This is a great topic. Very glad to see I’m not the only one willing to acknowledge the crappiness of most of these titles. I don’t even know where to begin, but this year I’d say I feel in the minority as a Slumdog Millionaire detractor. Same goes for The Dark Knight – I honestly feel like there’s some kind of collective madness going on in the major national year-end lists based on how many #1 placements it’s gotten.
But in the company of people whose opinions I generally respect, I get the most shit for not liking Harmony Korine, PT Anderson (except Punch-Drunk Love) and Matthew Barney.
In a recent interview discussing Inglorious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino brought up a scene from John Milius’ 1984 communist-paranoia invasion film Red Dawn…
“The Wolverines capture a soldier, and there’s a little bit of back and forth, should we kill him or not, and C Thomas just blows him away with a shotgun,…those are the kind of things you say, ’that’s exactly what I would do.’ It’s what I want to see, and when I don’t see it, I become frustrated, and then it feels like a movie as opposed to real life.”
His misunderstanding of this scene speaks volumes.
First off Quentin, C Thomas killed the guy with a machine gun, not a shotgun. Minor point.
More significantly, the one who gets shot isn’t a “captured soldier.” He’s a classmate of C Thomas Howell’s who has been with the group of young American rebels since the beginning of the Soviet incursion. He’s recently been forced to swallow a tracking device by the Russians under threat of torture and death. When his fellow patriots find out, there’s an extended argument as to whether he should be executed for betraying them. This is not a simple decision: this is a young man they all know and grew up with, on his knees, unarmed, begging for his life, trying to convince them that he had no choice. When C Thomas takes it upon himself to shoot his classmate in cold blood, it’s a horrifying action that shocks and sickens his fellow students. It’s a devastating moment of moral confusion, the kind that you’d find in a “real life” war.
And Tarantino’s reaction to this guy being executed? He wants to stand up and cheer.
Hence Inglorious Basterds, a disgusting revision of history that its director defends as being “just a movie,” just what he “wants to see.” I admit there’s an audacity in actually killing Hitler Goebbels etc in a war movie, ignoring what really happened, but Tarantino goes beyond that. His feeling is that, if you’re living in Nazi Germany, if you have anything to do with the enemy side of that massive, messy global conflict, you deserve to fucking die. Wife of a party member? Fuck you, you should die. An international actor or filmmaker unable to flee the country? Fuck you, you should die. Children born in Germany under Nazi rule? Apparently, they deserve to fucking die. That’s the absurd, immature position of Tarantino’s film: Nazis are evil, anyone involved with Nazis in any way should die. It’s so obvious,. right?
This movie is more offensive than Schindler’s List. While Spielberg’s movie was an attempt to understand a horrible, complex genocide in simplistic, structural Hollywood terms (Nazis are unrepentant monsters, Jews are powerless victims), Basterds says “Hey I don’t know about you guys but if I were the Jews I would have fought back! Why let yourself get killed? That’s what I would have done!”
What balls. I mean honestly, how can anyone defend this movie?
As far as I’m concerned that’s enough to justify this movie’s reputation as the worst film of the year, and possibly the most hopelessly ignorant and mindless war film of all time. And that’s not even delving into the overlong dialogue scenes, Michael Myers cameo and ridiculous “Cat People” 80s music video sequence.
Film historian Sir Christopher Frayling knows this film and Leone’s career like the back of his hand, and literally has to rush to get all the facts in from one scene to another. Informative, intelligent and just fascinating to listen to…
Worst commentary ever:
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST
…sadly, the disc producers made the bone-headed decision to cram 5 people into one running track, so Frayling’s wonderful observations and interesting trivia is constantly being interrupted by WEST fans John Carpenter, John Milius and Alex Cox. Cox, who I think may actually be a better film writer than a director, offers a disappointingly boring commentary while Carpenter – who for the record I love – just didn’t take this seriously at all. Carpenter is pretty laid back and has little to say in the commentaries of his own films; here, he admits to not having seen the movie in years and actually questions events of the plot while the film is running. His disastrous comments are summed up by a moment he gets real excited about – “Wait, wait, here it is…” (10 seconds of nothing) “Oh…no. I guess I was thinking about some other scene.” Get back to Frayling, quick!
The worst individual commentary moment is Tim Burton pointing out how good Johnny Depp is at “fainting” and “He’s also very good at waking up…wait, here it goes…there, isn’t that great?” on his solo Sleepy Hollow commentary. He and Carpenter should team up next time.
Other great commentaries: James Woods on VIDEODROME, anything with Soderbergh, and MALLRATS (which I think is funnier than the movie itself – I think they even sequelized the COMMENTARY on a future disc. No shit.)
Favorite Films In Which the Heroes Die over 3 years ago
SPOILERS! The Passenger, Ride the High Country, In a Year with 13 Moons…and White Dog.
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What films do you always catch shit for for not liking? over 3 years ago
This is a great topic. Very glad to see I’m not the only one willing to acknowledge the crappiness of most of these titles. I don’t even know where to begin, but this year I’d say I feel in the minority as a Slumdog Millionaire detractor. Same goes for The Dark Knight – I honestly feel like there’s some kind of collective madness going on in the major national year-end lists based on how many #1 placements it’s gotten.
But in the company of people whose opinions I generally respect, I get the most shit for not liking Harmony Korine, PT Anderson (except Punch-Drunk Love) and Matthew Barney.
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Your favorite title sequence over 3 years ago
These are all good and interesting picks, but let’s be honest here – does anything come close to The Good The Bad and The Ugly?
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Reactions to Inglourious basterds over 2 years ago
In a recent interview discussing Inglorious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino brought up a scene from John Milius’ 1984 communist-paranoia invasion film Red Dawn…
“The Wolverines capture a soldier, and there’s a little bit of back and forth, should we kill him or not, and C Thomas just blows him away with a shotgun,…those are the kind of things you say, ’that’s exactly what I would do.’ It’s what I want to see, and when I don’t see it, I become frustrated, and then it feels like a movie as opposed to real life.”
His misunderstanding of this scene speaks volumes.
First off Quentin, C Thomas killed the guy with a machine gun, not a shotgun. Minor point.
More significantly, the one who gets shot isn’t a “captured soldier.” He’s a classmate of C Thomas Howell’s who has been with the group of young American rebels since the beginning of the Soviet incursion. He’s recently been forced to swallow a tracking device by the Russians under threat of torture and death. When his fellow patriots find out, there’s an extended argument as to whether he should be executed for betraying them. This is not a simple decision: this is a young man they all know and grew up with, on his knees, unarmed, begging for his life, trying to convince them that he had no choice. When C Thomas takes it upon himself to shoot his classmate in cold blood, it’s a horrifying action that shocks and sickens his fellow students. It’s a devastating moment of moral confusion, the kind that you’d find in a “real life” war.
And Tarantino’s reaction to this guy being executed? He wants to stand up and cheer.
Hence Inglorious Basterds, a disgusting revision of history that its director defends as being “just a movie,” just what he “wants to see.” I admit there’s an audacity in actually killing Hitler Goebbels etc in a war movie, ignoring what really happened, but Tarantino goes beyond that. His feeling is that, if you’re living in Nazi Germany, if you have anything to do with the enemy side of that massive, messy global conflict, you deserve to fucking die. Wife of a party member? Fuck you, you should die. An international actor or filmmaker unable to flee the country? Fuck you, you should die. Children born in Germany under Nazi rule? Apparently, they deserve to fucking die. That’s the absurd, immature position of Tarantino’s film: Nazis are evil, anyone involved with Nazis in any way should die. It’s so obvious,. right?
This movie is more offensive than Schindler’s List. While Spielberg’s movie was an attempt to understand a horrible, complex genocide in simplistic, structural Hollywood terms (Nazis are unrepentant monsters, Jews are powerless victims), Basterds says “Hey I don’t know about you guys but if I were the Jews I would have fought back! Why let yourself get killed? That’s what I would have done!”
What balls. I mean honestly, how can anyone defend this movie?
As far as I’m concerned that’s enough to justify this movie’s reputation as the worst film of the year, and possibly the most hopelessly ignorant and mindless war film of all time. And that’s not even delving into the overlong dialogue scenes, Michael Myers cameo and ridiculous “Cat People” 80s music video sequence.
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soundtrack about 1 year ago
It’s “Nothing In This World Can Stop Me Worrying About That Girl” by the Kinks. The record is on Zimmerman’s table.
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best/worst commentary you've heard? about 1 year ago
Best commentary ever:
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST
Film historian Sir Christopher Frayling knows this film and Leone’s career like the back of his hand, and literally has to rush to get all the facts in from one scene to another. Informative, intelligent and just fascinating to listen to…
Worst commentary ever:
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST
…sadly, the disc producers made the bone-headed decision to cram 5 people into one running track, so Frayling’s wonderful observations and interesting trivia is constantly being interrupted by WEST fans John Carpenter, John Milius and Alex Cox. Cox, who I think may actually be a better film writer than a director, offers a disappointingly boring commentary while Carpenter – who for the record I love – just didn’t take this seriously at all. Carpenter is pretty laid back and has little to say in the commentaries of his own films; here, he admits to not having seen the movie in years and actually questions events of the plot while the film is running. His disastrous comments are summed up by a moment he gets real excited about – “Wait, wait, here it is…” (10 seconds of nothing) “Oh…no. I guess I was thinking about some other scene.” Get back to Frayling, quick!
The worst individual commentary moment is Tim Burton pointing out how good Johnny Depp is at “fainting” and “He’s also very good at waking up…wait, here it goes…there, isn’t that great?” on his solo Sleepy Hollow commentary. He and Carpenter should team up next time.
Other great commentaries: James Woods on VIDEODROME, anything with Soderbergh, and MALLRATS (which I think is funnier than the movie itself – I think they even sequelized the COMMENTARY on a future disc. No shit.)
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