Vichy France as Pulp Film

It should comes as no surprise that Quentin Tarantino took ginormous creative license with Inglorious Basterds. After all, he made pulp fiction into something it never was with his film by the same name, so why would he restrain himself for the sake of historical accuracy in this dark comedy?

But I hafta say, it was pretty dang funny.

Being a sensitive sort, the language was disconcerting, but not overdone. Some fellow Christians would disagree, but knowing what I do about the military and their flowery use of language, I would say, no, it wasn't overdone. (At this point I could meander off into a discussion about the similarities between a professional kitchen and the military, but will not.)

My husband and I were rolling.

And I was impressed by Tarantino's use of old-school cinematography techniques. So awesome.

Unfortunately, toward the end, it did start to drag a bit.

The two plots (it's really two movies that converge at the end) were not well-balanced. We wanted to see more of Brad Pitt, who was brilliant. When Brad Pitt first hit the scene and the other girls were drooling, I was not. He has never impressed me much. This, however, was different. Don't show me a dramatic Brad Pitt film, I won't like it. But Brad Pitt does funny like Keanu Reeves does evil (The Gift, with Cate Blanchette). (Come to think of it, I also really enjoyed Pitt in Mrs. and Mrs. Smith.) I try not to like him, it's personal.

My only issue with Tarantino's use of creative license is the fear that young people who know nothing of history will think this is actually how WWII ended. But he did do a brilliant job of painting the Nazi attitude, especially in the opening scene, which is the only reason I will excuse the ridiculous length of that scene.

In all, Inglorious Basterds was fun and we will definitely watch it again, even if we do fall asleep just before the grand finale.