Inglorious Basterds is the story of a group of a Jewish USA guerilla that go to France, during the Nazi occupation, to kill a group of high rank German soldiers during a military German film opening.
The strong powerful music, the use of 60s's-style typing and tempo, the visually explicit violence, and the "inspiration" from other movies are all Tarantino trademarks present in this movie.
The script is not as brilliant as Kill Bill, and reminded me more of Reservoir Dogs in its tone and style, but the film is truly entertaining, thrilling and captivating at times, obscure and pointless sometimes. It has, in a way, the playful mood of a the Great Escape, with a bit of comedy, drama, adventure, violence and little bit of romance added here.
There are not good or bad people in this movie, all are nasty in different degrees. The "basterds" are extremely violent and inhuman, which somewhat dilutes their good intentions of fighting inhuman violent people. If you are as cruel as the cruelest person, you are not better than them, even if your principles and aims are very different. On the other hand, German soldier Zeller, despite killing 300 soldiers in battle, does not enjoy or feels proud for doing that, which makes him more human than any of the basterds. The Jews-hunter is very clever and likeable, more than any of the basterds who are less clever, more naive and idiotic than this sophisticated German.
In many scenes, the violence is justified, but in others is not. Although this is quintessential Tarantino, by treating all moments with so much explicit violence, the tone and tempo of the movie get diluted; if Tarantino had dosed the violence in the film, leaving some of it for the dialogues, the spectator would have been less overwhelmed visually, and the film would have been more balanced.
Most of the main actors
are good in their respective roles. I especially liked Christopher
Waltz as the ruthless Jews-Hunter, Daniel Bruhl as sweet soldier
Zoller, Diana Kruger as the hot spy, and Mike Myers in his little cameo.
Brad Pitt is OK in his role, but I find his facial gesticulation over
the top, and truly annoying. On the contrary, Melanie Laurent is too
hieratic and emotionless in her performance. Some of the secondary roles
and actors are almost caricature-ish, so one does not know if this is a
demand of the script or the actors not being specially inspired in their
respective performances.
I consider the ending a big flaw. It
can be understood as a projection of the Universal unconscious, but it lacks fictional verisimilitude not just historical one. This fictional licence rests credibility to the story and puts a sort of childish ending to a film that is not bad.
Despite its shortcomings and not being Tarantino's best, Inglourious Basterds is a very entertaining film that makes good points about the nature of violence, has an overall good cast, and has some good performances.
"Letters from Iwo Jima" narrates the events happened in the battle that took place on Iwo Jima Island in 1945 seen from the Japanese side. This is the counterpart to "Flags of our Fathers", that focused on the American side.
A war movie is never my favourite subject of interest. However, if the movie presents the events in a humanly way and is historically accurate, it certainly gets my attention. That is the case of "Letters from Iwo Jima".
What makes this movie to stand out from other modern movies about WWII battles is:
1/ that focuses on the enemy and the losers, and shows that they also were human beings with a heart and a family.
2/ The movie shows that not everybody belonging to the same country sees things the same, has the same morals, principles or acts the same under the same circumstances.
3/ Unlike other American Movies, the stereotypes and prejudices about the Japanese as barbarians and fanatics are not here.
Although we know what is going to happen from the beginning, the script, the dialogues and the war scenes are thrilling and engaging. It is the human part of the story what will attract viewers that are not into war movies, and what will keep the spectator interested and moved.
On the other hand, the script is good enough to depict the different military principles and beliefs that Japan was facing at the time, in which modern and old values were colliding and the concept of dying with honour was being redefined. This is perhaps the aspect that captivated me the most, as we are presented with two different ways of understanding Japanese honour: 1/ the traditional ideal, which is very medieval, in which, when an unwanted end approaches, the only option is take your own life. 2/ The modern ideal of honour, in which the soldier does his best, no matter the result, and surrenders.
At the same time, honour is depicted not only how a behaviour displayed in the battlefield, but also the way you treat prisoners. In that regard, the Japanese are shown to be more honourable than their American opponents. Very moving, and really
relevant for the story, is the reading of the letter by the American
prisoner's mother. It shows that in war all mothers are the same, all
soldiers, even the most despicable and savage ones, have a heart and a
family, and their fighting is in all cases not their wish or liking.
I especially loved the glimpses we have about the personal life of some of the soldiers and officials through their correspondence. Those glimpses help us to understand why they act in a certain way during the war, what motivates them to fight, to commit desertion or suicide. I missed more letters and glimpses on the lives of the more traditional soldiers, those whose concept of honour and fighting was old-fashioned, as we could have understood better their motivations instead of seeing them as silly fanatics. I think that a little bit of chopping of the fighting scenes would have allowed the viewer to have more empathy towards "the bad guys".
Although I liked the end, I thought it does not offer emotional closure to the viewer, as we do not see the main Japanese character going back home or meeting his family.
Most actors are terrific in their respective roles, playing with emotion, sensitivity and empathy their respective characters. The only exception was Takumi Bando as Captain Tanida, who I thought overacted.
The fact that the movie is shot mostly in Japanese really makes is believable. It is the only decent and respectful way to approach the Japanese point of view. Otherwise, the director would had been bending to the needs of the mainstream movie industry for the sake of... nothing. Despite being shot in Japanese, the movie has been very popular amidst mainstream viewers. There you have it!
A modern classic.
