Inglourious Basterds – Miniature Strudel

Full transcript of Inglourious Basterds – Miniature Strudel.

0:00KT: It's another week in the For Your Reference household, and it is another delightful, delicious course in our 2022 Reference Degustation, a footlong celebration of quippy Tarantino debauchery. We are nearing the end. We are almost at the Django, Jamie hanging upside down cherry of it all. For those that are joining us, make sure you check out the previous course offerings, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Pam Grier motherfucking Brown, Kill Bill, and let's get onto the show. Friends and non American lovers. Welcome back to the For Your Reference podcast. You got your host, KT.

0:00Oti: And Oti.

1:10KT: Shift the heel in your jacket pocket and find your seat for a cathartic screening of cinematic history. Join the ranks of basterds with us with Inglourious Basterds this week.

1:22Oti: Woo hoo.

1:23KT: Woo hoo hoo. The best and the most lauded bastards of them all, Quentin Jerome Tarantino, come through with that Jackie Brown range. Wow. Okay. Well, let's get into general stats and information so we can just, you know, sink our, in the late hour, red painted toenail of it all teeth into this glorious bastardized everything of a film. It was released in May 2009, a budget of $70,000,000. We have many things to say about Tarantino, Oti, But one of the things that continuously surprises me is how much Tarantino

2:07KT: can fucking deliver with the budget that he has. Because 70,000,000, especially for such a cinematic film, like Inglourious Basterds is is quite a feat.

2:17Oti: It is a feat. I think my it's a surprise to me that it's taken this long for me to watch this as well.

2:26KT: Oh, you're spilling out, Oti. You're spilling

2:26Oti: I am. I am.

2:26KT: Well, culminating in a splooshy worldwide gross of $321,400,000. Get your abacus out, Oti, because I'm pretty sure this is the highest box office we've covered so far in the Reference Degustation. Woah. Deserved. But, unfortunately, again, Jackie Brown didn't get her due. So go and watch Jackie Brown, love and support, and just very respectfully follow Pam Grier very understandably. In regards to actors, we have Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Eli Roth, and woah. Oti, Christoph Waltz. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. I said it in Pulp Fiction.

3:14KT: Samuel L. Jackson is to Pulp Fiction as what Rosie Perez is to White Men Can't Jump is as Christoph Waltz is to Inglourious Basterds. Man, I am in love, and I wanna stay forever in Waltz land.

3:32Oti: He was bloody good.

3:34KT: He was fucking brilliant.

3:36Oti: He was. He was. His performances in anything that you watch him, and he just gives a 100, you know, and he just without without it seeming as if without it seeming as if he's doing too much because usually when we get to see other actors who'll remain unnamed for now Yeah. It's just so bloody obvious and it it it gets in the way.

4:03KT: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. And I guess it'll be interesting to see if the love train continues in Django with Christoph Waltz. But I just I am living in this moment. I am elevated on a cloud with Christoph Waltz on my bosom if he will allow me. Mhmm. He should. Right. Well, let's get into first impressions because you've kind of peppered throughout this Reference Degustation that you've tried watching Inglourious Basterds like 10 times, and you couldn't get past five minutes. And I don't even understand how you how that the math is not mathing Oti, essentially.

4:35KT: So let's get into first impressions and then shout outs to our patrons. They also contributed to common and recurring themes in Tarantino's filmography. So start us off Oti.

4:47Oti: At the start of this journey, I said I was not the biggest Tarantino fan. And when Inglourious Basterds came out, I'd already missed a lot of his work before. I didn't feel any pressure whatsoever to watch it, but I did try. And I think I just never was able to get myself in the mood of sitting down and watching it, and I just stopped it. I never got past five minutes despite the fact that I've tried watching it multiple times. Yeah. But

5:19Oti: am I glad that this was part of the ensemble? Because as KT mentioned, I referenced it, I was dreading watching this. Mhmm. And I was even looking towards like, why didn't you even choose Hateful Eight And we do that instead.

5:34KT: Yeah. But Our patrons knew best. This is voted by the patrons, by the way. Thank you again.

5:40Oti: Well, I'm glad. I'm glad that no one listens to me.

5:45KT: Okay. We we don't need to go down that alley, Oti. You can you can register your qualms on the official For Your Reference agenda. And?

5:54Oti: I love Jackie Brown, but I think this might just have nipped it.

5:59KT: Oh, no way.

6:01Oti: It might just have nipped it for the top spot. Hey. Woah. Woah.

6:06KT: Woah. Friends and lovers, we've talked about this and we very cutely giggle gaggle about this, how we'll watch a two, two and a half hour film. And despite having a podcast, I will turn to Oti yearning for some deep discussion. And I asked him what he thought and he's like, it was okay. So I don't necessarily get an inkling of how he's feeling. And this is absolutely something you need to prep me for because I thought we were swimming in the splooshy waters of Pam Grier.

6:37KT: Wow. Wow. Wow. Well, before I get into my first impressions, let's do what we've been doing this whole Reference Degustation. Let's rank them. I think Kill Bill, it kind of killed all of our excitement. So I think it's at the bottom. Right? Fact. And then possibly, think we both agree that Reservoir Dogs was next. Yep. And then let's go with your ranking because we might differ.

7:00Oti: So mine, as it stands, would be Inglourious Basterds Wow. Jackie Brown, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill.

7:09KT: You know what? Even when we did the Jackie Brown episode, I was saying because Pulp Fiction was such a fundamental part of my personality for a long part of my life, I had to keep, like, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown together. But guess what Oti? Mhmm. Out of the millions of things we don't agree with, I agree with that ranking. Welcome to the party, mate. Jackie Brown is better than Pulp Fiction. A 100%. Sorry for those in the back or those that chose to skip forward, Jackie Brown is better than Pulp Fiction.

7:42KT: I will see you and I will fight you on my Twilight forums, friends and lovers.

7:47Oti: So much, so much better. It it makes me sad that it's been dethroned, but in the space of the week that it stayed on top, I am happy it got to.

7:57KT: I got a bit excited and maybe it's just fresh off watching Inglourious Basterds. Give me the grace, friends and lovers. Give me the grace to change my mind. Just like I give grace to non gendered film bros to change their mind. I don't know, the moment, Inglourious Basterds, because it is so cinematic, It's a lot more cinematic, There's a lot that gets pulled into it. It is taken more seriously. It is more of an earnest attempt at storytelling from Tarantino.

8:28KT: So I will say, but, you know, very possibly Jackie Brown might take out the top spot by the end of this or maybe Django. Do you think Django could dethrone your Inglourious Basterds or not?

8:28Oti: I feel like it'll be battling with Kill Bill, to be honest.

8:28KT: But But that's one of those things. Like, this whole journey of the Reference Degustation has been like do you remember that wrestler? And he kind of his whole gimmick was to come out with different sports equipment.

8:58Oti: I reckon he's more Kurt Angle. He don't necessarily gravitate towards him, but he can produce moments of fucking brilliance.

9:07KT: Well, to be fair, the the the power of assholery compelled me to say you suck you suck while we're watching Kill Bill. So I think no. I think you're right because this this whole journey and I think that's also part of the thing of, like, when you start to elevate, like, celebrities and directors above reproach, you kind of have to defend every fucking thing, even if it's me. Well, it could be, like, on the most severe, like, hurtful and offensive.

9:37KT: But even on the most, like, lesser scale, like, mediocre. Right? So, like, because I'm not fully invested, because I haven't invested in Tarantino Toe coin, I can just enjoy it for what it is. Right? But that also means when I don't expect to enjoy something, when I don't expect to love because I actually really love this film. I I found myself head back giggle, gaggling, cackling all around the town watching this fucking film. And I really didn't feel like I was going to experience that. Jojo Rabbit, you can keep. Inglourious Basterds, that's where I stay.

10:13Oti: This even lays a better veneer of what the fuck Waititi was trying to do with Jojo Rabbit because if I had watched Inglourious Basterds, I'd have been like, well, what's the fucking point, mate? Fuck you, Taika.

10:29KT: Well, I think it's like when you're talking about such heavy subject matter, right? It needs to be traversed with the same, even if it's like a satirical, even if it's like a rewriting of history, it still needs to be held with the same sort of weight. And Jojo Rabbit was an was pretty much like a child presenter sort of show sort of presentation.

10:53KT: And that's absolutely the difference. And there was obviously moments of levity. There was definitely moments of humor. A lot of it at the expense of Americans, which I'm all about. My favorite type of Americans are the ones that realize the Americanism sometimes get in the way of being American. Like, I fucking love it. Like, I love this film so much, and, you know, we will talk about the tonality, but I I guess that's what I was driving at. Because I'm not fully invested in Tarantino Toe coin,

11:21KT: I can just take the films for what they are, but it also penetrates deeper when I enjoy a Tarantino film. And that's absolutely what we had. You know, we talked about Kill Bill and we expected to love it and how it fucking disappointed us.

11:35Oti: Like, that was the GameStop right there. It started crashing. I come into this when he's already at a deficit because he's fucking Tarantino and he's not my favorite person in the world. Yeah. So for him to overcome that barrier in my mind, and then to the point of me just fully immersing myself into the environment, enjoying the brilliance in his cinematography to the point that I don't fucking care anymore. It's it's amazing. And I think, to me, at the end of the movie, I fucking clapped. I never clapped for anything.

12:11Oti: So I felt like I needed to watch this in a cinema to enjoy it even further, and I think it'll probably be a a rewatch sometime. I know we get some classic sort of venues in cinemas in Australia that Well, they're actually doing Kill Bill for Valentine's Day. Yeah. So hopefully, Inglourious Basterds will be up in the queue, not in the distant future.

12:36KT: And I think that's exactly it because, you know, part of the branding of Tarantino, what we know him for, like the Pulp Fiction of it all, which is so much fun, but then you kind of make an assumption. And I think maybe that's where you were traversing years earlier when you tried Inglourious Basterds. Branding can be such a powerful thing, but it can also work against a director when they show range. Alright.

13:00KT: Well, let's get into common and recurring themes. These are broken up into sections. I'm very excited to get into the first one, which is general questions because it shows the evolution throughout our watching of Tarantino filmography. This is coming from Jamie. What are your views on Quentin Tarantino's approach to violence? How did you feel the violence was in this film?

13:22Oti: I don't think I've seen violence until today.

13:27Oti: Everything was bloody mild up up until today. It's like they it's like they borrowed the Mortal Kombat, like, sound pack.

13:35Oti: Yeah. It is brutal in its violence depiction, and I know I'm pretty much desensitized to a lot of the violence and gore. Yeah. But it took me aback. I was like, wait. He's taking it a notch further. Yeah. It was and not in a distracting way, least to me. I think it it definitely there was a lot more violence in this, rightly so, just based on what the movie's about. Yeah. Showing the basterds in their sort of anger, in their retaliation and them taking back or killing every

14:15Oti: Nazi they can get their hands off in the brutal most in the most brutal way possible as well. It makes fucking sense, and I was there for it.

14:30KT: Oh, absolutely. 100% agree. And, you know, there wasn't it wasn't consistently violence throughout. There were considered moments of violence, and it was paired with chilling fucking dialogue. Like, even if we go back to one of the earlier scenes in the film where we have Colonel Landa out in the countryside in France, and there was oh, there's something so intriguing. There's something about Christoph Waltz, like his performances that draws you in, even though you know

15:00KT: that there's danger afoot. Right? We are the moths to the Christoph Waltz flame. Like, he's just enhancing us, making us draw into him even though we know it's not a safe place. And everything is so fucking effortless about his performance as Hans Landa. And in that scene, just so naturally, casually, well, asking for milk, but the way that he carried the conversation. And I remember very early just being latched into the framing of the dialogue in this film and the way that the atmosphere was built based on the dialogue.

15:39KT: But I guess coming back to the approach to violence, even before we had that brutal scene of the henchmen coming in and shooting up all of the floors, there was a simmering going on. And that was that was all indicated by the violence. I think on a on a on a more fun yeehaw sort of note, we had Butch, you know, in Pulp Fiction making a decision, and that simmering, right, before that sort of violence, before that gut punch. And that's why friends and lovers, foreplay is very important.

16:11KT: But the approach to violence was a two punch, right? It was the framing of the dialogue and then it was the brutality of the violence. Because again, like you said, it's so easy to get desensitized to the violence, but when you contextualize it, when you you bring the inhumanity into it, it really, you know, it really digs a lot deeper into the human psyche and the human experience.

16:35Oti: A 100% agreed. I think my you spoke about the first sort of scene in the movie. I think that's the moment where I realized what the hell was I trying to watch back then? Because at the start, I think in my mind, it always started with a Brad Pitt scene and I just couldn't get past it. But Christoph Waltz, what he did in that five minutes, he drove Perrier into tears. Yeah. Bad people don't need smart people, man.

17:12KT: No. But I think it's also like, you know, weapons are scary, but words are fucking piercing. I guess that's why you have parts of The United States trying to ban fucking books, but that's a story for another day. He's just brilliant in this.

17:25Oti: The fact that he he started off really strongly and it carried through the whole movie, and he knew that the shoe was gonna drop somewhere, but that's the enjoyment of it all. Just the back and forth, the not knowing what's going to be the spin.

17:43KT: Well, even if the shoe falls off, Hans Landa will pick it up and put it in his pocket. Yeah. He's walking around the whole evening even when he was, like, laughing at Shosanna. He had a whole heel in his pocket. Alright, mate. Woah.

18:01Oti: You have prince charming with Cinderella.

18:03KT: Is that a bulge in your pocket, Tarantino? Or you're just happy to see me? Friends and lovers, you know the deal. We find someone to simp over and Christoph Waltz is this in Inglourious Basterds.

18:17Oti: Mhmm.

18:18KT: Okay. Let's get to the next question in the general questions. Rob is talking about the QT verse theory, films within films.

18:25Oti: Well, was Samuel Jackson in there as well, wasn't it?

18:30KT: He stays booked and busy in the Tarantino books. Okay. Well, I guess while we're here on a very playful note, because I I think like Jackie Brown, it feels very insular as opposed to the other Tarantino films. So let's keep it light Oti. Which Samuel Jackson in Tarantino films do you think this is? Do you think this is Jules from Pulp Fiction, or do you think this is Sauron's cousin in Compton in Jackie Brown?

18:30Oti: Definitely Jackie Brown.

18:30KT: Brown haired, ponytail, Kangol wearing Samuel Jackson? Mhmm. Alright. The next question we have is from Jamie.

19:11KT: This is a very I've really enjoyed this question, question, by the way. All patrons of Equal Creed, but I've really enjoyed this question. Are you ready, Oti?

19:11Oti: Give it to me.

19:11KT: I'll oblige, sir, after the podcast. But the question is, is Quentin Tarantino the best contemporary director to match visuals and music?

19:11Oti: I hated what he did with Kill Bill.

19:11KT: Agree.

19:33Oti: I loved what he did here, but it wasn't to the extent of how I loved it in Reservoir Dogs. Pulp Fiction. Yeah. Yeah. I think those were just leagues apart. But here we went back to the sort of okay we'll pair it back from what we did with Kill Bill and we'll make it more cinematic and add appropriate soundtrack and music and score throughout and I love that It wasn't as distinctive as the previous movies that we've mentioned, but it did match and it did gel and I did find it quite enjoyable,

20:08Oti: but not to the extent. So I think it was just appropriate for me in this. I wouldn't go far to say, oh, based off this movie, this was my first watch of Tarantino. Be like, oh, wow. Look what he's done with the score in this.

20:22KT: I would say that I felt reborn in the waters of Tarantino because I feel like there's so many elements to love in in his considered detail when it comes to score and soundtrack. And he found a way to embed it in a more seriously, a more earnest sort of attempt in storytelling in Inglourious Basterds because you still hear, I I guess, you know, for lack of better knowledge, he has like that western y sort of,

20:50KT: like, vibes that he likes to get, whether it's through song or through score. And he found a way, like, even at the start, like the opening scene, the the piece of music that was used felt very Tarantino. Like, you know what I mean? Like, without having to explain it, again, it's like a gentrified Tarantino. It's a Tarantino for the mainstream masses. It's a Tarantino for your consideration if you're nasty. So going back to the, I guess, the a branch off of this original question,

21:20KT: I do believe that Quentin Tarantino is the best to match visuals and music in regards to tonality, in regards to setting the mood, setting the tone, letting us know what sort of world we're going to be diving into. I agree with myself, but I don't necessarily he's the best out there to do that. Especially when Baby Boy exists and you got Tyrese in a whole womb.

21:20Oti: Yeah. I can go behind that.

21:20KT: Okay. Let's move on to direction slash stylistic choices. This is from Ben. At what point does Quentin Tarantino's stylized

21:58KT: hyper aware of itself dialogue become a hindrance to the film rather than part of its magic slash charm? I don't think it got in the way in this at all. No. It was the best part of it. Yeah. I think the only time the dialogue got in the way was Kill Bill. Yep. Yep. That was the weakest in dialogue.

22:16Oti: But wow. Did he just rejuvenate himself and us in Inglourious Basterds because I just could not look away. I hung on and clang on to every funky word. It's just he has a way with his fucking pen. Yeah. And it's it's he might not be the the the sort of oh, Shakespearean fucking playwright, but what he does and how he delivers it, it makes it so much fun Yeah. Enjoyable, and bloody relatable. I was connecting to characters I didn't fucking care for. I started this journey with with with a with a Tarantino baggage,

22:59Oti: and slowly and slowly, that baggage is getting lighter just based off his bloody work and his skill with a pen. Yeah. And that's undeniable. And I felt like when I watched Kill Bill, I was so it was so infuriating because I felt that it missed a mark where, yes, it was it's it's plotted as one of its best. I'm pretty sure it's rated as probably one of its highest. Yeah. But at the end of it, it felt

23:29Oti: it just felt short. Mhmm. It it was very elementary to me. And to this and when I watched this, I just felt, okay, he's back. He's back. You know? The guy that gave us Jackie Brown is bloody back and he's putting in as much effort without trying to be the center of attention, without trying to please every bro out there. Yeah. And that's what I loved about it.

23:55KT: Oh, absolutely. And apparently he did make a very brief, a very brief cameo. On IMDb, he is credited as the first scalped Nazi as well as an American soldier soldier in Pride of Nation.

24:09Oti: So To me that's the level of of involvement

24:11KT: you should have, you know, not Focus on your other multi hyphenates. You don't need to be in the film. Yeah. Not not not to have a twenty minutes rant and call someone the n word in Pulp Fiction, you know. That was just way off. That was uncalled for. And don't worry friends and lovers, if you're new to this, we do have a whole section called racism slash n word. So we will get there. But yeah. Like, I just wanna quickly talk about Kill Bill, and hopefully, we'll never have to talk about it again.

24:41KT: Naturally, with the Reference Degustation, we are comparing films in the filmography as we go along. What really bothered me about Kill Bill is the humor was at the expense of Asian people. But in in Inglourious Basterds humor, most of the humor was surrounding how fucking, like, ignorant or blissfully ignorant or how unaware Americans were in regards to the world and how the rest of the world doesn't really regard America either.

25:11KT: Right? Yeah. That was part of the fun. That was part of the humor and the Americans were the butt of the joke. And I guess even to some level, even Quentin Tarantino made his own concedences when he was writing the script as well because you can see that, you know, sort of come through. But with Kill Bill, it felt very caricature. It felt, oh, I like kung fu. Let me put something in randomly. Oh, I like really brutal anime sequences. Let me put that in. Right? So it felt very

25:42KT: collage y in the privileged white tapestry of screenwriting. Right? But Inglourious Basterds, we saw so much depth. We saw so much dimension naturally. Right? We're talking about France. We're talking about Germany. Okay, if you wanna talk about caricatures, we've got the Italian sort of portrayals as well.

26:02Oti: Oh

26:05KT: man, man. Friends and lovers. I never really got into the, I will acknowledge Oti. So I'm not gonna say Brad and Angelina, I'm going to say Brad and Jennifer.

26:19Oti: Thank you.

26:20KT: But I never got into the swooning of Brad Pitt. Like he was always there, cool, super cool guy. I've never watched Snatch, but I I don't know. I think I'm in love with him just because of his role in this film. He was so fucking ridiculous. And also, I guess pointing out, I've seen Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and I fucking hated everything about that film. But I also felt like he brought nothing. But again, maybe that had nothing to do with him, and it was the overall film.

26:49KT: But I don't know, friends and lovers, sign me up to your fan club Brad Pitt newsletters. I will subscribe.

26:56Oti: He was really good in this. He he played that to perfection.

27:01KT: Like, he was so American. He was so American it hurt, and I loved it. And I laughed and I cringed every moment he was on the fucking screen.

27:10Oti: Yeah. And that's what we were there for. And that's why we were like, this feels so much different to Kill Bill. And I'm just glad that we got to the end of it thinking that, hey, we've got another Germany that we could probably reward a couple of times more.

27:29KT: Absolutely. Absolutely. Let's move on to our beloved Julio. Thank you for being so patient. Five films in, we are finally addressing your contribution. Rewriting history.

27:44Oti: Yeah. There's a lot of rewriting history here. You know, we all know Hitler didn't die like that. We all wish he did. He didn't. But it's it's a fun way to die. It's better than kicking someone out the door out the window and then, fuck you, Hitler.

28:01KT: Did you expect that we have a mini catalog of the way Hitler dies in our catalog of the podcast?

28:10Oti: No. We just need to watch Tom Cruise's Valkyrie.

28:14KT: And we also your Chaplin.

28:18Oti: Yeah.

28:19KT: Yeah. Which was also referenced in this film. But yeah, rewriting of history, tick tick tick. You know, I I personally am a human. Oh, I feel I feel like Mark Zuckerberg. The fact that I'm announcing I'm a human. But like, I'm still learning about the world, especially World War two. I don't understand the intricacies, but obviously there was a big rewriting again, like you mentioned

28:48KT: in the scene, which I've I felt it was very therapeutic without having any sort of frame of reference. It felt like it was worth the buildup that we were getting to in this film. But I'll also throw it back to Oti because earlier when Aldo Raine was, you know, introducing himself in the Inglourious Basterds, he was talking about how he's part Apache. And I made a comment while we were watching. It's interesting how he can talk about his white American lineage and his native American lineage

29:22KT: and not see the quandary and the contradiction in it. Yeah. And that was a little rewriting there as well, you know? You did it again. You did it. We had to stop the film and have a ten minute Delroy Lindo quarrel discussion with you because you try to, you just try to slide that in there.

29:44Oti: Facts though, you know, it seems as if it was all cordial. Yeah. We're just gonna Shake it. Get all this

29:50KT: tactics and whatnot. And it's very agreeable and, know, oh, none of that fucking things happen. And it's like, oh, you want us to share our land? And you're gonna give me diseases in exchange for that? Oh, cool guy.

30:04Oti: Diseases and bullets.

30:06KT: Thank you, Jeymes Oti Samuel. Wow. The Harder They Colonise, right Oti?

30:14Oti: Yeah. That should be mine.

30:19KT: But rewriting of history. Thank you, Julio, for waiting. Tick, tick, tick. Let's get into the next direction stylistic choices coming from Rob. California slash Hollywood slash film slash genre. I don't think we meet that here.

30:19Oti: Oh, I don't think so either.

30:19KT: No. We left California alone for a little bit. California.

30:38Oti: Okay. Let's leave it alone for a

30:45KT: Pop culture references from Julio. What you got for us, Oti?

30:49Oti: There's a reference to Charlie Chaplin's The Kid.

30:53KT: Yeah. I I think in general, there was a lot of reference to film and maybe a surprise to everyone or maybe a stretching exercise for Oti and I, if you're nasty. The oldest film we've covered was in the nineteen forties and it's Oti's favorite film.

31:11Oti: It's a Wonderful Life and it's a wonderful movie.

31:16KT: Well, opinion is not fact. It is. Is this how solved? Well, I think in the ever expanding understanding that we have to cinema, there was definitely a lot to dive into. But then there was also a lot of pointed use of propaganda in the films that were being referenced as well. Alright. Let's move on to the next section. We have casting slash characters. Julio and Brent say feet. Brent makes a distinction of women feet, and throughout the Reference Degustation, Rob coined NF feet.

31:52Oti: We got to see Bridget's feet.

31:57KT: Alright. It just sounds like you're physically updating the feet wiki, but that's okay. I am. Only to find that someone already put it in there. Right? Yeah. It's okay. It's okay, Oti. I thought it was like at the point, you know, when like Miyazaki, like people kept saying that he liked planes. So he's like, fuck you guys. So then he didn't put planes in his next film. I thought we weren't going to get feet this time.

31:57Oti: No. I knew we'll get feet somehow.

32:25Oti: And I'm pretty sure we'll get feet in Django as well. Probably.

32:28KT: Hopefully, not Uncle Ruckus Samuel Jackson toes.

32:34Oti: Yep.

32:36KT: The next theme we have is from Rob, the reluctant hero. Hans Landa, just Landa on my lap. I would say he is the reluctant hero in this film. Yeah. He did a one eight, didn't he? Like, I kinda wanna have a little wee baby Seamus Archer reference discussion about Hans Landa, if that's okay, with the lens of being a reluctant hero, if that's okay of you, Oti.

32:36Oti: Go for it.

32:36KT: Well, it didn't seem like you fully agree with me. So I guess I wanna know your opinion

33:06KT: about Hans Landa being the reluctant hero. Because from a storytelling point of view, it would have carried out as it did in real life if not for Hans Landa. Like he was the pivotal, you know, as you mentioned in Pulp Fiction, characters were faced with a decision, with a choice to make, and this was Hans Landa. I don't think it comes to the conclusion without him.

33:33Oti: Even though him leaving the two other agents in the cinema caused them killing Hitler, I'm not sure I would describe him as reluctant hero. Reluctant hero has to have some doubts. He fully dived in in both feet. He didn't feel like he was being troubled. He he didn't feel like he was trepidatious or he he he was battling himself to to do something different. It feels like he thought this through, very calculated,

34:02Oti: and he knew his end goal would be, oh, if I ever get to this situation, this will be it. I'm not sure I'd describe him as a reluctant hero. He did play a part in taking down of Hitler, but I don't know, he just doesn't sit with me as if being the reluctant hero.

34:17KT: You don't think he had a moral quandary?

34:20Oti: We saw Butch in Pulp Fiction. Yeah. He had he was super reluctant. Yeehaw. As anyone would. I don't know. I don't know if I would describe him like that. But then I would say Bridget played the reluctant hero quite well as well, because she is German. She was

34:42KT: She was acting as a spy for the allied forces. But then again, we don't know how she came into that situation. So even if she was coerced, that doesn't count as being reluctant either. She had no choice.

34:52Oti: It doesn't seem like she was forced, but that's what we don't know I I just felt that if you can put up Hans as a reluctant hero so can I put Bridget up

34:52KT: yeah but I can also knock her down with logic and argument

34:52Oti: you're not Keri Hilson so

35:09KT: I'll just Thank you for providing a particular spice Oti? The same sort of spice that I guess came here directly to Inglourious Basterds and skip Jackie Brown. Well, the reason why I put forward Hans is, again, he was pivotal from a storytelling point of view in this film. This doesn't get the ending that it gets if not for Hans Landa. And this is also a very important story from a screenwriting point of view, but also in a personal point of view. Be so fucking useful, be so fucking skillful that either side

35:49KT: have no choice but to find value in you and keep you around.

35:55Oti: I can see that and that's true, but that still doesn't make you the the reluctant hero. To me, the reluctant hero would definitely be Marcel.

36:07KT: He Of course you and of course, just like you remembered Marcus's name in Pulp Fiction, you remembered Marcel's name in Inglourious Basterds. Continue correspondent Oti.

36:20Oti: He he is first starts worrying about whether or not this is the right plan. He doesn't want the Nazis in a cinema in the first place. Mhmm. But he goes along because love and and everything else in between. And at the end of it, he executes the plan to to the letter, you know. Once he gets the signal, he blows up the place and he's the hero. He brings out the house and everyone dies, including himself, I must say me. Okay.

36:52KT: But if Marcel wasn't even present, the film wouldn't end the way it ended. Correct? Yeah. There you go. So he's not the overall hero of this film, sir.

36:52Oti: He is the reluctant hero though.

36:52KT: Hans Landa is the fucking reluctant hero, and I will fight you at dawn with Japanese swords.

37:13Oti: You have to be bloody reluctant in the first place.

37:15KT: He was No. No. No. No. Hang on a second. Hang on a second. Hang on a second. Because we talk about personal gain all the time. We had a a very interesting back and forth in Judas and the Black Messiah about personal gain and how that is always superseded above the betterment or the the interest of your people. Right? So you could apply that here. Apparently, you're not capable, but you could apply that here with Hans Landa.

37:48KT: Right? Because he was embedded in a position of power because it was fucking skillful. This is this is part of the great things. It was kinda like McNulty in The Wire. You know what I mean? Like, you couldn't you couldn't hide shit from him because it was so fucking skillful. Right? There was there was no reason for him not to advance the way he does. And in very humorous ways, we also see that when Bridget introduced her friends and he starts speaking in Italian.

38:19KT: Funniest scene ever. He is absolutely the reluctant hero in the sense that he evaluates the the benefits of being on either side, and he finds a way to jump ship. And part of what's so transformative, like, the dialogue is great. This film absolutely stands on its own, but it it's the ending that makes this film. Correct? Mhmm. And I love Marcel, but he was like

38:45KT: he is inconsequential to the ending of this film. I'm so sorry to tell you.

38:45Oti: No. He's not.

38:45KT: Look for your representation somewhere else, Oti, because he is not pivotal to the ending of this film.

38:56Oti: At the end of the day, who who burnt down the cinema? Who killed everyone in there?

39:01KT: Yeah. But then you also had Teddy come out as well, and they came and they sprayed bullets as well. So it wasn't as if that fire was killing everyone. It was people clamoring at the doors and getting shot at.

39:16Oti: Yeah. That yeah. That took a percentage of the people, but the fire took everyone else out. I think we got two different cuts.

39:25KT: I got the got the Tarantino cut and you got the Oti cut.

39:32Oti: Let's agree to disagree on this.

39:36KT: Yes. Even though we know I'm correct, we'll agree to disagree. Let's move on. Julio casting old favorites and reviving their careers.

39:45Oti: Maybe not reviving, but boosting Christoph Waltz career a bit.

39:47KT: Yeah. I guess into like Western screens and that sort of thing. Again, it's a Christoph Waltz Love Fest friends and lovers. I don't think it's going to compel me to watch any Muppet film he's in, but Christoph Waltz Love Fest indeed. Let's move into the last section, racism slash the n word. This is coming from Brent. Every time I show one of his movies to someone that hasn't seen them, I always wait for the moment he or someone else drops the n word to see how they react.

40:23KT: I guess I'm going to cluster them all together. Paul says, are Quentin Tarantino's race related quips justified in this film? And we've also got Julio saying racial slurs. So let's address the n word specifically.

40:23Oti: I don't think there was a use of n word here.

40:23KT: There was.

40:23Oti: Was there?

40:23KT: When the French people were talking. It said Negro in the subtitles, but when they've verbally said it, it sounded like the n word to me.

40:49Oti: I must have missed that. If to that point then I think it just felt part of

40:57KT: It made sense. It made sense. It wasn't just randomly four white guys in a car talking about black women, Reservoir Dogs.

41:05Oti: Yeah. Yeah. It made sense to me at least in that scenario.

41:09KT: Yeah. Kind of the same as like the confederate shop that we entered in Pulp Fiction as well. In that sense, it was justified. Coming to Paul's question again about the race related quips being justified. Aldo really enjoyed insulting Germans, which cool, enjoy your pastime, put it on your CV if you like. But does he have any sort of like I don't know if you're gonna roast people, can you have like a comprehensive sort of knowledge? Because everything, every sort of insult was laced with kraut.

41:45KT: Like, do you do you know anything else to insult German people with or is it just kraut and Nazis are bad?

41:53Oti: I don't think it needs to make sense to them. To them, the little they know, that's all that as much as they want to know.

42:06KT: Well, is it too much to us to have more than surface level racism, Oti? Yeah. Right. Well, let's finish off with a lighter note, and this is from Ben. Why does Quentin Tarantino insist on including himself, usually as a racist, when he can't act?

42:22Oti: Like you said, he included himself as someone who had already been killed. So that's the way to go without any lines.

42:32KT: But you don't need to be in it if you don't need to be in it. Yeah. Like, he put himself in there like how

42:40Oti: like how modern trade put an an alien in the sequence. That's how he should be.

42:46KT: Yeah. I think if if we're going to talk about level of director cameo involvement, it needs to be to the level and the and the funness of Taika playing a priest in Hunt for the Wilderpeople. Because behind that door are the vegetables, not Jesus. Like, it needs to add to it in some way, and it also needs to not affect the overall story,

43:13KT: like with Tarantino and Pulp Fiction as well. Like, you shouldn't be taking up a large amount of screen time. You should be busy doing whatever the fuck directors are supposed to be doing in the background, unless you're prepare and you don't want Dan Del telling you what to do. Friends and lovers, what a delightful adventure. I do have a comment from our delightful patron Brandy, and she says, funny, I was just thinking about Inglourious Basterds the other day. Christoph Waltz was such a charming asshole.

43:50KT: Yep. That's the perfect way to say it, to be perfectly honest. All right, friends and lovers, this is usually where we finish off in a segment we call For Your Reference. Although this is the Reference Degustation, so this is a six set course menu of Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill, Inglourious Basterds. And again, Jamie laying upside down, cherry on top. We are going in Django Unchained.

43:50Oti: Nice.

44:20KT: If you would like to see Oti's cherry on Twitter and Instagram, we're @ForYourRefPod. Write us an email at hello@fyrpodcast.com. We're also on all the awards for Christoph Waltz, if you're nasty podcast, if you like to leave a rating and review. And we'll see you guys in the last course. See you. Yeehaw.