If all these Jews have no objection to their tribe being portrayed asone-dimensional vengeful sadists, who am I to complain? Perhaps theshoe fits.
Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds [sic, sic] hasbeen hyped as World War II action movie-cum-sadistic gorefest. Inreality, it is a self-indulgent snorefest. I thought I would need a ginand tonic before I went in, but it turns out what I needed was a cup ofcoffee. Yes, there is some gore and sadism, but frankly I found myselfhoping for more of it. Anything, really, to relieve the sheer boredom.
This is Quentin Tarantino’s worst movie, and that is saying a lot, given how bad Kill Bill, vol. I is. Pulp Fiction was Tarantino’s Citizen Kane, and it has been The Magnificent Ambersonsever since. If you find this review entertaining, let me assure youthat it is far more entertaining than the movie itself. Nothing hereshould be interpreted as encouragement for you to waste your time andmoney on this preposterous and dull film.
Inglourious Basterds is about a team of Americanterrorists, consisting of seven Jews led by a gentile, Aldo “theApache” Raine (played by Brad Pitt), who hails from Tennessee andclaims to be part American Indian. The character is clearly based onTarantino himself, since he too has an Italian name, hails fromTennessee, and claims to be part Cherokee. The mission of the Basterdsis to terrify the Nazis by killing them in the most sadistic mannerpossible and mutilating their corpses. The dead are scalped. Thesurvivors have swastikas carved in their foreheads.
Holocaust narratives are filled with tales of thousands of Jewsherded to their doom by relative handfuls of Germans and theircollaborators. Although this sheep-like behavior seems rather unlikethe hyper-aggressive and unruly Jews of my acquaintance, most peopleaccept it at face value and then wonder: What was wrong with thesepeople? Why didn’t they fight back?