So Quentin Tarantino's new film, Inglorious Basterds, is coming out in a few months. I caught the trailer online the other day. Basically the movie is about a group of Jewish-American soldiers in World War II who are dropped into Nazi occupied France with the purpose of brutally slaying, mauling, scalping, and otherwise killing Nazi troops. So, uh.....why no outcry that it glorifies brutal torture from a certain segment of society? What if the movie were set during modern times, say a group of Navy SEALs sent out to hunt down and disembowel terrorists, creating fear and terror amongst those who make it their life-mission to bring fear and terror to others? Well, I can imagine it would be publically slammed (by a certain segment of society) as horrible and despicable and would be boycotted -- or at the very least there'd be some nut saying "See! This is what evil America does to people in real life!"
But what is the difference here? Why is it okay for Brad Pitt and his buddies to scalp Nazis, but if Pitt was killing Osama Bin Laden it would be politically incorrect and offensive? Doesn't anyone else see the disconnect here? Some of the same people who freak out over waterboarding at Gitmo and love to brand the US as capable of only actions that are evil or wrong or reprehensible will go and see Inglorious Basterds and laugh and say "man, that was awesome." And they'd probably have no issues (or mere minor grumblings) if the story were true and we actually did send troops over to brutalize Nazis and cut swastikas into the foreheads of the survivors. Perhaps that's because Nazis have no political clout today. There's no political power to be gained from defending them. Or from victimizing them. Yes - just imagine that. Nazis being painted as victims. But some people in this world do it all the time with other just-as-evil groups/individuals.
Ah, well...enough of that. The movie looks like it has potential to be good. I can't even recall the last Tarantino movie that I saw...much less one that was decent.
Since Lent is over and I can have beer again, my tastes have been renewed and my enjoyment of beer reinvigorated. Yesterday I stopped in to pick up some new beer (my stocks are virtually depleted) and resisted the temptation (and the risk) of buying imports that could possibly be 9 months past their Best Before date. I was looking at some Tennent's, but could not find a date anywhere on the bottle and so passed it by. Instead I bought more Sam Adams White Ale and decided to give Schlafly's Summer Lager a try. The Schlafly's is excellent. An exceptional summer/spring brew. And for me, what was almost as good as the taste was the writing on the bottom of the lable: "Bottled With Love On: 03/30/09." That means the very beer I was drinking was only a few weeks old. And fresh beer is infinitely better than old skunky beer.
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I think the reason current evils cannot be depicted in movies without upsetting certain groups of society is that this war is too fresh. Give it the years that WWII has had and people will be less irritated at less than favorable depictions of either side.
ReplyDeleteHonestly man, I fail to see the reason for this rant. You seem upset with people (let's not be coy, 'Liberals') for not having the reaction you expect to a movie they haven't seen about criminal soldiers who bludgeon Nazi's set 70 years in the past, while simultaneously being upset with them for the imagined reaction you've created to a movie that doesn't exist but paints SEALs as brutal killers in the modern era. And then it looks like you tried to draw a connection between the very real anger people have over a very real torture program that our government put in place to the imagine lack of emotion you think they'll have to a fictional movie.
ReplyDeleteAnd ditto on what Deanna said. Timing is everything.
ReplyDeletewell, I wasn't so much ranting as I was just making a sarcastic comment.
ReplyDeleteAnd I prefer to be coy, thank you very much.
And I stand by my imaginary reactions to movies both unseen and non-existent.