monkeyskin
Refugee
Inglourious Basterds
After the wake up call of Death Proof, Quentin Tarantino gets his mojo back with his new spaghetti-WW2 film. The long stretches of dialogue that in all fairness could be trimmed or snipped entirely remain, but unlike his previous effort the dialogue scenes actually have a point to them. Characters are defined and motives are elegantly laid out for us, while the lengthier chats slowly escalate into levels of tension and drama that many straight action films can only dream of achieving.
In fact, it's actually a pleasure to say that the real meat of the film and much of the enjoyment is down to the dialogue. As I've already said it movies the story foward in it's own time as well as being gripping, but it's also very funny in places. There were quite a few times the people in my screening burst out laughing. The dialogue is better than anything he's done this decade and unlike his 90s work it's not made up of hip, pop culture references, relying on cat and mouse games instead.
As with the 70s martial arts refs of Kill Bill, this obviously has many western throwbacks. The first chapter could be straight out of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, with additional nods to The Searchers. After that The Dirty Dozen is a major influence, but Tarantino makes the genre his own.
But after all this praise, the film somehow feels less than the sum of it's impressive parts. The chapter divides are a distraction and feel jarring and the Basterds themselves are onscreen a lot less than to be expected. One chapter in particular, despite building to a rivetting climax, is superfluous to requirements and serves only to set up one plot point later in the film. But this is certainly his best since Kill Bill Vol 1, but I do hope he quits with the genre pastiches for his next film.
After the wake up call of Death Proof, Quentin Tarantino gets his mojo back with his new spaghetti-WW2 film. The long stretches of dialogue that in all fairness could be trimmed or snipped entirely remain, but unlike his previous effort the dialogue scenes actually have a point to them. Characters are defined and motives are elegantly laid out for us, while the lengthier chats slowly escalate into levels of tension and drama that many straight action films can only dream of achieving.
In fact, it's actually a pleasure to say that the real meat of the film and much of the enjoyment is down to the dialogue. As I've already said it movies the story foward in it's own time as well as being gripping, but it's also very funny in places. There were quite a few times the people in my screening burst out laughing. The dialogue is better than anything he's done this decade and unlike his 90s work it's not made up of hip, pop culture references, relying on cat and mouse games instead.
As with the 70s martial arts refs of Kill Bill, this obviously has many western throwbacks. The first chapter could be straight out of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, with additional nods to The Searchers. After that The Dirty Dozen is a major influence, but Tarantino makes the genre his own.
But after all this praise, the film somehow feels less than the sum of it's impressive parts. The chapter divides are a distraction and feel jarring and the Basterds themselves are onscreen a lot less than to be expected. One chapter in particular, despite building to a rivetting climax, is superfluous to requirements and serves only to set up one plot point later in the film. But this is certainly his best since Kill Bill Vol 1, but I do hope he quits with the genre pastiches for his next film.
Call it a Joshua Tree/Achtung Baby scenario...I love both, just like one slightly more than the other.
