The Airportline: Observations

I have few doubts regarding the brilliance of Quentin Tarantino, perhaps my generation’s most prolific film maker. From the beginning of his career he’s spread classics around him with an ease that is both intriguing, and at times, provoking. There are plenty of reasons to love this man, his movies do not only have intriguing plots, he is also a master of combining his movies with twisted music, something that in its own should place him among the modern masters of film making. In his latest movie, the Nazi slugging guerrilla fighting filled, Inglorious Basterds he ticks many of the boxes for a Tarantino classic.

One of my favourite aspects with the film-making of Tarantino is the characters in his movies. They are not only great on their own; they also interact with each other with an intensity that is remarkable considering all the loony elements he throws into his films. Few film makers can bring out so much suspense and bizarre moments as this man. Tarantino knows how to sequence the interactions between characters and pull them out so far that they physically hurt you; to create suspense between foes is something he’s done marvelously from the start, from the twisted monologues and discussions in between kills in Reservoir Dogs, through the post-killing bible quoting in Pulp Fiction, Tarantino has drawn out pre-murder suspense like no one else. He knows the anticipation of death is even more terrifying than death itself, not that anyone actually can verify that this is true.

In Inglorious Basterds he has never done this better, never done it with more intensity, never contrasted the characters with such suspense. From the brilliant opening scene it is a continuous trip through the twisted cruelty and humor that exist in every Tarantino movie. It is perfectly incorporated in the atmosphere and in the interactions between the characters. A master of writing contemporary dialog with pop cultural references, here he combines elite Nazis, farm boy Americans, and some Jews with a vengeance. It sounds like a field day for twistedness and Tarantino makes no one disappointed.

It is easy to see how this could have failed, I tell myself while the end credits roll down in front of me. Or maybe its not. I read that Tarantino waited 15 years to make this movie, that he has called it his master piece.

In the Airportline film book Pulp Fiction stand very close to my all time favourite movies. I am aware that this is a quite standard response for someone between 20 and 30. It is difficult for me to disagree with this but sometimes the masses are right I guess. Why is this relevant? Because for me, that is the only best Tarantino movie there is. My mind is filled with nostalgia that will never wash away, for me Pulp Fiction will always be the best, I’m defeated by my nostalgia.

But, for those of you not that are not emotionally and historically attached to his old classics, this could well be his best movie. It has beautiful filming, bizarre humor, glorious (if I may) bad guys, and the hilariously straight talking bad good guys. In Tarantino’s world no good man comes without some evil, and that evil has never been dressed better or served with such pleasing results as in this movie. Saying that Tarantion has done it again sounds a bit like a cliché, but not less true.