I went to see Inglorious Bastards and halfway through this epic movie I thought "since when does Nazi Germany, SS Cruelty, killing Jews, Hitler, and uber-carnage become an acceptable springboard for a funny/gory Summer Block Buster?" And "when is it okay to pack a movie with anti-Semitic and racist stereotypes?"
Don't worry, I'm not going to give away the plot or the ending.
Tarintino - I don't behoove him for his gratuitous gore and blood asunder. I don't get all too worked up by his missed opportunities as he shackles his talent with a lacking plot line and shallow dialogue. Yet, since when was it become appropriate to use one of our saddest moments in world history as a trampoline to deliver 2.5 hours of fun, jokes, and gore? Even ruder, when is it okay to further anti-Semitic myths and racist lore by way of a block buster movie?
Well there is nothing about WWII which lends itself to "funny."
Estimates range from about 50-70 million killed in World War 2. The Wikipedia article "World War II Casualties" favours the relatively high figure of 72 million. Of these, 61 million were in the Allied side and 11 million were on the Axis side. The article gives a figure of 23 million dead for the Soviet Union and 20 million for China. These figures of course include civilian dead. (Note that the figure for China was recently revised sharply upwards from earlier estimates of about 11 million).
Tarantino's next kick in the nuts was to the American Indian. Our Star, Lt. Aldo Raine (Pitt), who is fabled to be part American Indian, is scripted to have a penchant for scalping Nazis because of his heritage as an "injun." Thus, Raine demands a debt of each of his men "100 Nazi scalps." While Tarantino wishes to perpetuate the sad myth that scalping was an American Indian thing it was a European thing used on the indigenous population. Indian scalps were actually used to get payment by European slaughterers and to demoralize/scare the shit out of the surviving Indians in the hope the savages would flee their land. Thus, the movie not only seems to enjoy using the tragedy of WWII as a way to bring us blockbuster fun and games it also shamelessly perpetuates this grotesque insult to the surviving American Indian. Will the fun every stop? No.
I also love Tarantino's suggestion that Americans cared much about the killing of Jews by Nazis. Well that too is a shameful myth. You can start with The Voyage of the Damned and keep going to American Forces refusal to bomb the concentration camps or the train rails which carried these souls to slaughter. Bottom line - our government, social elite, and too many others, really didn't care for "dirty Jews" and were not all too miffed by Hitler's "final solution." It was actually considered "anti-American" at the time to protest Roosevelt's policy of ignoring the holocaust.
Hey, I too love a good romp in the park. I sometimes can giggle at over the top acting with gratuitous gore which can be a much appreciated genre. Yet, there comes a point when certain vehicles are just in poor taste. Moreover, there is nothing funny about insulting the sad truth of how we slaughtered the indigenous population, and then set forth a lore that it was they who were savage, or a movie which white washes our rich and sad history of not caring too much about Jews getting killed. Lastly, WWII, in its tragic entirely, is something which just doesn't lend itself to slapstick, fun, games, jokes, and humor.
I wonder how this movie will play in a more historically sensitive land. The USSR, having lost 50% of it's male population in WWII will not be rolling in the aisles. Europe as a whole may find America's cavalier attitude sadly...."American." Tarantino's blindness and lack of sensitivity is juvenile at best and it is sad to see that we consume this shit faster than toxic fast food.
I know, I know, I should be talking about Teddy and the Public Option and stop being too sensitive. But I just got to say.