Saw the movie y'day eve @ Chennai Devi Theatre. Obviously there were many cuts – thanks to the term, “ suitable for Indian viewing “ !!
Well, much has been said & discussed here and you guys know much better than me. But, whatever I’m going to register here, it will be more Visceral than Cerebral (Thanks P_R).
Firstly, it’s definitely a different film from QT. I say this because in his earlier films, it would be mostly like, “ Modhalla Veechu, appuramathan Pechu “ kind of scenes. Fine example is in RD – unable to bear Michael Madsen torturing the innocent cop, Tim Roth shoots him. Now, when the chief’s son (is he Sean Penn’s bro ??) comes in to the warehouse and enquires, Tim says, that guy cut the cop’s ears, shattered his face and tried to burn him alive. Immediately this guy turns towards the cop and says, “ Who, this cop ? “ and then goes Bang! Bang!! Bang !!! But here it is mostly long and interesting conversations followed by action, which I really enjoyed. I wouldn’t say it is unusual, because dialogues were an integral part of his films and they were famous too. I just felt that it is different. And, as it is usual for a QT film, the music was too good.
Be it any department in the making of this film, it looked to me that QT was in complete control. Right from the soldiers uniforms, their arms & artilleries, Hitler’s spacious and well furnished room, the tavern, the cinema hall, the French peasant’s little house – everything was amazing. Of course, it’s a team work, but I would say that the entire credit should be given to QT for bringing out all those nuances and minutest of the details perfectly on screen. :thumbsup:
IMO, this much of hard work is not required to make films like RD, PF etc where it is enough if the director concentrates more on stylish non-linear narration, excellent casting, great music and thrilling action sequences. But to make a film of this standard, the director has to be a well-read person, a man who has thorough knowledge about world history, World War, Geography, complete knowledge of world cinema particularly old b&w war films (the one that is premiered in Shosanna’s cinema is beautifully shot ), various languages – its accents etc., and our man undoubtedly possess all the above qualities, I believe. Who else could think of a story in world war backdrop told in spaghetti western style !! Brilliant !!!
A German war hero who loves films, his affinity for Shosanna and the subsequent tragedy are all beautiful line of thoughts. In fact, before the climax, when he enters the projector room hoping to have a good time with Shosanna , he is rejected by her, and finally both of them fall down dead killing each other, are all wonderful turn of events.
In the very beginning scene, Hans Landa very casually interrogates the French peasant, who is smoking a small pipe. Later, after getting the country man’s permission, Hans also takes out his pipe, which is really a BIG one, and starts smoking. Now, after looking at the size of the BIG pipe, the countryman slowly hides his small pipe under the table. Some of you must have noticed that there is a similar scene in KB’s “ Avargal “. When Sujatha is sick, Kamal visits her house. He brings with him some oranges which are the size of lemons and keeps it on a table. Later, Rajini comes there and he too brings some oranges which are really Big & fresh and keeps it on the same table. Now, Kamal slowly takes away his small oranges and throws in a basket. Is this what they call, “ Great men think alike ?? “ :)
Before that, in the same scene, after throwing a series of questions to the country man, Hans prepares himself to take down notes in order to make a record of it. The objects that he carries with himself – a neat leather bag, an ink bottle, pen & sheets of white paper – everything looked spic & span ! It was nice to see them.
Jayalalitha often use to criticize Karunanidhi’s propaganda’s as “ Goebbele’s pracharam “. Now here is the man, in this film !!! :)
The climax itself was brilliantly shot. The big b&w close-up of Shosanna scornfully looking at the Nazis and scolding them, the nitrate films burning, total chaos inside the hall, Eli Roth blindly shooting the Nazis, including Hitler himself and finally the powerful grenades going off !! And all this with a Spaghetti Western background music. Only with QT, such a scene is possible !!! :clap:
Now for the performances. My God !! Each and every character, right from the French country man, his young daughters, the Nazi who gets his head smashed with a baseball bat by one of the Basterds, the other Nazi in the tavern, who points out his pistol underneath the table, towards his opponent’s testicles, the bunch of people who are present there and having a blast – Maximillian’s father, particularly, Hitler, Goebbels, his lady translator (we saw her in Kill Bill, whose hand is cut off by the Bride), the soldier who loves movies, Shosanna, Hammersmack – every one of them is just superb. And, this is where, I think the director comes out really really successful.
Brad Pitt as Aldo Raine is just great with his accent and maintains his cool very well.
And, Christopher Waltz !!! What a brilliant performance !!!. This man makes it a pleasure, watching the film. Be it making reasons with his rat & squirrel story, meeting the grown up Shosanna at Goebbel’s office and drinking a glass of milk in one gulp, finding Hammersmack’s single shoe & hand-kerchief, later killing her ferociously, meeting Pitt & his friend, who are supposed to be “ Italians” , in the Cinema and suddenly switching over to Italian accent thereby surprising them, finally, making a deal with Pitt across the table – I simply enjoyed his performance throughout the film. :2thumbsup:
A fantastic & neat film with a B I G QT’s signature over it.
