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Movie of the Year: “Inglourious Basterds”
Debbie Schlussel ^ | Aug 20, 2009 | Debbie Schlussel

Posted on 08/20/2009 8:48:45 PM PDT by JSDude1

I wish my brave, tough Holocaust survivor grandfather, Isaac, was alive to see “Inglourious Basterds.”

He would love it even more than I did. So would my dad. And they would be cheering and laughing along with me.

Because the movie debuts at Midnight screenings tonight, I am posting this review early, and you’ll note that I was entirely wrong in my expectations for this movie when I first wrote about it, back in February. The movie is riveting. It’s fun and serious at the same time.

It’s not usual that I praise a Quentin Tarantino film or a flick starring Brad Pitt. I’m not a big fan of either. But “Inglourious Basterds” is either the exception to the rule or a new beginning (probably the former, at least in the case of Pitt, who is very good here). After two-and-a-half hours of this fantastic movie, I didn’t want it to end. I wanted more. So well done, so interesting, exciting, and suspenseful, it flew by. Like “The Departed (read my review),” it’s a well-wrapped treasure, with new delights at each uncovered layer. And a few puzzles, some of which aren’t answered but are designed to make you think.

I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this movie.

(Excerpt) Read more at debbieschlussel.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Germany; Israel; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: america; heroes; inglouriousbasterds; jews; junk; moviereview; wwii
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To: Prodigal Son

So your point is that false statements don’t matter because they are false?

Did you know that the Thai government renamed the river to give tourists a place to see “the Bridge”?


141 posted on 08/22/2009 9:21:08 AM PDT by donmeaker (Invicto)
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To: donmeaker

I write fiction. I love creating stories. What do you want me to say?

Sure, ok, I admit it. I write lies.

Star Wars, the movie. Nothing but a big pack of lies.

The Good the Bad and the Ugly. Big pack of lies.

Gone with the Wind. Big pack of lies- it never happened!


142 posted on 08/22/2009 3:08:35 PM PDT by Prodigal Son
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To: JSDude1
Saw the film yesterday. Tarantino set out to create a "Spaghetti WWII Movie" and it shows. This is a good and bad thing. Good in terms of conflict depictions and cinematography. Bad in terms of the "character drag" that occurs for 20 minutes in the movie, whereby the German and French protagonists have long conversations as a set up to their characters.

I give the film three stars, and believe that it could have been four stars had Tarantino cut about 25 minutes. I also believe that it would be a war crime if Christoph Waltz does NOT get the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as Colonel Landa, if only for the opening scene alone.

143 posted on 08/22/2009 3:13:06 PM PDT by Clemenza (Remember our Korean War Veterans)
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To: JSDude1; fieldmarshaldj
Saw the film yesterday. Tarantino set out to create a "Spaghetti WWII Movie" and it shows. This is a good and bad thing. Good in terms of conflict depictions and cinematography. Bad in terms of the "character drag" that occurs for 20 minutes in the movie, whereby the German and French protagonists have long conversations as a set up to their characters.

I give the film three stars, and believe that it could have been four stars had Tarantino cut about 25 minutes. I also believe that it would be a war crime if Christoph Waltz does NOT get the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as Colonel Landa, if only for the opening scene alone.

BTW: Marshal, Pitt's Aldo Laine character is supposed to be from eastern Tennesssee, so I don't see why he talks like somebody from Jacksonville.

144 posted on 08/22/2009 3:14:00 PM PDT by Clemenza (Remember our Korean War Veterans)
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To: JSDude1

I enjoy QT movies. If I let politics stop me from watching movies or listening to music, mine would be a boring, sad existence indeed.


145 posted on 08/22/2009 3:16:46 PM PDT by Grunthor
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To: donmeaker
Check “Bridge over the River Kwai” where the honorable British commander, who’s men were being murdered by the Japanese in a disgraceful fashion, yet still resisted, was presented as a collaborator.

'Kwai' was more ambigious than that. By the end, it's not clear who was in the right.
146 posted on 08/22/2009 3:36:55 PM PDT by Borges
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To: donmeaker

Wow talk about over simplifying. Kwai is about an officer who gets caught up in the show of being a British officer and loses sight of the war around him. He doesn’t really collaborate so much as decide to show everybody how awesome Brits are. And let’s not forget all his questionable stuff happens after he spends a few days in the hot box, we’ll never know how much of his brain gets left behind. It’s a great movie, great book too.


147 posted on 08/22/2009 4:42:56 PM PDT by discostu (Somehow mister reliable was not where he was supposed to be)
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To: Clemenza

Brad Pitt is, of course, from Springfield, MO, so he ought to have an Ozarkesque accent (Southern), a la Harry Truman, but as I remember, a lot of folks in Jacksonville, FL (aside from old timers) don’t have that much of an accent. Eastern TN natives should have a fairly distinctive Southern accent (especially if from the rural, isolated areas - such as Dolly Parton, and probably not terribly far removed from Loretta Lynn, from isolated Eastern KY). Of course, I’m a Middle TN/Nashville native, but I don’t sound like I’m from here at all, I sound Yankee to Southerners and Southern to Yankees. No one has ever correctly guessed my state of origin upon hearing me talk.

Anyway, I hope I get to see IB before long, most likely on DVD where I can control the volume, unlike in the theatre. :-P


148 posted on 08/22/2009 5:02:15 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
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To: Borges

The ambiguity was the lie. The reality pitted brutal Japanese committing war crimes against honorable captured soldiers. The soldiers continued to resist by badly mixing concrete, and gathering termites from the jungle and placing them on the wooden support structures.

The author of the book got his notion of collaboration from French officers, and transplanted it to the British for shock effect.


149 posted on 08/22/2009 6:47:47 PM PDT by donmeaker (Invicto)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

A lot of actors learn to use different accents. That is why they have “voice coach” positions.


150 posted on 08/22/2009 6:48:34 PM PDT by donmeaker (Invicto)
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To: donmeaker

I know, but I haven’t heard enough of his speech in the film to tell where he sounds like he’s from. But Brad Pitt in most movies just usually sounds like Brad Pitt.


151 posted on 08/22/2009 6:51:01 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
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To: discostu

Agamemnon was a self important incompetent. When the G-ds corrected him, he sought to compensate for his small penis by theft under color of authority, committed against Achilles.


152 posted on 08/22/2009 6:52:57 PM PDT by donmeaker (Invicto)
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To: donmeaker

Well in that case it was fiction. It should be dealt with on its own terms.


153 posted on 08/22/2009 6:54:11 PM PDT by Borges
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To: donmeaker

Pretty much all the classic Greek heroes are jerks. That’s part of what makes mythology fun.


154 posted on 08/22/2009 8:19:47 PM PDT by discostu (Somehow mister reliable was not where he was supposed to be)
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To: fieldmarshaldj
but as I remember, a lot of folks in Jacksonville, FL (aside from old timers) don’t have that much of an accent.

In the more blue collar neighborhoods of the Jacksonville area, you will still find some folks who speak with the classic Florida Cracker accent, ("Floorida"), but it has been dying there for some time. I still don't understand why me BIL (who was raised in North Palm Beach to parents from New Jersey and Connecticut) has a slight cracker accent, even though almost everyone else there does not. When I heard Pitt speak, I thought he sounded like a more rustic version of my brother in law.

155 posted on 08/23/2009 8:10:56 AM PDT by Clemenza (Remember our Korean War Veterans)
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