I’ve been putting off watching this one, as I have mixed opinions when it comes to Quentin Tarantino. I love hearing him talk about films/cinema. His passion is evident in every hyperactive word, giving equal love to Kubrick and Corman. His output, however, I have found inconsistent. Res Dogs was an overhyped disappointment. Pulp Fiction, offered great entertainment, aside from the piss dull opening segment with John ‘charisma vacuum’ Travolta. Jackie Brown had a great non-linear narrative with strong performances across the board.
But his last 2 films, Kill Bill and Death Proof? Oh dear. Death Proof was supposed to be an homage to the exploitation cinema on the 70s and 80s. Now, I’ve seen a lot of these films and I don’t remember any of them featuring an hour of girls talking complete bollocks, followed by 5 mins of action. Deathly Dullness would be a better title for it. And Kill Bill had no heart. All style, no substance and bordering on plagiarism. The other signs, however, were pretty good. Brad Pitt is always watchable, any film in the French language is instantly more classy and any film the critics are not too keen on is usually quite good.
And, blow me, if Inglourious Basterds isn’t one of the best films from 2009. I’ll go one further than that. Forget Pulp Fiction, IB is QT’s best film, by quite a big margin. It’s simultaneously intelligent and dumb, violent and passive, active and reflective. It showcases everything that makes QT great as a filmmaker. There have been hints at it in previous films, but they were always bogged down with genre conventions. In IB there is none of that. The only genre he’s playing tribute to is cinema itself. Although its set during WWII, its not your standard war film. It looks, sounds and plays out more like a spaghetti western, dressed up in an SS uniform, but it is so much more than that. Tarantino plays with the clichés of so many different genres and, I think, plays with the conventions of his own oeuvre.
For a much better viewpoint on Inglourious Basterds, I recommend you check out highlycontrasting.com from Lincoln Barrett aka High Contrast.
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