More On Inglourious

Linds says:

I'm still just monumentally not okay with this film. I wish I could believe that Tarantino meant all this - and I wish I could stomach watching it (already not my kind of movie + way too much time spent reading primary sources from the Holocaust). I just look at the history of Holocaust film, and still can't get over how much of a misfire this one seems to be - cathartic violence. I know thoughtful people can analyze it and find great truth like you did here, but most I've talked to have just become convinced that it's okay to turn Jews into Nazis on screen because it's revenge, not an unprovoked attack.

Or maybe I just really shouldn't have spent two years writing on the topic of how Germany uses film to reconcile with its own history. Am I too hopeless an egghead to be able to value this movie, dear professor?

Sean says:

I’ll be honest: I went back and forth as to whether I think that Tarantino knew what he was saying.

But, come on, he can’t be that clueless, right? 

There are so many one-to-one matches, so many moments of mirroring, the movie clearly puts the Nazis and the Allies into the same camp. 

And yet, he does so with such glee, and without introspection – while I have no problem arguing that the movie says we are the same, I would not have much evidence to suggest that the movie thinks there is anything wrong with that.

Tell me that Tarantino thinks that revenge for revenge’s sake is a noble end, and I’d just nod and say, “I guess that makes sense.”

But I want him/it to mean more (see David’s comments on the blog). I don’t want all that potential talent to be just so… sad.

Were I to critique the film itself, rather than limit myself to this one sub-theme, I would say it is a movie of some amazing scenes and performances, but a patchwork that never quite gels for me into first-rate whole.

And mayhap this is the problem with the themes – the intellect says one thing, the visceral says another.

Dazzling pieces that don’t gel into a first-rate whole?

Just my thoughts,

Sean