.jeri.

As I mentioned earlier, I went to see Inglourious Basterds over the weekend. I wasn't particularly excited about it for some reason, even though I do tend to like movies by Quentin Tarantino. Lately I feel like I've been rather the apologist for him, but always with a grain of salt. What irks me about him is that he has so much potential, which can be seen in the way he handles a camera, builds memorable characters, and makes such great use of music in his movies but holds himself back, seemingly needing to fulfill a certain quota of what he thinks is cool and insert it into his movies, whether it truly fits or not.

In Inglourious Basterds, there are two different stories. One of them is about a girl who has witnessed the death of her family by the hands of Colonel Landa, who hunts down Jews in a Nazi-occupied France. Years later, when the Germans decide to use her movie theater for the premiere of a propaganda film, she plots to harm as many Germans as she can. The other story is of a group of soldiers called the "inglourious basterds" (no, they never give a reason why that has to be spelled wiht an e) who hunt down Nazis and kill them... and scalp them. They know about the movie premiere and also plan to take down as many Germans as they can.

The movie starts off so quietly. The opening sequence is a tense conversation between a Frenchman and Colonel Landa. It takes its time and there are some great techniques. It holds so much promise for the rest of the movie by setting a more serious tone than I ever expected I would see in a Tarantino movie. The problem is that Tarantino isn't accustomed to maintaining this type of tone through an entire movie. It's like he thinks it's not totally him, so he has to inject his movie with pizazz in order to make it as cool as he thinks it should be. So, while there are some wonderful scenes, like when the Germans refuse to indicate the location of other German troops, and a conversation in a basement bar, those are always injected with the most brutal violence possible, as if Tarantino has to make up for putting the audience through such a serious scene.

Although Kill Bill was a lot more violent in terms of quantity, I think Inglourious Basterds seemed much worse, because the director chose to make that violence so extreme, in scenes that seemed incongruous with the rest of the movie. The basterds didn't just kill Nazis. They bludgeoned them with baseball bats and scalped them, and showed the audience every gritty detail of it. They didn't just scare and humiliate the Nazis they let go - they carved swastikas on their foreheads, and Tarantino didn't imply it or show it done lightly - he showed every deep tear of flesh without any sense of apology. The basterds became just as vulgar as the people they hunted, and thus the righteous sense of justice we might have had in watching soldiers kill Nazis wasn't all that satisfying to me. Speaking of bludgeoning with bats, might I also add that Eli Roth is a terrible actor? I just thought that should be noted.

Even though this aspect of the movie bothered me, I couldn't help but admire the scenes and themes that do work. The Germans are watching a propaganda movie in a theater, where one of their own kills tens and tens of the enemy. And we are watching what is basically a propaganda movie as well, in which the goal is for one of our own to kill tens and tens of the enemy. I liked the story of the girl, the scene where she puts on her war paint (makeup), and the way her story plays out with the German soldier who is interested in her. Melanie Laurent is very good, and Christoph Waltz steals the show with his eccentric performance (the man knows how to point a finger and make an audience laugh and squirm). I even liked a lot of Brad Pitt's performance, and the "Italian" infiltration of the movie premiere.

There are so many parts of the movie that I did appreciate. It was nice to see that Tarantino can be successful with more serious material, although it doesn't last through the whole movie. Although a few of the scenes are a little drawn out, it's also nice to see that he can handle himself with scenes in multiple foreign languages. I liked the use of modern music in a period piece. I liked the ideas and themes at the movie theater. But I was disappointed by Tarantino's need to fill the quotas that he feels he must fulfill. Perhaps one day, he'll get it completely right. If he ever does, I think we'll be dealing with a really great film.