Inglourious Basterds

In the 5 years I've been doing this, there are few major working filmmakers left that I have yet to really talk about. While I reviewed Grindhouse, I didn't really discuss Quentin Tarantino. Well, that changes here. After breaking out with Pulp Fiction, and following it up with Jackie Brown (a film slowly gaining the esteem it deserves), I feel Tarantino has been off his game. The Kill Bills didn't quite work for me - although I am in the minority of preferring Vol. 2 - and Death Proof was his career low point. And yet, much like Scorsese, even a bad Tarantino film is a film worth watching and discussing. So where does that leave us with Inglourious Basterds, his decade in the making WWII project? Well, I am of the opinion that he is back on the top of his game. Here is a film second only to Pulp Fiction in his canon, and it is a film filled to the brim with ideas, characters, and pure entertainment of the kind only Tarantino seems able to deliver.

Basterds is a film about a lot of things, and while I know Tarantino would like people to simply enjoy his films first and foremost, I feel that at the heart of the film there are two issues worth examining. Namely, the influence of cinema on the world, and the power of language. The second item first: this is not an action film, but a dialog-action film. The most tense beats don't come from shootouts, but rather from the words that lead to the shootouts. The man who uses words most to his advantage is Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). Nicknamed "The Jew Hunter," Landa sees himself more as a detective, and he uses words to find what he wants. Take the opening - perhaps best - scene, in which Landa interrogates a farmer about the whereabouts of his Jewish neighbors. Landa chooses his words oh so carefully, using them to gain the upper hand in the conversation. He seems to derive pleasure from being the most informed person in the room, and he likes to doll out what he knows slowly, as to let it dawn on his prey just what he knows. He could easily come into a room shouting and blasting, but instead he takes the most pleasure from methodically telling the farmer what he knows. This is something he does throughout the movie and it never ceases to be thrilling. We are never sure what to make of Landa because he seems to pick and choose what should be said when. When he finally lays everything out, you may be surprised where his true allegiences lie (or perhaps not).

And in a film where the words are so important, it is interesting to note how multilingual the film is. English is spoken only sparingly, and there is French, German, Italian, and maybe other languages used throughout. At one point, Landa asks to switch from French to English, and we think it's simply a silly way for Tarrantino to make it easier on the audience. Not at all. It is a very deliberate tactic used by Landa, and the realization of that fact is one of the film's many powerful moments. The power of language clearly has a hierarchy in the film, as evidenced by the titular Basterds not knowing any other languages. When it comes time for them to enact a plan that could end the war, it is reliant on them knowing another language. Most of them speak only English, and a few can speak broken Italian. This puts them at a major disadvantage in the film's climax. It is refreshing to see a film examine the ways power can play out in a multilingual world.

The other point of interest is the cinema itself. Tarantino loves to reference other films in his work, and here is no exception. From the famous open door shot in The Searchers, to the use of classic Ennio Morricone scores, this is as much a Western at heart as it is a war film. And yet, that is not enough for Tarantino. Here he actually uses his film as a way to comment on the power of film as a medium. Much of the film takes place in a French cinema house during a world premiere. The film in question, a Nazi propaganda film, is used to demonstrate the way film can be used to form opinions. Much like language, Tarantino is saying that cinema itself can be a powerful tool in how power is delegated. And on the flip side, film can be the ultimate catharsis. Young Shosanna Dreyfus, whose family was killed by Landa, creates her own film to splice into the propaganda film during the premiere. Forcing the Nazis in attendance to watch it gives her a moment of power over those who have tried to take power away from her. More than any other thing he has done, Inglourious Basterds is Tarantino's love letter to cinema.

But is the film itself entertaining? On an intellectual level, clearly. But for the average audience, I it might be too much to take. It's a two and a half hour movie with very little English dialog. It was sold as a Brad Pitt action film, when in reality his Basterds are a small part of a bigger picture. The film is at least 90% people talking to each other. And yet, there seems like a lot here that people can enjoy as well. The dialog is often excruciatingly tense, the violence - when it's there - is visceral, and the ending is an amazing and unexpected payoff. People around me seemed dumbfounded by something Tarantino does at the end, and when they began to grasp that he had indeed gone there, surprised laughter started erupting around the theater. The payoff is well worth it, it just depends on how willing you are to go along with the film in order to get there. For me, it's probably the most interesting and exciting picture of the year so far, and one I hope to revist again soon.

Grindhouse

From the scratchy prints, to the fake trailers, to the commercial for your local Mexican restaurant, Grindhouse is more than simply a movie - it's an experience. To see this on DVD is to miss the entire point, which is the fun that can be had in a communal viewing of movies in theaters. Because Grindhouse is made up of so many components and is unlike just about any movie I've ever seen, I'll try and review each part individually, and then summarize the movie experience as a whole.

Planet Terror

Director Robert Rodriguez is something of a modern day John Carpenter in many ways, so it seems fitting that his ode to Seventies horror films would be an homage to the films of Carpenter, particularly Assault on Precinct 13. Everything from the characters to the plot to the music is straight out of Carpenter - and yes, that is very much a good thing.

Following a band of survivors in a small town infested with zombies, Planet Terror does something that few horror movies do anymore: it creates interesting characters. These aren't simply people to be killed off one by one (though that does happen). These people have personalities, and as such it actually fun to watch them interact with each other and their zombie antagonists. Of particular note are El Wray (Freddy Rodriguez), a mysterious drifter who really has a way with weapons, and Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan), a former go-go dancer whose dreams of being a stand-up comedian are dashed when a zombie eats off her leg. If that sounds ridiculously campy, you'd be right. And that's where the real fun lies.

The thing about grindhouse films is that most were pretty bad to begin with, and Robert Rodriguez acknowledges that by making his film overly ridiculous. The end result is extremely entertaining, perhaps the most crowd pleasing film of the year thus far. If you love schlocky old horror films but recognize that they have flaws, this film was made for you.



The Trailers

There are four trailers interspersed throughout the films, as well as other small things like commercials and theater advertisements.

The first trailer is for Machete, an Mexsploitation film (which is exactly what it sounds like). Danny Trejo is very amusing as the titular Machete, and his jacket of weapons is hilarious. Overall it might have been the weakest trailer, but it was still great.

Werewolf Women of the SS is a bit unlike the other trailers in that it seems like it knows it is a joke, whereas the others imply their movies are real. It is still very funny, as the whole concept of Nazis and werewolf women is great, and the final surprise cameo at the end of the trailer makes it perfect.

Don't is possibly the funniest trailer, as it relies almost entirely on the voice over to tell you about the film. The number of times the word "Don't" is uttered is hilarious, as is the reveal of the film's title.

Finally there is Thanksgiving. It is so dead on accurate as to how those old trailers were made, right down to the voice over, that it honestly felt like a lost horror movie that someone finally found thirty years later. It also elicited the biggest response from the audience, and for good reason: it's pretty shocking. All in all, the trailers were amazing and probably the most entertaining part of Grindhouse.



Death Proof

Finally, the movie ends with Death Proof, a Quentin Tarantino film. Something you should know is that the point of a double feature is not to give you the same film twice, but to give you two different experiences. As such, this film is a complete 180 from Planet Terror. This is a grindhouse film that isn't in on the joke, at least not much. There are some laughs to be had, but in the end this feels like a film that was actually made to be in a grindhouse, not a spoof.

The basic idea is that a guy named Stuntman Mike uses his death proof car to kill unsuspecting women. It's a great premise in theory, but it is such a slow burn to get to the action that many will be put off, especially after the fast paced first film we already watched. I can understand the need for the slow burn, as it helps you care about what happens to the victims, but I think Tarantino made a mistake in how he went about it. The women talk for long periods of time about things we couldn't care less about. It's almost tedious. Yet when the women do start to die, it is much more shocking because you feel like, for better or worse, you actually kind of knew these people, so seeing them violently dismembered is more shocking than amusing.

Kurt Russell is perfect in the film, balancing both creepiness and charm. Yet he is unlike your typical horror film villain in that, when the tables turn on him, he is no longer brave at all. The women in the film are largely annoying, although that has more to do with the dialogue than the acting. Zoe Bell, who is a stuntwoman, plays herself, and while her acting is nothing special, her stunt work is amazing. That's kind of the problem with Death Proof: it has some of the worst elements in Grindhouse (the dialogue), but also some of the best. The car chases and crashes are phenomenal, and ultimately make the whole thing worth it.




Overall

Overall, this was an amazing experience of a film. It's a shame that it has failed so miserably at the box office, as it is a true crowd pleaser. I'd almost say that you shouldn't see it unless you see it in theaters with an audience, as that's where a lot of the enjoyment comes from. Still, I suspect that this is the kind of film that will be showing at midnight movies for years to come every Halloween. That is ultimately what it was probably made for, just like the grindhouse pictures it is worshiping.