So, we saw "Inglourious Basterds" last night (yes, the spelling is 
intentional).  Great movie :)

It's a revisionist piece of historical fiction set in WWII about a group 
of Jewish-American soldiers who set out to scalp Nazis, and a Nazi 
officer in France tasked with hunting down the Jews who are in hiding. 
The film is directed by Quentin Tarantino, and is probably his best work 
since "Pulp Fiction."

It takes a few small liberties with history (and one big one near the 
end), but mostly focuses on a few key characters.

It's not an action movie, in that the action scenes are quite sparse. 
This is NOT "Kill GI Bill" or anything like that - Tarantino, instead, 
focused on using dialogue to build tension and advance the plot.

In fact, for a movie like this, there is surprisingly little plot with a 
large amount of dialogue.  Yet, the audience never gets bored or loses 
interest.  I've heard it said that Tarantino is a better writer than 
director; in this movie, he shows just how strong his writing is.

What action is present in the movie, is preceded wonderfully by tension 
and suspense.  This is a movie where you can sit on the edge of your 
seat for 15 minutes, watching two men sit at a table and having a drink, 
only to have that tension released by 5 seconds of brutal violence. 
Then, it begins building again for the next scene.0

As much as I liked "District 9", I think "Inglourious Basterds" wins out 
for August's best film.

...Chambers

Post a reply to this message

Chambers <Ben### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> Tarantino, instead, 
> focused on using dialogue to build tension and advance the plot.

  You mean Tarantino has made some movie where dialogue is not the essential
core of the movie?

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message

Warp wrote:
> Chambers <Ben### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
>> Tarantino, instead, 
>> focused on using dialogue to build tension and advance the plot.
> 
>   You mean Tarantino has made some movie where dialogue is not the essential
> core of the movie?
> 

Well, the last two movies of his that I saw were "Kill Bill 1" (which 
has the distinction of being one of less than a dozen movies I've ever 
turned off in the middle, it was so bad), and "Deathproof" (which I 
thoroughly enjoyed).

While "Deathproof" had some great dialogue in it, both of those movies 
also relied quite a bit on action.

...Chambers

Post a reply to this message