"Inglorious Basterds" is a good film. Quite unlike anything I have ever seen.
I admit that at one point I was about to get up and leave the cinema in indignation - something which I have never done before and something which I don't really believe in doing if only because it is quite pointless.
(I was disgusted by the scene in which a German soldier is brutally murdered.)
It is a surreal, fairy tale, semi-fantasy war film.
I prefer historically accurate films. And I prefer political films and politically engaged films.
But I still like this film. One reason is because it is made obvious that it is not really supposed to be overly political.
Obviously, all films are political in a sense. I think this film is not politically suspect.
Why should all war films be conventional?
What is the point in making yet another conventional realistic war film?
It is clear enough that it is meant to be surreal and a kind of fairy tale.
It achieves a good balance because it is not too surreal.
It bears comparison with French surrealist gems like "La cité des enfants perdus" and "Delicatessen".
As for the excellent and considered view of a journalist who I think is fantastic, Johann Hari, who says that the film is morally bankrupt because of the way it uses violence, I am not sure.
I would say that I think he may be right.
But fairy tales can be violent too. Violence can be part of life. How you view it is up to you.
The point is it is not real. It is a film.
.........