Tarantino sold out...?

Rating: 4/10 (23 August 2009)

Overall good effort, with some memorable scenes and dialogues. While some people complain of stretched dialogues, I quite enjoyed them, even though they really drag here and there.
However, this film was too serious to be a comedy and too messed up to be serious. It was trying to be many things, which ended up like a goulash, which wasn't that tasty.
Christoph Waltz was the magnetic presence on screen, while Brad Pitt was relegated to sticking his chin out and delivering a completely flat and uninteresting character of some kind of "leader". The central plot seemed to be that of a personal revenge, which a chance encounter delivers to the sole survivor (Shoshana) of a family killing executed by none other but Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). Then we have the "basterds" who really appear only occasionally and come off as a group of amateurs, who are at the same time supposedly very dangerous (their reputation is never built up properly in the early parts of the film, but the spectator is to take it for granted). Then we have the English and the secret operation which goes bust. Hitler is depicted as an incomplete nitwit, with Goebels as a little more complete nitwit. The story of the "basterds" was not developed to be that glorious, just as the story of the revenge by Shoshana (even if completed successfully) felt a little patched. What's left is the 'underlying' story of Colonel Landa, who just truly enjoyed doing what he was doing best - hunting people and taking care of security.
But on a higher scale - my problem, anyways, with this movie is a slight ideological undertone. When it was done, I realized this is a story about "how the WWII was won by a group of American Jews". As other people pointed out, the finale does not feel very satisfying in terms of a climax of a 2.5 hours long film, and there are some really questionable scenes of shooting into the crowd of anonymous movie goers. If this movie is there to serve as a 'catharsis' of sorts for Jewish moviegoers, then it probably succeeded. Even though the whole film did not pretend to be anything serious, there was way too much of historical realities, scenery and props to create the feel of real Nazi-occupied territory. Basterds finally shoot Hitler, the rest of the Nazis burn down or are blasted in the final explosion, and Shoshana laughs diabolically in the background, saying something like "this is the Jew's revenge on your head...etc". Something wrong with that scene, from my perspective anyway. And consequently, from the beginning of the movie, I couldn't quite shake off the feeling, that Tarantino was rather approached by others to make this film, as opposed to writing it out of his own motivation.
And come to think of it - the main villain (Colonel Landa), pivotal in the Shoshana's revenge story, manages to wiggle himself out of trouble, negotiate a pretty good settlement with the Americans, and not be shot by Aldo in the end. (It is quite insignificant that Hitler is shot, as he was portrayed as an idiot anyway). As it turned out - Aldo (Brad Pitt) had to answer to a higher command too, so the aura of adventurousness and righteousness in this group of "basterds" falls flat, especially after lines like "we don't leave no survivors" and such. The swastika cut into Lando's forehead will most probably be taken care of by some very skilled plastic surgeon in his new home...so the ending from that perspective is a little confusing.
On top of that, Tarantino decided to pay homage to great filmmakers of the past with visual and dialogue references, but what was the real effect for the film is unknown. Visual and narrative styles vary and switch, as if to cram as many references into the film as possible. By referring to the masters of the past, Tarantino then invokes necessarily a question whether this is his shot at greatness as well...? Question in my mind after the movie was this - would any of the great directors of the past made such film? I don't think so.
The only thing, as mentioned in the beginning, were some memorable dialogues (the story of the Negro in the American world!) and how the director managed to weave even into a war anti-Nazi movie the topic of the movies itself - the German actress, the cinema owner, Goebbels' propaganda movies, hero-actor, and the story basically built around a premiere screening of a film.