Rewatch: Inglorious Basterds

2009, Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill) -- Netflix

Kent wrote about it in his mega-QT rewatch. 

I was compelled to rewatch the movie after we (Marmy and me, not Kent and me) semi-binged the British show SAS Rogue Heroes on Amazon. The show is about the formation and deployment of the British 1st Special Air Services (SAS), first in Africa, and then in Italy. The 1st SAS, according to the show, were an infamous group of commandoes tasked with, at first, the destruction of German air bases and equipment, and later as a raiding force ahead of the main forces in Europe. The shows depicts them as reckless, insubordinate and... mad as hatters. It was their distain for authority and normal British warfare style that made them so effective, so much so that Hitler himself learned of them and demanded the Geneva Conventions not apply to them -- they were to be executed on sight, surrender or not.

The "Inglorious Basterds" of the Tarantino movie were an American commando squad made up of Jewish soldiers, and a few German traitors, who were also dropped behind enemy lines to sow chaos and terror among the German forces. Except, and I recall this being a disappointment to me during my first watch, the movie is not really about the actions they perform to gain that reputation. Its about a singular rewrite of history that ends the war, and gets most of them killed.

Tarantino movies are all about conversations, usually across tables, usually about people not fond of each other. There is always at least one scene where someone monologues, in a self-satisfactorily manner, to other people. In my early Tarantino-fan days, it was exactly this that made me love his movies. Dialogue! Words! People with some thoughts between their ears! And the joy of the actor getting into the scene. Col Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz, Spectre) was a horrible person, utterly reprehensible, but this movie put Waltz on the map for English audiences. He was a "joy" to listen to.

But I would almost say that too much of this movie is about these conversations. Maybe my tastes have changed, but I did get the repeat of disappointment that the actual Basterds played such a small part in the movie, and some die far too early before we get to have fun with them. Its almost unfair to them, as long as you ignore that their final mission ends the war and burns down much of the evil with it.

I find myself struggling, almost on the side of being entirely unsatisfied with the movie. I fear my tastes have become more pedestrian, but I am not sure I liked the overall. The individual parts of the movie, the dialogues and the other conversational set pieces are brilliant unto themselves, but the whole is... lacking. The movie is all about the ending, the re-writing of history, a fictional final conflagration that takes down Hitler and all his key leadership, with glorious ultra-violence. The build-up almost seems... incidental. I find much of the movie, and this seems harsh coming from my brain, wasteful and indulgent.

For example, the French basement pub scene. Its a wonderful scene of taught worry and subterfuge. Even when the British spies are caught, there is a lovely tension of, "will they, won't they...." and we wonder who will come out of it all. Well, nobody does. Sure, Bridget von Hammersmark (Dianne Kruger, The Bridge) crawls away with a single leg wound, but then she later dies ignobly at the hands of Landa. And yet the plans, seemingly going awry, carry off as intended. All of Lt Aldo Raine's (Brad Pitt, Fury) men die sacrificial deaths, but he gets away, with Landa, purely so he can disfigure Landa, participating very little in the final acts of the operation. And I am left being not sure why, on many levels.

At a first-experience, a viewing in the cinema, it was a well-executed, beautifully shot, well-spoken Tarantino example. But it didn't hold up to rewatch scrutiny.