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Allow me to preface by saying I've never written a film review before, and I am being very careful not to spoil any critical plot points...
Today I had an opportunity to see the film on its 2015 Roadshow before it opens to general audiences. It was shot on 70mm film and shown only on screens that could support this style of film - Other pictures shot like this include Ben Hur, Mutiny on the Bounty and Battle of the Bulge. The last time this format was used was back in 1966. (Khartoum)
What an outstanding cast! (especially if you enjoy Tarantino flicks), including Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russel, Michael Madsen, and Bruce Dern. It also features Jennifer Jason Leigh in a role you'd not expect her to be capable of; I was impressed.
The Good:
The first half hour or so is spent with dialog between Jackson and Kurt Russell - they are riding in a stage coach so there is some scenery, but mostly just dialog. It SHOULD be boring, but I enjoy both actors and the writing is very witty - feeling each other out, getting to know the other and decide if there can be any type of mutual trust between them.
- Kurt Russell and Michael Madsen had great characters - and they played them very very well.
- There was an intermission at 2 hours in - And it was 15 minutes long - have to wonder if they will do this for wide release.
- If you are going to see this, avoid spoilers. There are a few different twists that change the course of action, I usually hate that stuff, but in this movie it was well done.
One scene in particular made me laugh out loud, Sam Jackson asks if he may sit down next to Bruce Dern (who plays a retired confederate general), the general replies, "Go ahead, according to the Yankees, it's a free country."
The Bad
Without giving away too many spoilers, the Sam Jackson character was unlikable. That disappointed me. In any of his other Tarantino roles, even if he was a bad dude, I still pulled for him. In this movie, he still had the same well written dialog, but he has some scenes where I realized the character is just a bad person, not just a "bad guy".
- The number of times the word "Nigger" is uttered is unnecessary - his film, his dialog; but...it felt forced and like they wrote scenes just so the racist characters would have another opportunity to use that word.
- The music was somewhat distracting, only because in certain scenes it sounded very familiar to music from The Godfather.
The Ugly
Tarantino cannot get out of his own way when it comes to inserting his political agenda into his films. It was somewhat noticeable in Django Unchained, but he beats you over the head with it in this film. The overall message, white people are bad, the black people have been fucked over and should pretty much be permitted to do whatever they wish, and to question them would make you an unfeeling racist who did not care about the black plight. Just the other day I happened upon an interview with Tarantino, this quote left me shaking my head:
My original idea for Inglourious Basterds way back when was that this [would be] a huge story that included the [smaller] story that you saw in the film, but also followed a bunch of black troops, and they had been f–ked over by the American military and kind of go apes–t. They basically — the way Lt. Aldo Raines (Brad Pitt) and the Basterds are having an ‘Apache resistance’ — the black troops go on an Apache warpath and kill a bunch of white soldiers and white officers on a military base and are just making a warpath to Switzerland. […] It would be called Killer Crow or something like that.”
In the end I will still watch and enjoy Pulp Fiction and both Kill Bills when I have the opportunity, but I am saddened to think that I am pretty much done with this director's films going forward.
As an aside, I do not recommend this for kids, or even teens. The language is what it is, but the violence is not cartoonish like it was in Kill Bill, this gets pretty ugly in some scenes.
Today I had an opportunity to see the film on its 2015 Roadshow before it opens to general audiences. It was shot on 70mm film and shown only on screens that could support this style of film - Other pictures shot like this include Ben Hur, Mutiny on the Bounty and Battle of the Bulge. The last time this format was used was back in 1966. (Khartoum)
What an outstanding cast! (especially if you enjoy Tarantino flicks), including Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russel, Michael Madsen, and Bruce Dern. It also features Jennifer Jason Leigh in a role you'd not expect her to be capable of; I was impressed.
The Good:
The first half hour or so is spent with dialog between Jackson and Kurt Russell - they are riding in a stage coach so there is some scenery, but mostly just dialog. It SHOULD be boring, but I enjoy both actors and the writing is very witty - feeling each other out, getting to know the other and decide if there can be any type of mutual trust between them.
- Kurt Russell and Michael Madsen had great characters - and they played them very very well.
- There was an intermission at 2 hours in - And it was 15 minutes long - have to wonder if they will do this for wide release.
- If you are going to see this, avoid spoilers. There are a few different twists that change the course of action, I usually hate that stuff, but in this movie it was well done.
One scene in particular made me laugh out loud, Sam Jackson asks if he may sit down next to Bruce Dern (who plays a retired confederate general), the general replies, "Go ahead, according to the Yankees, it's a free country."
The Bad
Without giving away too many spoilers, the Sam Jackson character was unlikable. That disappointed me. In any of his other Tarantino roles, even if he was a bad dude, I still pulled for him. In this movie, he still had the same well written dialog, but he has some scenes where I realized the character is just a bad person, not just a "bad guy".
- The number of times the word "Nigger" is uttered is unnecessary - his film, his dialog; but...it felt forced and like they wrote scenes just so the racist characters would have another opportunity to use that word.
- The music was somewhat distracting, only because in certain scenes it sounded very familiar to music from The Godfather.
The Ugly
Tarantino cannot get out of his own way when it comes to inserting his political agenda into his films. It was somewhat noticeable in Django Unchained, but he beats you over the head with it in this film. The overall message, white people are bad, the black people have been fucked over and should pretty much be permitted to do whatever they wish, and to question them would make you an unfeeling racist who did not care about the black plight. Just the other day I happened upon an interview with Tarantino, this quote left me shaking my head:
My original idea for Inglourious Basterds way back when was that this [would be] a huge story that included the [smaller] story that you saw in the film, but also followed a bunch of black troops, and they had been f–ked over by the American military and kind of go apes–t. They basically — the way Lt. Aldo Raines (Brad Pitt) and the Basterds are having an ‘Apache resistance’ — the black troops go on an Apache warpath and kill a bunch of white soldiers and white officers on a military base and are just making a warpath to Switzerland. […] It would be called Killer Crow or something like that.”
In the end I will still watch and enjoy Pulp Fiction and both Kill Bills when I have the opportunity, but I am saddened to think that I am pretty much done with this director's films going forward.
As an aside, I do not recommend this for kids, or even teens. The language is what it is, but the violence is not cartoonish like it was in Kill Bill, this gets pretty ugly in some scenes.
