Box Office: The Virtues of ‘Basterds’
by S.T. Karnick
Following on the heels of the strong opening weekend for the relatively intelligent alien invasion story District 9, Quentin Tarantino’s World War II adventure Inglourious Basterds opened at number one at the U.S. movie box office this past weekend, taking in $37.6 million.
That’s the most, by far, any Tarantino film has brought in during its first three days, greatly outpacing the $25 million for Kill Bill, Volume 2. Coming in second on the week was District 9, last week’s top attraction, with just under $19 million.
While those aren’t quite G.I. Joe/Transformer numbers, they’re definitely solid and suggest that audiences are looking for more than superficial thrills as the young ones head back to school. Even though Inglourious Basterds manifests Tarantino’s stylistic self-indulgence and evidently vastly greater interest in movies than in reality, the film does have a real story line and more interesting characters than the great majority of summer blockbuster contenders.
Joining Basterds and District 9 in the weekend’s top five were two strongly character- and story-driven films, The Time Traveler’s Wife and Julie and Julia. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra fell to third with an unspectacular $12.5 million.
Although Tarantino provides plenty of sensational and bizarre scenes in his films, they typically include vivid, interesting characters, occasionally clever dialogue, and strong story lines–while adhering to the contemporary cinema’s cavalier attitude toward both logical and psychological plausibility, its preference for the sensational over the sensible, its penchant for bad taste, its admiration for personal willfulness, and its advocacy of hedonistic utilitarianism.
Meaning: the strengths of Tarantino’s films lie in their similarity to the best of modern American dramatic series television, while his weaknesses are those of the contemporary Hollywood cinema.
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32 Comments
I like tarantino, and I don't care who knows it.
And you know what I like Kevin Costner's big epic stuff too.
Know what I don't lke? films that take themselves all seriously.
ok i do on a rare occasion, But I usually don't.
I want my mocies to be entertaining. I want to laugh i want to cheer. I don't want to get beaten down with an oppressive message. Yep I am unenlightened. I am one of the 90%.
And if the "intellectuals" don't like it, too bad.
I like tarantino, and I don't care who knows it.
And you know what I like Kevin Costner's big epic stuff too.
Know what I don't lke? films that take themselves all seriously.
ok i do on a rare occasion, But I usually don't.
I want my movies to be entertaining. I want to laugh i want to cheer. I don't want to get beaten down with an oppressive message. Yep I am unenlightened. I am one of the 90%.
And if the "intellectuals" don't like it, too bad.
I like Tarantino too. I don't whether that means I have taste or not. Don't really care. It's entertaining and that's all that matters to me.
Well, I went to see it yesterday not expecting much and have to say I liked it. First Brad Pitt movie that I enjoyed, too.
Judgement at Nuremberg is on the MGM Channel this Friday. Definitely a message movie, and one everybody should see, and easily one of the greatest films ever made.
Taratino? Eh. I don't find his work even vaguely entertaining.
I'm a Tarantino fan, too. His unabashed love for movies always comes through in his work. Nobody can ever accuse him of just phoning it in.
Didn't want to see it. Did see it. It's great! Riveting!
Saw I.B. this weekend and came away feeling it was "thin" in places where it shouldn't have been and long in spots where it needn't be. More backstory on the "Bear Jew" and "Stig" would have helped fill in gaps. More time spent showing the Basterds in action would have made the film better. Yeah, I wanted to see more nazi's getting their asses kicked, or scalped.
I walked out half way thru. Phony as a three dollar bill. Nothing glorious about killing and scalping German draftees, and Nazis are a bit worn as bad guys. You want heroic Jews, let's do a story about Israelis fighting Hamas and Hezbollah. Wait, the jihadis are the good guys in Hollywood.
I am torn. I think IB had all the Tarantino elements that I love, but for some reason it just felt "under-edited." I don't know. For me, parts of the movie were missing that wonderful Tarantino tension that I love. The ending felt almost anti-climatic. Loved the characters though. My husband loved it immediately and wanted to see it again.
Then again, I was slightly disappointed with Kill Bill the first time I saw it and now I think KB is brilliant. I think a second viewing is in order.
On a side note: I saw several black theatre goers outside the screen unable to go back into the theatre. Some of the dialogue really hit a nerve with black viewers and you have to admit some of the dialogue was brutal even for Tarantino. If he was going for uncomfortable…he got it.
this is stuff for kids…
And not terribly savvy ones, either. Just as 'Kill Bill' and the Grindhouse mess he did with the inexplicable Robert Rodriguez it's artsy violence for the ADD crowd. He does have a sense of style- but his substance is just flat out non-existent.
And it's good to know that Eli Roth is as talentless as an actor as he is a hack as a filmmaker…
I have not seen Inglorious Bastards (to site James Bowman: QT, Note SP). I feel drawn to this the same way one is drawn to a massive auto accident. A significant part of me wants to turn away from the gratuitous violence. Another part of me wants to slow down and stare. Currently, I'm listening more to the former than the latter.
S.T.'s final sentence. made me think – what I would like to see is Tarantino create for television. If he is the great visual storyteller everyone says he is, then he certainly does not need the crutch of extreme violence and gore in order to create his art. Give Quentin a dramatic series a cable or broadcast television network (not HBO, Skin-amax, etc.).
If on the other hand FCC television regulations would remove the thing that makes Tarantino a unique creative talent, then he can't be all he's cracked up to be.
fine so I have add
but there are times when I don't want a thinking movie. I just want entertainment. and for my $$, it works.
but if you want to think higher of me, i do watch with the director audio turned on
lol
interesting observation. I'd like to see it too.
Then again, I was slightly disappointed with Kill Bill the first time I saw it and now I think KB is brilliant. I think a second viewing is in order.
Tarantino is like that:
"Immediately after “Pulp Fiction” played at Cannes, QT asked me what I thought. “It’s either the best film of the year or the worst film,” I said. I hardly knew what the hell had happened to me. The answer was: the best film. Tarantino films have a way of growing on you. It’s not enough to see them once."
- Roger Ebert
(that said, I really enjoyed this film, though I do think there shoulda been more flashbacky goodness on the Basterds, particularly the Bear Jew and Til Schweiger…)
If on the other hand FCC television regulations would remove the thing that makes Tarantino a unique creative talent, then he can't be all he's cracked up to be.
Unfair. I don't think _Oz_ or _The Sopranos_ would have been as good as they were without the violence, gore, and offensiveness they could have on pay cable. Some folks or themes just can't be successfully bowdlerized, and to attempt to do so with QT would be an abortion.
That said, constriction can focus art, and perhaps that's the difference between, say, David Lynch and QT.. QT is a bit of a celluloid snob, while DL (and Robert Rodriguez) are just into cool images regardless of media.. (and in DL's case, if going digital means being able to create, vs having to beg/steal/cadge money to shoot on analog, IMO he's justified.. To DL it's just another palette to master)
To me, the problem with Costner's big films (besides that Costner can't act) is they take themselves too seriously. And, he really, really can't act. He was good in Silverado though.
Was a panache of interesting situations, nearly all indoors, which means q is not good at outdoor shoots. I could have written better material overall, but since I am easily detected as a conservative, well you know how that goes.
Kill Bill, especially Volume 2, is absolutely beautiful, and Death Proof – the half of Grindhouse he directed – was fine (Planet Terror was awful). Not sure what you mean by 'savvy,' but Death Proof had exactly two violent scenes in 90 minutes of movie.
I couldn't wait for IB, saw it yesterday, loved it, will see it again in the theater. I was surprised by how not-violent it was – it certainly wasn't wall-to-wall, and the tension built in the first 20 minutes was top-notch. In my matinee viewing, the house was 3/4 full and people cheered and clapped at the end.
I love QT's work – the hatred he gets thrown his way is about as irrational as the hatred of Palin. I find that most people who can't stand his work also tend to cut it down and the people who enjoy it. When I know I'm not going to like something and then don't like it, I don't go about insulting the intelligence of those who do.
My brother and I wanted to walk out, as we did for Death Proof, but we stayed, hoping it would turn into a war movie, as promised.
No such luck.
Bad enough hearing Tarantino's actors/characters droning on and on in English.
In this movie, it's on and on and on…in French, German, and Italian.
Jesus Christ.
Love Tarantino. As was mentioned earlier. Love it or hate it, when you go to a QT movie your going to see his passion up on the screen.
Heck 'From Dusk Till Dawn' is (for me) still one of the best vampire movies ever (the original – the squeals – meh). One of the best "real" epiphanies in a horror movie "And I don't want to hear anything about "I don't believe in vampires" because I don't believe in vampires, but I believe in my own two eyes, and what I saw is f***ing vampires!"
Reservoir Dogs? Pulp Fiction? Why they pull my attention and keep it I don't know exactly but I like em and enjoy them.
I agree. Make "Infidel Basterds" and I'll throw a party.
Based on the trailer, I had the following impression: it's a Sergio Leone-style spaghetti western-type film ("Once upon a time in Nazi-occupied France…" gave it away), and it's not about the US v. the Nazi's — it looks more like the war-on-terror film that was never made: Brad Pitt sounds and talks exactly like W Bush, and the things he says about how they're gonna kill the Nazi's in that trailer sound a lot like a caricature of what critics said about Bush's/the US's handling of the war. Moreover, Pitt's character describes the Nazi occupiers almost exactly like the prior administration and military frequently described al Qaeda in Iraq and Afghanistan: as occupiers, a gang of terrorists, etc.
That trailer really made me want to see this film to determine whether my impressions are verified. Looking forward to it, because at a minimum it looks like it might be mildly amusing.
Black Viewers??? WTF????
Yeah they did state that the fuhrer would not let the black man run the theatre equipment for the NAzi play but then again it was Hitler, could we really rewrite him as not being a racist to assuage sensitivities. Still in the end the Nazi's all get it so……… I think it's Ok to show Hitler as a white supremecist in a movie so long as you kill him in the end. But that's just me.
I wish Tarantino would make a movie concentrating on the dialogue and story elements without the comic book qualities. For me this movie would have been great if the inglorious basterds were not in it. Every thing was serivous and well drawn out except for them. They seemed to be there just so QT could have an homage to the Hitchhiker;s Guide to the Galaxy. I loved the guide but this was not that genre. He mixes things in a way that detracts from the story. The foreign languages, the back story with the girl were superb.
Also the Basterds were what liberals view American soldiers as, savage injuns who scalp people. They just think that WWII and the Nazi's were deserving. (I guess because they were white people). This I think is as offensive to the military as any of the liberal iraq is a bad war movies. Our soldiers are taught to be above that. They follow rules of engagement for humanitarian reasons that our enemies would never live by. The US soldier is better than that. They do not torture despite what libtard trolls think. This is just a pet peeve with me regarding the movie.
Me too. My favorite is True Romance (he wrote the screenplay).
I went into this movie expecting to see what the trailer revealed: a bloody revenge flick with lots of scalped Nazis. While I did get a little of that, I got so much more and it was completely entertaining. It wasn't until it was over that I realized most of the battles in this WWII movie took place between two people talking at a table. Also, the fact that the story tossed history aside was a minor point that I had no problem swallowing.
I wish Tarantino would make a movie concentrating on the dialogue and story elements without the comic book qualities.
And here I thought that movie was Reservoir Dogs.
Which gives me a problem with him. I loved that film. Brutal but honest, believable. With one thing that truly impressed me, the long shots. Minutes of dialogue, same camera, no edits. The entire film, concentrated on a grimy room I could have walked by on a back street. This. Is. Storytelling.
His work since then, oh yeah, comic book. Watchable, escapist, comic book. However, it has been awhile since I actually saw one of his films, for about the last half of his work so far I'm going by the trailers. Now if any one wants to suggest which later films I must see which will disabuse me of that notion….
Well I have not seen Reservoir Dogs so that will be on a must get list to rent.
Thanks
This movie is awesome. I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys Big Hollywood! Seriously!!!
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