Why Inglourious Basterds’ Basement Was Brilliant
In Tarantino's world, this is the last thing a Nazi should ever see.
Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds was one of his very best films. When a friend of mine disagreed and, shockingly, told me he hated it (emphasis his), I thought it might be worthwhile to explain why I loved the movie so much.
To illustrate, I noted that every / single / line / by Brad Pitt, in the role of Lt. Aldo Raine -- the Gentile leader of a special group of American Jews tasked with raising terror and killin' Nazi's -- was dominant.
Specifically, I loved his lines in the Tavern Scene.
Lt. Aldo Raine: You didn't say the goddamn rendezvous was in a fuckin' basement.
Lt. Archie Hicox: I didn't know.
Lt. Aldo Raine: You said it was in a tavern.
Lt. Archie Hicox: It is a tavern.
Lt. Aldo Raine: Yeah, in a basement. You know, fightin' in a basement offers a lot of difficulties. Number one being, you're fightin' in a basement!
Why is that so funny, you might ask. Well, I can explain, (quite nerdily, I'm sure), in three steps.
First, lots of f-bombs. Always a plus.
Second, Pitt says he's going to list off a bunch of problems, but then only gets to problem number one, which is circular and is just a restatement of the situation.
Third, starting the sentence by saying "Number one" points to the fact that Brad Pitt starred in Fight Club, where of paramount importance was the First Rule of Fight Club: you DO NOT talk about Fight Club. While Tarantino is following this rule here, in this alternative-history film, and not talking about it, he is directly referencing Fight Club by having Pitt himself, who played a second personality -- an unreal persona in an alternate, anarchic, revolutionary future -- in Fight Club, talk about how awful it is to fight in a basement... which, of course, is the location of the bare knuckles exhibitions central to the referenced film.
In other words, Tarantino's more meta than anyone outside of Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation, Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Synecdoche, New York, etc.) ... and he knows it.
But where Kaufman works within the always-hilarious confines of loneliness and despair, Tarantino laughs manically, drops another f-bomb and hits you in the head with a baseball bat.
September 3rd, 2011 - 15:06
Another similarity between the two movies is the scene prior to where Aldo Rain engraves a swastika onto the Nazi’s forehead is similar to where Tyler is threatening to cut the police commissioner’s testicles in the bathroom.