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gpcfay, August 28th,200
Doors: Open 7PM
The Classic Center
Athens, Georgia
www.project-eafe.org
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TUESDAY
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WORLD WAR QT
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (R), SHORTS (PG)
Once upon a time, the world was at the mercy
of a madman. Then "The Basterds," a gang of
Jewish-American soldiers led by a Southern
mountain man, swept across Nazi-occupied
France. The world lived happily ever after.
The hyperbolical trailers are right. You've
never seen war until you've seen it through
the eyes of Quentin Tarantino. Judging from
QT's WWII fairy tale, the filmmaker has a
future as an alternative historian, should his
ardor for the cinema ever be exhausted.
J'adore Tarantino. I have not seen a film of
his I did not enjoy. However, ever since Jackie
Brown, QT has been cinematically stunted. His
most recent films—both volumes of Kill Bill
and Death Proof—were movies he wanted to
watch rather than films that show any artistic
growth. And the critical throngs that once
hailed QT as the video store clerk messiah of
modern American cinema bawled their dis
content. The larger moviegoing public seemed
tired of his bloody genre mash-ups and three-
hour exploitation hom
ages, too.
Inglourious Basterds
is the film both crit-
ift and moviegoers
have been waiting for
since the '90s trifecta
of Reservoir Dogs, Pulp
Fiction and Jackie
Brown. Anyone only
exposed to the pre
views will be shocked
to hear that Basterds is
QTs most mature film,
despite its graphic,
gratuitous violence
and howling hilarity.
How he saw this multi
faceted film in Enzo
Castellari's blah 1978
spaghetti war movie
demonstrates the
depth of his cinematic
love and moviemaking
talent. The two films. Brad Pitt
share nothing more
than similar titles. Basterds owes more to The
Dirty Dozen, especially the theatrical climax,
whose set bears more than a passing resem
blance to Dozen's chateau.
The opening sequence, extensive dialogue
delivered across a table, should be familiar
to any QT devotee, yet the iron grip of the
urbane conversation between Colonel Hans
Landa (Christoph Waltz), the "Jew Hunter,"
and the poor dairy farmer believed to be
hiding Jews tightens more and more as it
continues.
You've never seen a Tarantino film this sus -
penseful. Not even Death Proof was this tense,
and that's because it lacked Nazis, moviedom's
all-time-greatest villains. SS officers, Gestapo
and enlisted men all conceal an unpredictable
penchant for brutal violence beneath a facade
of politesse.
The second of the five chapters introduces
us to "The Basterds," as they're known to the
Nazis they are frightening, slaughtering and
scalping. Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt)
orders his Basterds—headlined by baseball
bat-wielding Sergeant Donny "The Bear Jew"
Donowitz—to get him "one hunnerd Nat-zee"
scalps.
QT does backslide into '70s exploitation
tropes, albeit entertainingly, in the intro
duction of former Nazi killer Sergeant Hugo
Stiglitz (Til Schweiger), whose name appears
in giant blaxploitation font and whose
exploits are recounted by Samuel L. Jackson.
The third leg of QTs plot triumvirate
involves cinema owner and Jew-in-hiding
Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie^ Laurent), who
plans to avenge her family when the entire
Nazi high command, including a grotesquely
cartoonish Hitler (Martin Wuttke) and
Goebbels (Sylvester Groth), attends the pre
miere of the Minister of Propaganda's latest
cinematic tribute to the fatherland.
QT is so lauded for his writing, with both
words and visuals, that his attention and
devotion to his actors is oft forgetten. As
outlandish as his scenario can stray, he never
lets his cast, save an undeistandably campy
Pitt, get lost as they blaze a trail through
the black-as-Nazi forest. The beautiful, sad
Laurent deserves more attention than she's
getting. The filmmaker also makes a rare
exception and does not resurrect a forgot
ten icon of the '70s. (Mike Myers' cameo does
not count.) Instead, he
focuses his exceptionally
astute acting spotlight
upon Waltz (a two-time
winner of Germany's
Emmy, the Adolf Grimme
Award), who has already
won Best Actor at
Cannes and should be
considered an Oscar
frontrunner. Waltz's
Landa disarms his
potential victims with
a Briino-ish Austrian
giggle and smile before
dropping the Nazi
jackboot.
QTs film closes on a
character claiming, "This
may be my masterpiece."
Pulp Fiction is certainly
more ground-breaking
and presumably influ
ential, but the tough,
strong, wickedly fun
Inglourious Basterds
reveals a filmmaker possessing such extraordi
nary talent and deliberation that his master
piece may be yet to come.
By some strange fate of release dates, QT's
Grindhouse pal, Robert Rodriguez, has a new
movie out as well. RR's new feature, Shorts,
continues the filmmaker's kiddie movie mania.
It's easily his worst yet, even by childish
standards. A town is thrown upside-down with
the discovery of a rainbow-hued wishing rock.
Kids make dumb wishes. Adults make worse
ones that can only be corrected by their kids.
Respectable adult stars—William H. Macy,
James Spader, Jon Cryer and Kat Dennings—
cash paychecks for disreputable work. The
child performers, including Star TreKs Jimmy
Bennett and Rodriguez's own brood, give
worse performances. RR's cinematic joy rivals
QT's in purity, and the former's manic energy
can be channeled into excellent adult films
and creative kids movies (Spy Kids). However, t
he's got to stop writing his own stuff. He is
no QT. Adapting another's high-quality story is
the way for RR to go. We've been waiting for
RR to grow up as long as we've been waiting
for his cinematic kith and kin, QT, to mature.
Inglourious Basterds and Shorts prove RR still
has some catching up to do.
Drew Wheeler
14 FLAGPOLE,COM • AUGUST 26,2009„_