I did my best to read nothing about the movie. I remember at one point in production I had heard QT wanted to get Arnold, Bruce Willis and Sly Stallone all together for this one, and believe me, there were parts for all three of them. That obviously never happened, and now that I've seen the movie, it's probably a good thing.
Sticking with his Kill Bill theme, the movie is broken up in 5 Chapters (I believe) which is great because Tarantino "Great Glass Elevators" it and moves this movie all over the place, and I had no idea where it was going until the 3rd or 4th Chapter.
The first one was so dramatic. It made me realize why some people think RezDogs is his best work because it's really his only natural drama. By the time he did Fiction, he had developed his style to the point where no matter how serious a situation was, it was treated as comedy. The opening scene was not comedic at all. Christoph Waltz deserves an Oscar for his role in this one. He was absolutely incredible. Problem was, I thought it was Tim Roth the whole time because Eli Roth was in the movie and I got them WAY confused. My bad. Christoph Waltz = Incredible. I almost want to speak French and German because of the movie (and ofcourse Ay-talian). What I loved about the opening sequence was that it got my hopes up that QT was about to unleash a furious drama on the public, which I'd find out later he wouldn't.
The second part was the introductions of the Basterds. Brad Pitt was kind of annoying me in the beginning because compared to the greatness of the opening scene, it just didn't measure up. 2 more interesting characters were created here in Hugo Stiglitz and the Bear Jew. The introduction of Stiglitz brought this back into Tarantino's bread and butter. This was when I realized the movie was going to go all over the place and was no longer going to be a drama. As soon as you hear Samuel L. Jackson do the voice over to do his backstory, you remember that you can only take the movie so seriously, and you're there to be entertained. This may sound bad, but QT has a way of balancing drama, action and comedy like no other director before him, and in this movie, he's probably at his most confident doing it. Next thing you know, after some nice scalpings, the Bear Jew comes out of the cave with a baseball bat. Again, I was taken aback as to how "American" he was. The movie was casting such a nice shadow, then you got this kid coming out of the cave with a baseball bat that, I don't know if it was his role or his acting, but seemed quite out of place. Then, once he swings the bat, it's all good again. Kinda weird, but with the rest of the movie, it all works somehow.
I believe Part 3 is the movie theatre scene in which the survivor from scene 1 has another run in with the Jew Hunter. Again, the Jew Hunter is nails.
Maybe it's Part 4 where the long bar scene meeting, underground ofcourse, happens where the plans to disrupt the movie premier happens. I didn't know this movie was going to end up about ... well ... a movie. The card game they play was incredible. This scene really had the best dialogue, and the dialogue in general was incredible. QT broke the language barrier and came out victorious. I was a bit disappointed to see Hugo Stiglitz bite it though. Also, if I ever order 3 of anything, I'm definitely doing it the German way.
What was really unique also, is this movie pulled modern racism off in a 1940s setting. Sure the times were more racist back then, but all the Jew and Negro jokes were hysterical. Tarantino loves racism, and it happens here again, although he can't drop the N bomb like he has so much in the passed and thank god because this movie really didn't need that.
I believe it was before the final scene where he finally dropped a modern song into the movie, and by modern, I mean after the 1940s and in the rock age. It happened while Melanie Laurent was getting ready for her big plan to light her theatre on fire. It really seemed WAY out of place. This was probably my least favorite part of the movie. Maybe it will be okay with multiple viewings and now that I know the ending, does an out of place song really matter?
The ending. Oh boy. I remember the days I'd play Vice City and shoot up the dance club. There'd be all these bloody bodies on the floor and afterwards, I'd feel like I had some serious psychological problems. This movie made me feel alot better about myself during those times. Now, as QT is still stuck in vengeance mode after Kill Bill, if there's any group of people we all want to see awful carnage against, it's the Nazis. A theatre of them burning to death with the laughter of the theatres owner, drowning out the screams of pain? Sure. If all this isn't enough, The Bear Jew and that other dude just gunning them all down from the balcony was sooooooooo bad. All you can do is laugh. Was it great? Yes it was. Am I sick in the head? I don't think so. I hope not. Probably. But that's how QT makes you feel.
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