Inglourious Basterds

For lack of wanting to write anything serious still, I am going to ramble on about a movie. Again. I just watched Quentin Tarantino's new film, "Inglourious Basterds". Whether you will see that movie or not is predetermined so I will not bother trying to convince you, or anyone, to see it. I won't even bother to explain what it is about either, because I am not a film critic, and I see no point in the exercise.

What I really want to talk about is an observation I can now make that Quentin Tarantino films have a special way of pissing off the kind of people who piss me off. Asinine controversy seems to boil up around everything the man does. I will admit here that I like all of his films. "Kill Bill II", and "DeathProof", are nothing short of cinematic masterpieces, and the rest of his movies are all damn good as well.

"Inglourious Basterds" is in a tie with "Kill Bill I" as his least satisfying film overall (in my dubious opinion). But the thing that really saves "Inglourious Basterds", and makes it one of the most interesting films of the year (if not Tarantino's best) is it's appallingly bizarre climax. I won't give it away. Suffice it to say that it has pissed off all of those annoying people yet again. Furthermore the controversy that is being argued by the film critics and the movie snob elite (as opposed to Me, your average, middle-class movie snob) has raised some interesting questions that I will now list so that you may contemplate them on your own:

1. Is it the responsibility of fictional movies to portray an accurate account of historical events?

2. Is it the responsibility of film makers to be sensitive to the feelings of people who died almost 70 years ago?

3. Is it my responsibility in the audience to be sensitive to the feelings of people?

4. Am I a bad person because I sometimes enjoy watching nazis getting clubbed to death with baseball bats?

5. Should all movies be politically correct, and safe, and comfortable for the bleeding hearts?

6. Is it weird that Quentin and I both really like to look at women's feet?

7. Is it a film critic's responsibility to point out that "Inglourious Basterds" is incorrect spelling?

8. Exactly how many readers are there of "Time Out New York", or "The Portland Oregonian" who do not already realize that "Inglourious Basterds" is misspelled? And what would that say about the good people of New York and Oregon?

9. Does any of this even matter, or is it just a damn movie, people?

10. Why am I even asking these questions at 3 AM?

That about covers it I think.