and everything he's strived for is coming to an end.
08/21/09
08/22/09
After the big scene, it was dead silent in my theater, like everyone was trying to figure out what they just watched. Then on guy let out a 'FUCK YEAH' and the whole theater started laughing and cheering and everything. It was fantastic.
08/23/09
08/21/09
Oh please.. as if tons of writers haven't been doing that for decades. All bow to the ballsy genius of Tarantino..whatever.
08/21/09
As for BASTERDS, I walked out a few hours ago thinking that I'd never seen a movie with so many great scenes that wasn't itself great as a whole. It's a pretty blah movie that meanders around with zero direction. Taratino definitely knows iconic cinema imagery, but unlike, say, KILL BILL, where he was able to wrap that imagery around a solid story, there's not much cohesive material here. There's great performances, but all for characters that are never really developed.
The two stories that run throughout could have been developed into their own films and fleshed out, at least to a degree where one could actually care what's happening on screen rather than just taking it in a cinema sensory overload.
08/21/09
08/21/09
08/21/09
08/21/09
Still, I don't know that it is alternate history when you're changing events but not really getting into the results of changing those events, as Lauren mentions.
I think Quentin's film reflects the contemporary feeling that reality is whatever we want it to be, both in politics and our lives. Even historical events and figures that were once considered sacred are now questioned and revisited. While I personally think this kind of mentality is an extension of our continuing disconnection from other people and ideas, it makes for interesting cinema.
08/21/09
Hollywood has always played fast and loose with history.
Imagine my frustration as a student of history trying to explain again and again to my mother that no, just because you saw it in a 50's movie, that is not how it actually happened!
08/22/09
But is only genuinely interesting if its going somewhere. Consider Phil.K Dicks the man in the high castle, where in he explores the idea of the Germans and Japanese winning world war 2, and the impact of their victory upon America. That's an interesting alternative history.
Fact of the matter is, IB is not really rewriting history. Hitler and the Nazis were defeated, but not by a misfit bunch of American GIs or a Jewish Cinema owner. They were defeated by the combined efforts of several nations and the sacrifices of millions of lives (particularly the Russians).
08/22/09
08/21/09
08/21/09
08/21/09
08/22/09
Wait for it to hit DVD, there is little here to recommend a cinematic trip.
08/22/09
08/22/09
2) How everyone else reacts is secondary to how I react. That other people get off on watching people being tortured and mutilated is their fascination not mine.
08/21/09
08/21/09
08/21/09
08/21/09
08/21/09
08/21/09
It's worse than you think. Not only did aliens start WW II, but the war started in 1977.
In the parallel universe.
08/21/09
08/21/09
08/21/09
08/21/09
08/21/09
"What if aliens invade Earth during World War II?"
Haven't you watched season 4 of Enterprise? That's all the historical documents you need, at least according to the Thermians...
05/15/09
I withdraw my earlier objections and give this movie a provisional "Cooool".
05/15/09
05/13/09