Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by tunenut (A) on August 25, 2009 at 19:15:27

In Reply to: RE: Ingloreius Basstids: Drama, comedy, and pop schlock . . . posted by mr grits on August 21, 2009 at 16:07:33

I'd almost given up on Tarantino. Grind house almost played like self parody. I'd become tired of movie characters that talked like they were in Pulp Fiction. That one was great and original, but so much of what followed seemed to be just variations on the theme. Lowlifes, lots of profanity, B-movie and obscure pop music references, obscure pop music soundtrack.

And so when I read that this one was long and talky, I almost skipped it.

But it surprised me. The dialogue here is quite brilliant. The level of profanity is so low as to be almost nonexistent. There are no long disquisitions on pop culture. Instead, there is a German officer whose dialogue fits with his persona of sophistication, erudition and extraordinary cunning. And there is Brad Pitt's character, who is southern and single-minded about killing Nazis. And there is an SS officer in a tavern, a suave British secret agent- and they play verbal cat and mouse and it works.

Nothing is condensed here, the scenes are allowed to build and flow and people talk a lot. But it did not drag for a single moment for me.

And then there are moments of violence, as would be expected, and they encompass almost everyone, but this is not an action movie at all.

At least 1/2 the dialogue is in German and French. In America, this would usually be commercial poison, but the Pitt/Tarantino combo seems to have sold tickets.

For my money, his best since Pulp Fiction and an unexpected return to form. And yes, Tarantino loves movies, the British agent is a movie critic and the plot turns on a movie theater in Paris and a movie made by Goebbels.