The Basterds are Glorious…

Art House or Hollywood, Or Can it be Both?

Inglourious Basterds has shocked and offended audiences all over the world, and with mixed reviews, some say this is Quentin Tarantino’s worst movie yet.

Still, this hasn’t stopped curious ticket buyers from seeing the movie. Basterds has grossed over $200 million worldwide since being released in late August, pushing it past its cult following expectation and into the history of modern cinema.

Originally developed as a vigilante movie, with a few characters seeking revenge with specialized skills, Tarantino took that idea and developed Kill Bill One and Two.

But with the characters still running loose in his head and a desire to write a spaghetti western, he took the premise of a wondering posse to the era of World War Two.

“The challenges of writing these characters was finding actors that could match their depth,” Tarantino said during an interview on The Charlie Rose Show. He believes Col. Hans Landa is the greatest creation of his imagination to date.

In typical Tarantino fashion the movie is a strong mix of dialogue and character development, with room for the audience to fill in a few blanks. Brad Pitt’s character Lt. Aldo Raine has a scar around his neck, for example, something that Tarantino leaves unexplained.

Tarantino told Rose that if he told you how it happened, it would change your perception of the movie, and he wanted everyone to have a different interpretation of the character and make up their own back story.

This type of interpretation-style film is not new to Tarantino.

He has done this before in movies like Jackie Brown and Pulp Fiction. What is new, though, is his attempt to make an art-house film with a message and a $70 million dollar budget.

The self-conscious attempt to make this film an epic piece of his own legacy almost prevented the movie from ever being made. Tarantino obsessed about the details of this script over the years and moved on to many other projects before finishing the story.

The 20-minute opening scene of this movie says a lot about how the rest of the two hours are going to unfold. It not only introduces its main character and the movie’s best performer, but it challenges the audience to take its time.

Tarantino has taken the small-film mentality of having a political edge and lesser-know actors and combined it with what people expect when they see Brad Pitt on the poster.

Pushing audience’s comfort level and expectations when they walk into a movie theatre in 2009 seems to be the point. With grand scenes of exaggerated violence, the movie wants you to ask yourself why you paid $10 to sit in the dark with a bunch of strangers.

It’s a throwback to a time when good movies earned the respect of debate by having people discuss and enjoy the process of what good art gives back to society.

In a time when people expect to be entertained for two hours without having to think, discuss or rethink any details, this movie challenges its audience.

The sign of a well-written and well-shot movie is the ability to keep audiences guessing until the end. Not only does the movie not follow any kind of expected formula, it takes audiences on a ride that gives them both what they expect and what they couldn’t have anticipated.

When asked about his interest in developing a catalogue of diverse genres, Tarantino said he probably wouldn’t make a musical. Music in his films are a central part of what makes them work, but he enjoys being able to put music in and pull it out as he needs too.

This seems to be a part of the process he enjoys – bringing his stories to life and keeping them topical with references to the pop culture of the time.

Like many classic movies from the past that have entertained audiences for generations, this one is a bit ahead of its time. It does not follow the formula that people expect from movies that reach mass audiences. And it does not follow the formula people expect from a typical Tarantino movie.

Throw one half of Brangelina in the mix and one of the characters from The Office and you might have thought you were going to see the feel-good movie of the year.

But don’t expect to see any flag-waving American propaganda, boasting of the last war the U.S. had any reason to feel good about.

This movie is a film-lover’s movie with lots to like and lots to think about.

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Posted by Jason Murray on Sep 27, 2009. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.