Much has been made of the miss-spelling of the title and there follow three rumoured reasons, which I've copied from IMDb:
Tarantino commented on "The Late Show" that Inglourious Basterds is the "Tarantino way of spelling it," but he hasn't commented on where the idea for the misspelling arose, nor is he likely to. "I'm never going to explain that," Tarantino was quoted at the Cannes Film Festival (Source: here). Three theories have been offered by viewers. (1) Basterd may be derived from the word Baster, a word derived from Dutch bastaard (bastard). The original Basters were mainly persons of mixed descent between the Cape Colony Dutch and indigenous African women who at one time would have been absorbed in the white community. In the movie, the Basterds are American/Jewish, and their plan was very similar...to be "civilians absorbed" in France, walking among the Nazis. (2) The misspelling may connote that Lt Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), who grew up in a family of backwoods bootleggers and moonshiners, has had little in the way of schooling. The words are briefly shown in their misspelled form on his rifle. (3) Tarantino misspelled the title on the cover of the script, which then leaked onto the internet before production began. Rather than admit his mistake, Tarantino chose to maintain the spelling. More on this theory here.
I favour the latter, a spelling error, and once it had escaped he was stuck with it (a bit like the stupid people who insist it is written "noone" as opposed to "no one" because they were doing it for a joke- yeah, right), but I digress, onto the filum.
In Nazi occupied France, a young Jewish refugee witnesses the slaughter of her family by an exceptionally clever (if sadistic) colonel and only just escapes with her own life. She plots her revenge and the opportunity arises when she "inherits" a small cinema in Paris.
As it happens, Goebbels selects her theatre to première his latest propaganda movie to which all the highest ranking Nazis, including Hitler, are to attend.
Meanwhile, in an entirely separate thread and how the film takes its title, there is a group of brutal Jewish-American guerilla soldiers led by the ruthless Lt Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) who are dropped behind enemy lines in Paris and set about spreading fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis.
Invariably, as per most of Tarantino's tales, all the parts converge and the liberty taking finale is a gore fest right up there with his trademark massacres. The ending is audacious but typically Hollywood (think Pearl Harbour/Braveheart/
Independence Day) and the final "twist" is poetic, but what I particularly enjoyed was how the film portrays both sides.
One minute you sympathise with the character the other you hate them and this pendulum keeps swinging all the way through.
It's also a unique style with fluent German, French and English commendatory- and therefore small and quick subtitles which can prove challenging (and probably why many people did not enjoy the two and a half hour flick) which makes the picture for me. Having the advantage of German is not only useful but it helped to pick up a couple of clues, though you won't have to wait long for the explanations, and even my dormant, schoolboy French was dead handy.
I have no idea about the stars of this filum, to me they are almost all unknowns, but their accents and acting are simply brilliant. Christoph Waltz was by far my favourite of the bunch., but Pitt typically chucks in another fine performance and really deserves more credit for his acting ability.
I guess if you look good not many people see beyond that which is a pity, for he is as good as Depp and DiCaprio and a few other pretty boys who unfairly get labelled as having just the image and not the skills. He should get more gigs for every time I have watched him he has never failed to convince or deliver.
Basterds? A very good film (Pulp Fiction is still Tarantino's finest movie for me) and ktelontour recommended.
No comments:
Post a Comment