Much Ado About 'Basterds'
Published August 25, 2009 @ 05:08PM PT
I am not going to see Inglourious Basterds.
I've never been a Tarantino fan to begin with, and, as I recently told a Change.org member in a comment thread, I rarely chose to spend my free time watching Holocaust or genocide-themed movies. I used to, once upon a time, but these days am more likely to opt for something along the lines of Zoolander.
Given that Basterds is described as a "blood-soaked" revenge-fantasy with "cartoonish savagery," I don't feel that I'm missing out on much. But I'll still chime in on the controversy.
You can react to Tarantino's excessively violent portrayal of Jewish rebels exacting revenge on their Nazi abusers in one of two ways:
1.) Fantastic --- it sure is satisfying to see a bunch of Nazis get their comeuppance, and it's nice the traditional Jews-as-helpless-victims role turned on its head.
2.) Shame --- such a portrayal appeals to brute instincts and glorifies the very violence and brutality that destroyed so many innocent lives during the Holocaust.
German critics are apparently "dazzled" but what they consider to be a "historic" and "important" film. Surely, as is apparent even from written reviews, the film is starkly different from others on the Holocaust. But is it really a noteworthy standout in the Holocaust genre, or merely a typical action movie with a Holocaust theme?
Perhaps there is a third way to react, then:
3.) It's just a movie. Get over it.
Share this Post
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
StumbleUpon
Delicious
EmailRelated Posts
-
Roseanne Takes "Wildly Inappropriate" to a Whole New Level
-
Respect for Holocaust Victims, Long Overdue
-
Rush Limbaugh on Healthcare and How Not to Use Your Brain
Comments (3)
Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.
Author
-
Michelle became involved in the anti-genocide cause at a young age, and has been involved in various activist endeavors, including the Teach Against Genocide pilot campaigns, ever since.
Exactly! People get so worked up over such small matters. It's simply a movie, and it's not meant to be taken seriously. I understand that the Holocaust is no laughing matter (pretty much as far as you can get from a laughing matter, honestly), however, as time goes on, I think that we need to lighten up just a bit about certain things.
Posted by Caitlyn Nason on 09/09/2009 @ 05:05PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
I disagree. It's one thing to take "The Great Dictator" and "The Producers" lightly, but it's another thing to laugh at a film depicting explicit violence. Violence is never a laughing matter... a little bit of Schadenfreude is fine (the difference being: if my friend trips over a rock and falls, I'm laughing because I empathize with her; if I laugh at Brad Pitt slashing a Nazi, I'm empathizing with Brad Pitt -- a violent person -- not an inanimate rock).
What does that teach us, to find pleasure in revenge? To reassure us how "good it feels" to take the eye of the enemy?To counter violence with MORE violence?
You must be kidding if you think movies don't influence people's attitudes. Caitlyn thinks she's too liberal/open-minded and therefore impervious to underlying messages. This is extremely naive.
As an Armenian whose family survived through the Armenian Genocide, I find this insulting. As an Armenian who grew up in Lebanon and sees the (uncensored) massacres in Gaza, I find this revolting. The audience who can enjoy a film like this poor attempt at "art" is a good example of how much civilization is regressing. They are Americans who "commercialize" violence and don't understand, see, or feel the horrors of it. They only talk about it in "light" discourse, because that's all they know.
Have we learned nothing?
Posted by Teny Eurdekian on 09/27/2009 @ 10:55AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Ma'am, I'm very sorry if I insulted you, I wasn't trying to seem as if I didn't care. Honestly, I haven't even seen the movie; I didn't know that it had a lot of violence in it. I thought that it was supposed to be a comedy, just a light-hearted spoof. I'm sorry if I seemed heartless, honestly I truly do understand the awful things that racial hatred causes. Again, I'm sorry.
Posted by Caitlyn Nason on 09/30/2009 @ 06:16PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.