Inglourious Basterds (2009) / Basil Hayden Kentucky Straight Bourbon

0:00 Hey everybody, it's Bob here. The episode you're going to hear today on Inglourious Basterds was actually recorded back in 2023 as part of a special series we were doing for our Patreon members. Now, of course, it's still just as relevant today, but if you would like to get exclusive content just like this, way ahead of the general population, you need to check out Film and Whiskey's Patreon. We do exclusive episodes, we do longer and uncut episodes, and we have tons and tons of posts and content that are only released to our patrons. You can join at three different levels of support, just three, 5 or $7.00 a month. To gain access, go to patreon.com/film Whiskey today.

0:41 In 2009, director Quentin Tarantino and * Melanie Laurent gave the world an explosive reimagining of the world's deadliest war. In 2023, we revisit perhaps our most infamous whiskey. The film is inglorious. The whiskey is Boo. Yeah, we don't want to talk about. It the whiskey is Basil Hayden. And we'll review them both. This is. The Film and Whiskey podcast. Welcome to the Film in Whiskey podcast, where each week we review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey. I'm Bob Book.

1:35 I'm Brad Gee. And this week we are revisiting one of the spiciest Season 1 episodes, Brad, by looking at Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film Inglourious Basterds. Yeah, that it was a heck of an episode. If I remember correctly, I think a friend of the show Jordan was on. I think he was like the mediator between us. Yeah, it was episode 3 or 4. It was in that first set of episodes we recorded. I remember this, Brad. We met up and we did like 4 episodes at a time back then. And so this was. Wild. This was most of the way through the recording day. I feel like our takes were even more unfiltered back then and and less polished.

2:17 And so I listened back to some of those episodes and I'm like, wow, we gave really harsh reviews on, especially on the whiskeys back then. Yeah, 100%. We, I think because we didn't know what we were doing, we didn't want to come across to like positive because it feels like it'd be too easy to be positive about it. And it like, I don't know, critics are harsh on things. So, so like we like leaned into that pretty hard. Also, I will say it turns out we weren't drinking as good of whiskey back then as we are now. So I, you know, I, I think that some of it might have been a little bit. Fair. You got a great a very little bit, right. Yeah, yeah, 100%.

2:58 At the very least I will say Basil Hayden sucks. Well, I have not gotten back into trying it yet. I'm going to drink it live on air today. But I have gotten back into watching Inglourious Basterds, a movie that I pretty famously Brad, you know, as famous as we are, disagreed with on a an ethical moral level for a long, long time. And I had very few, like actually famous critics in my corner. And there was one guy that I latched onto a long time ago, and he's really become one of my favorite critics. His name is Ty Burr. He used to write for the Boston Globe. He's since moved on and he's doing his own thing now. But he was one of the few that I. Think all like all film critics.

3:39 Yeah, right. He's one of the few that he gave the movie like I think 2 1/2 stars and really liked a lot of what was in it, but ultimately felt like not only was it irresponsible, but that it just, it got kind of messy towards the end and I really agreed with him on that. Watching it through this time, Brad, I am much more positive on this movie than I was back then. I still think it's a little bit overestimated in Tarantino's like catalog. It's a really good movie and it's got some of the highest highs in Tarantino, but I don't know that I would call it like one of my top three Tarantino's. What are What are your top three Tarantino's? I still think Pulp Fiction is probably his best. I think Django is really close to Pulp Fiction and is by far my favorite Tarantino movie.

4:30 And then you know #3 could be whatever the hell else you want. I'd like probably Jackie Brown, maybe Kill Bill 2. I don't know. How about you? I think I would probably go with the two you mentioned and this one. OK, I I think I would put Pulp Fiction at top and then I'd probably put Django in Inglorious in a tie. I don't know which one I would like more. It is worth saying that I think you've only seen four Tarantino movies, so like. Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa. I've seen Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds, Pulp Fiction, and Django and Django and what else he's done. Jackie, he's Jackie Brown killed the. Kill bells he did Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Hateful 8 Yeah.

5:14 And death proof I have I have seen 4 Quentin Tarantino, Phillips. And this is undoubtedly one of them. So. It's in the top three. Thank you very much. Let's. Dive into talking about the movie Brad. I think we should just go ahead and and launch right into America's favorite segment, which we call, Brad explains. Brad's going to give us the movie plots with only 60 seconds taken on the clock, so let's go ahead and do your take with this little segment that we call, Brad explains. Brad Explains is the part of the podcast where Brad breaks down the plot of the movie that he has just seen, often for the first time. Brad, I don't even remember if we were doing Brad Explains when we first started this podcast. I think it just kind of organically developed over time. So this might be your first time doing a Brad Explains on this movie.

6:03 And to be quite frank, I don't know that I envy you because this movie has a lot of different storylines kind of woven together in this very bloody tapestry. You have 60 seconds to try to break it all down. We are going to dive into spoiler territory. I don't think you can talk about this movie without talking about the big gigantic spoilery swings that Tarantino takes. So, Brad, feel free to ruin this movie for anyone that hasn't seen it yet. We would encourage you to watch the movie and then come back and listen to the episode. Brad, you have 60 seconds on the clock and go. Bob Inglourious Basterds is about the assassination of Adolf Hitler and his entire high command at the end of the film in a movie theater firebomb. There are three characters that lead up to that place. There are Hans Landa, an s s Colonel in the German army. There is Shashonna Dreyfus, a escaped Jew who is now hiding, pretending to be French.

7:01 She was French as well. And there is Aldo Rain, AUS soldier who leads a group of kind of Secret Service guys that are fighting the resistance in France. Aldo Rain finds out that there's going to be this movie premiere and so he leads his team in order to try and assassinate any German high command that is there. Shoshanna, having escaped from Hans Landa in the opening scene of the film, now owns the movie theater that is being chosen for. The. Firebombing and Hans Londa is trying to screw it all up. Boom. Until. Until he isn't. You know what, Brad?

7:42 This sounds so stupid and so simplistic, but I can't believe how you just cracked the code of how to talk about this movie like it. It blows my mind that I've never seen it explained this way before. Yeah, you have to start at the end, yes, and then unconnect the threads. When you say this movie is about X, like I've never seen this movie described as this movie is about the successful assassination of Hitler and his high command. Yeah. But when you think about movies like, I don't know if you've ever seen the Tom Cruise movie Valkyrie, it's about the real life failed attempt to assassinate Hitler. And so when you talk about that movie, you talk about the historical event, and it is this thing that the movie builds up to. But I've never seen Inglourious Basterds describe that way. It's always like, well, yeah, it's an alternative history. And it's about these different groups of people. And at the end, they kill Hitler as if that's like an aside, You know what I mean?

8:38 Like also, he just tacks on this thing where Hitler gets machine gun in the face. And yet I think that you actually have really helped us frame this conversation because the end of the movie is what would be the big historical event. And it really helps to contextualize all these random threads that come together at the end of the film. Yeah, for me, it feels like the whole film, this movie is almost like a, a giant ball of yarn that has like multiple threads pulled off of it. And you just kind of threw it across the floor and there's threads everywhere. And if you want to figure it out, if you want to gather it all together, you don't start with each individual thread. You have to start where the thread leads you to. And I, I think that for me is, is why this movie works. And the, the fascinating thing is the big thing that I took away watching Inglourious Basterds this time is that every single character in this movie is a bastard in their own right. Like they are all illegitimate children in their area of expertise.

9:48 And they, they are all asking the question, how do we know who we are? And I, I think you see that like out of rain. I the first time I saw this, I don't think this would have hit me at all, but Brad Pitt's character, Aldo Rain, who's this, you know, hillbilly from, from Virginia or Tennessee? Yeah, I think Tennessee. Yeah, who, you know, just wants to kill some Nazis. What he really wants to do is reveal them for the evils that they are. And the question he continually asks of like, when you go home, are you going to take off that Nazi uniform and just pretend like this never happened?

10:29 And he, like, he won't let them forget what they did. And I think that's like the question that that Tarantino is asking throughout the film. Like, are we going to just let people forget what happened in World War 2 or are we going to remember it? And I think that's why at the end of the film, you know, Brad Pitt looks down into the camera as Quentin Tarantino and says, you know, I think this is my masterpiece. There's a ton of Tarantino injecting himself and his point of view into this script. You know, even at the beginning of the movie or I guess you know, 30 minutes in, whatever, the first time Daniel Bruhl's character, who is like the infamous Nazi war hero, he is talking with Shoshana, the theater owner.

11:13 He she says something about like, oh, we respect directors in this country. And it's like, OK, Quentin, like, we we get it, dude. And yeah, you're right. The direct address into camera at the end of the movie where he just tells you, Yep, this is my masterpiece again. It's like thumbs up. Good job, bud. I'm glad. I'm glad you feel this way. You know, Yeah, Brad, I really, I think that's a great way of framing the movie. And I don't know how long we can go without talking about the writing of the film itself. This is regarded by many critics now as Tarantino's best writing. I think I would still consider Pulp Fiction to be his best written movie, but this definitely has some of the strongest screenplay moments in it. And it all really does come down to that ending you were talking about. And I think very famously to set the stage here, Tarantino had been working on this script for about a decade. He, he wrote most of it in 1998 and kind of retooled bits and pieces of it, but couldn't settle on an ending for this movie.

12:09 He eventually picked it back up after doing Kill Bill and continued writing on it. And he used Pulp Fiction to help guide the length of each of these three storylines. And I don't, you know, but honestly, Brad, I've thought about this a lot. I think one of my issues with this movie, and it is kind of a minor issue because I feel like this movie works nearly perfectly, but at one point he was kicking around the idea of doing this as a miniseries instead of as a movie. And back in 2009, you didn't have the HBO 8 episode season and then you're done like as much as you do today. I really do wonder if this might have done better as like a 4 to 8 episode miniseries and really fleshed some of these storylines out a little bit because it feels like they are not slowly developing, but that he's really taking his time setting the stage and you getting to know these characters and then huge violent outbursts where characters are just killed that you've spent so much time with.

13:10 It really is shocking and it's super effective. But then I feel like you get to the end of the movie, The ending that he was struggling with for so long, and it goes so quickly and it's such a literal explosion of violence that it almost feels like an anticlimax. And I, I really don't like saying that because it's like, how could this be any more heightened than it is? Like it's, it's someone's face projected onto a burning screen, cackling with evil Glee while other guys are machine gunning from like the crow's nest. And then everything exploit like it is. It is outrageously violent and kind of a great payoff to the build up, but I almost feel like the build up is so expert that no ending could do justice to the 1st 90% of the movie, if that makes sense. That is, that is an interesting take. Do you feel like that's more aimed at the explosive ending or the little like epilogue that you get with Londa and Rain? Kind of both and and especially because like, the explosive ending is happening and then there's a hard cut to the next day.

14:18 They're just driving Londa out of town. And you're like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Like, I want to see the aftermath a little bit here. Like, you know what I mean? And I just feel like some of the the character beats, like, you understand, through body language, if not dialogue, that Shoshanna and her boyfriend, what's his name, Marcel Marcel are going to kill themselves. They don't really say it. But then like when they embrace at the end and she starts crying, you're like, Oh, yeah, they're this is suicide mission. You don't really understand that the bastards are all in on killing themselves either. And I think that was one thing for me where when you get that reveal that they have dynamite hidden in their pant legs, I'm like, oh, I don't think they're planning on getting out of here.

15:02 And it's just, I think there's little moments like that where it's like, Tarantino, you've taken 2 1/2 hours to get us to this point. Can you give us like 15 seconds to establish that these guys never intended to come home anyway? Because I don't feel like that those kind of things were folded in. And then there's this huge explosive suicide mission at the end of the movie. And I feel like you don't really get a chance to, I don't want to say mourn the characters, but you know what I mean? Like, some characters have a really great send off. Some characters have a really quick, brutal send off. But I feel like every send off before that ending made sense in the context of the movie. Even like when when Fassbender's character gets killed in the Tavern, you're like wow that's that's crazy.

15:47 I thought that he was going to be in the rest of the movie, but you understand that there's a larger plot at play here that we need to move on to. But when all those guys die at the end of the movie, there's nothing more to go on to. It's just kind of like boom and we're done, you know what I mean? None of those deaths mattered, Bob. The only death that was brutal and undeserved and mattered was poor Private Wilhelm. My boy Willie just became a father, and Diane Kruger just guns him down mercilessly. I was, I was like, I was very torn up about that. Yeah, it happens, man. They couldn't let anybody out of that basement. You were torn up about the Nazi. I was you just became a.

16:29 Father Bob Boo Boo. You know, honestly, what I, what really helped me love this movie more was when we watched The Great Dictator for this podcast and I was thinking about how we parody things now versus how we parodied things back then. And if you watch any sort of parody movie, whether it be The Great Dictator, whether it be Blazing Saddles, I feel like all the way up through the 90s, parody movies were kind of just like either it was done in good fun or it was done because that guy. And those were like the two options. And today I feel like parody is done in such a walking on egg shells way that the comedy has very little bite to it. And The Great Dictator really helped me understand like, no, no, these guys are evil.

17:17 We need to remember that this is this is very black and white and those guys. And even when we introduce a sympathetic Nazi at the end of the day, guess what? That guy. And I really felt like, wow, I get it now. Not that I didn't get Nazis before, but it's like the the way that Tarantino kills the characters with such Glee and with such abandoned. It never felt narratively satisfying to me until this time around and I realized the whole operative like element of this movie is just it doesn't matter. Those guys, they're Nazis. Yeah, no, I, I mean, I am 100% with you there, Bob, but you just said that the the ending was anticlimactic for you, that it was a a disappointing end to a a exciting or impressive series of events like I, like I'm with you.

18:06 I think the ending was was perfect. Melanie Laurent is, is just like cackling like a banshee on screen and the flames are going up. I, I thought it was incredible. Also, I don't know if to go back to an earlier point you made, I don't know if this was originally a suicide mission. Like in my mind, I, I was thinking that it was like a, hey, this is how we smuggle this stuff in, but we're going to leave it under our seats and let it explode and, and go up and shoot all the guys and, and cause chaos and leave. I I never took it for either Shoshanna and Marcel or the Bastards as a true suicide mission until everything kind of went to crap.

18:53 And at that point, they were like, well, we're going to make sure that we at least kill Hitler. Well, I mean, Marcel for sure dies just because he's like right next to the fire. I don't think there's any escape for him. They also make sure that they lock all the doors so that nobody can get out. I don't think Shoshanna had any intention of escaping, you know what I mean? Like. I think are out of the four. I mean obviously they show Shoshanna and two of the bastards die. I think Marcel escapes. Like he just flicks it on and then runs away. Like they don't show him running away, but they don't show him dying. We want to hold out hope that Marcel lives do. You. Think the two bastards that are up in, you know, Hitler's little box and shooting.

19:33 Did they just get so caught up in the act of killing Nazis that they forgot to take their dynamite off? Because they make no effort to escape either and they have to know when it's going to explode. Yeah, maybe that that would be my guess. I I just never got the feel that it was a true suicide mission. I think. I think that Marcel and Shoshanna, they're like emotions was from the fact that they were like, hey, like we're about to burn down the thing that brought us together and there's a chance we could die. Like, I think that's there. But you know, she didn't know that Frederick was going to come in and be a a Nazi Dick. Like. I think I figured out what I would have liked better about the ending of this movie. All right, tell me, Bob.

20:15 Here you go, Quentin Tarantino. Let me give you some notes on your Academy Award-winning script. So I think the the corollary to the ending is the scene in the Tavern. Oh, we talked extensively back in Season 1 about how that Tavern scene follows this whole thing that Tarantino talked about with suspense of like, drawing out the rubber band as far as you can possibly take it before it snaps back. And that scene ends with that sort of explosive violence that Tarantino is known for, similar to the ending of Reservoir Dogs. And I've been trying to figure out why that sequence works so much better for me than the actual ending of the movie. And I think that it's because, to be quite frank, there's no there's no escape from that room. We have to understand that everyone in that room is doomed. And it has to sink in for us the way it sinks in for Michael Fassbender when he finally switches from German back to English and just accepts his fate. And then, you know, let's see how many people we can kill before we get killed.

21:17 And I think the ending of the movie, the mistake that Tarantino makes for me is that what's happening in the theater is really, really suspenseful, whether it be Landa choking out Diane Kruger or Shoshana's whole thing with Daniel Bruhl or the bastards trying to get up into Hitler's box. But we keep cutting away from what's actually happening in the theater to when Landa takes Brad Pitt and BJ Novak and they're negotiating. And I almost wish we had just completely finished up the theater part. Boom, explosion, Hitler machine gunned in the face, everybody's dead. And then instead of cutting to the end of the movie, we cut to the negotiation table.

21:58 Because those guys may not even know yet what's happened in the theater, right? And I feel like constantly cutting back and forth between the negotiation and what's happening in the theater took away from the impact of what happened in the theater for me. I don't know, It seems like a minor change to me, but I think taking us out of the tension that he's building in the theater really did kind of undercut the payoff for me. Yeah, or I think the better option would be to once, you know, he has Aldo tackled in a really great like that's just a great cut to, you know, the man in the white smoking jacket Boom, he gets tackled like it's it's just perfect comedy. What, like from there maybe you just do the entire interrogations?

22:44 Right, one or the other. Yeah, like you. You do the whole interrogation scene, you do the whole explosive finale. I think that might work better. Yeah, because you get you get the reveal that Landa is really scheming earlier and then they make this deal with the devil and then you cut back to the theater and see the really cathartic let's machine gun Hitler in the face. Yeah, I think that would work better. You're you're right about that, the ordering of it. Can you just say that one more time? All right, dude. Well, we've we've done what we usually do in the back half of the episode. First, we haven't talked performances, we haven't really talked direction. Let's save that and do that when we come back from break. But unfortunately for us, Brad, it is time to try some Basil Hayden's.

23:30 So what do you say we get to it? Poop. Hayden's. Wow, Did you think of that all on your own, Brad? I'm. I'm quite brilliant when it comes to insults, Bob. All right, let's get to it. All right, so today we are trying Basil Hayden, or as Brad calls it, poop. Hayden Poop. Poop. Hayden possibly the most ridiculous insult you've ever given anything. Brad, I'm. I'm thinking of, oh man, I'm thinking of Anchorman, our very first episode we ever recorded When he goes you, you poopy mouth. So Basil Hayden is an interesting brand. And you know what's really interesting about it, Brad, is that they have kind of changed the name of the product. It used to be called Basil Hayden's with an apostrophe S on the end of it.

24:31 They rebranded a couple years ago and now it just says Basil Hayden. It's no longer possessive. It's as if he's disowning his own whiskey. At this point he's just the donor that like $10 million and they named it after. Him you can use my name, but you can't say it belongs to me the. Basil Hayden bottle of whiskey juice. OK, so this whiskey is made by the Jim Beam Corporation, Beam Suntory, we'll call it now. It is one of four small batch bourbons that they make in a special kind of vertical, Basil Hayden being one of them. Baker's Bookers and Knob Creek are the other ones.

25:11 So this was released first in 1992. It's an ongoing release. It is 80 proof. The undisclosed mash bill is rumored to be 62% corn, 27 rye and 10 barley. So it is a high rye mash bill, but it's watered away down to 80 proof. Yeah, I, I want to get into it. And I will say I came into this not having drank basil Hayden or or Hayden's or any type of basil. I wanted to give it every chance it could get. Like I, I, I wanted it to be better than I remembered it. The nose. Therefore I came out to a six out of 10 on.

25:51 I thought that there was some orange zest. I thought that it was corn. There was caramel and it was a little bit oaky. They didn't have anything that popped out to me, but there was nothing, nothing rough about it. And that little bit of orange zest gave it a little bit of character. So, you know, it was decent. I'm having an interesting experience with this, Brad, because this is probably the most unique nose that I've had in a few weeks on this podcast. And so I may be overestimating how good it is, but I get a lot of tart green apple on this. I get a lot of that orange zest you're talking about. And then I get this candy that I've never liked but I remember very fondly. It's like, I don't know how to what they're called. They're like little green wedges that are rolled in sugar. They're like the real gummy, like old school candy and they're like mint flavored.

26:42 They. Sell them? No idea. Man, I don't know what they're freaking called. They're not like they sell them like next to the circus peanuts in the candy store, you know what I mean? They're like old people candy, you know? You know, like the orange slices that you can get, they're like kind of jellyish and they're rolled in. Yeah, it's like that. Disgusting. Yes, it's like that, but the green ones and they're kind of minty. I get that on the nose. And then the last disgusting, yes, I get I get black licorice and you don't like black licorice at all, but I find it to be like really, really potent on this nose. I have no idea what that's going to do for the taste of this, but I really dig this nose. I'm going to give it an 8 out of 10. I like I like the phrasing you use there. You don't like it at all, but I find it to be potent.

27:26 That doesn't give me any clue on whether or not you also don't like it or do like it. I like black liver is fine. I don't know that I want it in my bourbon, but like, it's an interesting note to have. Yeah, no, it it is. I I've smelt anis on a few different things and it's not the worst thing that can happen on a whiskey. What actually one of my favorite Irish whiskeys, the Sexton has kind of a strong, you know, anis note on the nose and and it's it doesn't ruin it for me. So look at me expanding my horizons. All right, let's talk taste, man. Yeah. Is there any Bob I got like a little hint of like a peachy fruity, like a juicy Peach note. But the longer I drink it, there was corn and and water. I could taste water and and 4 1/2 Bob. I don't hate this.

28:25 Well, you can go kick rocks. Yeah, so it's interesting. Like there's very little bourbon character to this on the palate. It's very spicy and it drinks a lot hotter than 80 proof for me. Like it's really prickly on my tongue. I do get that black licorice, and I can't tell which of the secondary grains is more prominent here, Brad. It doesn't really taste like a rye, but it kind of has the mouthfeel experience of a rye where it's like that more herbal, more prickly, a little more peppery, But I actually think it takes on more of the barley character on the palate itself. I get a lot of oak on this and I get like almost like spicy black licorice.

29:06 It's a really interesting experience. It's way out of the wheelhouse of usual Jim Beam products. I'm not getting any of that kind of trademark peanut buttery or just nutty notes on this. But I I don't mind this Brad. It's not my favorite, but it's OK. I'll give it a 7 out of 10. No, Bob, go home. The finish is garbage. There's some oak and some water and and some corn and it just is harsh and and doesn't leave you in a good place. So I give it a three out of 10 on the finish. It does turn a little bit bitter on the end for sure, but at 80 proof, I don't know that there's a lot of whiskeys out there that leave much of an impression on the finish. You know, I'm thinking about like benchmark. I'm thinking about, you know, whatever old granddad this definitely I I noticed it going down a little bit, but there's not much Kentucky hug that dissipates quickly. And the flavor that's left behind on the palate is oak and almost raw grain.

30:09 I do think this is like, this is where this one suffers. I still don't hate it, but I'm just going to give it a six out of 10 on the finish. Yeah, and then balance, I will say like it's not the most well balanced whiskey I've ever had, but it's not the worst. I'll give it a 5 out of 10 on balance. I'm. Going to give it a 7 1/2. I looked at my scores, it goes 876. So there's a pretty obvious drop off from the nose through to the finish, but it's not like a steep drop off for me. So it's fairly well balanced. I think where I'm really going to punish this whiskey Brad is on the price. And what is this currently selling at at the time of recording in the state of Ohio?

30:51 $40. That's too much money. This is at least four years old, but it's 80 proof guys. Like what are we doing here? If if, if you really wanted to make this be the fancy 80 proofer, which it's clearly trying to be, then I think you could put the cap on this at $30 and it would be like, OK, I still think that's overpriced, but I get what they're trying to do at $40. It's like this is just greedy, you know? Yeah, 100%. You said that you were going to punish it. I don't know if you can punish it as badly as I will. Bob, what? What's your value score here? I'm going to give one of my lowest value scores of all time to this after.

31:32 I will say after an experience, a tasting experience that was fairly pleasant, this is getting a 2 1/2 out of 10 for me. Bob, I'm going to give this a .5 out of 10, the lowest, the lowest score you can give it. I think that this is a 15 to $20 whiskey masquerading as a $40 whiskey, and that is unacceptable. I totally agree. I will say, like if there's anything I can defend about Basil Hayden, they do put some effort into the packaging. Like it is clearly designed to be seen as the quote UN quote fancy low proofer. And if you are gifting somebody a whiskey that's not really into whiskey and you want to try to get them like acclimated to whiskey, I don't know that this is the best whiskey to do it with, but it might be the most presentable option. Does that make sense?

32:25 Like. No. It looks nice on the shelf. It does. It just it does. What the juice is. I literally just said that. I just said I don't think this is the best whiskey, but like I can see how they're trying to position it in the market. Now, does that equate to a $40 price tag? Absolutely not, Brad. If it like like I said, if they put this at $30, where do you think your value score would be then? 3:00 to 4:00. Yeah, I'd probably up mine to like a six again just because of the packaging, but this is like drastically overpriced. And yeah, and I had a good drinking experience, way better than you did.

33:08 And I'm still coming out to a 31 out of 50 on this. Guess, just guess where my score is, Bob. I don't know low. 20s Nineteen out of 50. Oh my. Gosh, is that the same score you gave it back in Season 1? It's got to be close. Back in season 1, we did not do value score. We are very close to having the lowest rated whiskey ever on this show now because of Brad's 19. I I gave it out of 40. Yeah, in season 1 you gave it a 17 out of 40. I gave it a 5.5.

33:50 That seems harsh, Brad. You know, I'm not going to lie, I know we didn't know a lot about whiskey back then, but this seems, that seems a little drastic. Yeah, I mean, adding in another category, so an average of five points, I came out 14 points higher. So you know, I'm I'm way less harsh than I was in season 1 when I gave it a 5.5 out of 40. And yet here we are sitting at a 50 out of 100 or a 25 out of 50 on average. Wow, have we ever come out to say 50 out of 100? Before, I don't know how to think, like right on the dot. I don't know that we have. Yeah, that's, wow, bad whiskey.

34:31 This is landing us in territory that we've had with things like Jameson cold brew, which we didn't consider a whiskey. I don't know that that is a badge of honor that Jim Beam wants to display. Brad, this is very lowly, very lowly scored. This is a very low score for us. Yeah, it's garbage whiskey that you shouldn't drink. I'm not going to recommend it, I actually don't. I don't hate it and I think that it's worth a pour at the bar if you're spending like $6 or less on it. But if it's any more than that, like I wouldn't even recommend a pour of it. You can get way better 80 proof whiskey for half the price or lower. It's just astronomically priced, dude.

35:12 Yeah, or go drink Scotch at 80 proof because it's way, way better. And, and not even like peated scotches or anything like go drink a Bayside, go drink Cutty Sark, go drink, go drink Cutty Sark. It's way better than this. All right, man, let's get back into talking about Inglorious Basterds. What do you say? Let's get to it. All right, everybody, That was poop. Hayden's a whiskey that we cannot recommend to you. You remind me of Shannon Sharpe when he was on Undisputed with Skip Bayless and every time they talk about LeBron James, he would be. He just say, oh, you mean GOAT James? GOAT James, Yeah. Yep. Basil Hayden's Oh, you mean poop Hayden? That's how that's how I would refer to Steph Curry if I was on Undisputed.

36:01 I just, oh, you mean poop Curry? I disagree, I don't like Steph but I got to respect him. He is not poop. Zero respect. He hasn't. He should have no affiliation with Basil Hayden's. That's all I have to say. Oh man. Well, you know what doesn't have any affiliation with Basil Hayden's? Is it Canada's favorite segment? It sure is 2 facts and a falsehood Brad. Is going to try to stump you. Ball 2 are right and what is wrong? 2 facts and a falsehood. 2 Facts and a Falsehood is the part of the podcast where Brad presents three items to me as fact about the making of this movie, one of which is a complete lie and I have to figure out which one that is Brad. I don't know a ton about the making of this movie. I I mean aside from what I just recited in the first half from the Wikipedia page, so you might get me on this one. I'm excited to get you as I usually do. All right man, hit me with your two facts and a falsehood fact. #1 Inglourious Basterds was one of the front runners for the prestigious Palm de Ore at the Cannes Film Festival. I'm sorry, can.

37:13 You can you pronounce that a little more French? Oh yeah, so sorry, fact #1 Inglourious Basterds was one of the front runners for the prestigious Palm De. There it. Is. At the Cannes Film Festival, but was edged out by UN Prophete, a French prison crime film by Jacques Audia. That's a good movie. That's, like, legit it. Yeah. It was released in America. They, you know, obviously gave it an English title, but it's called a prophet. Really good movie. Yeah, all right, I'm going to watch it sometime. Fact #2 The role of Shoshanna Dreyfus's father Jacob, who was briefly seen hiding beneath the floorboards at the start of the film, was played by Patrick Elias, whose father was Buddy Elias, who was a first cousin of Anne Frank.

38:03 Fact #3 When asked how he got into the violent baseball bat wielding mindset of the Bear Jew, Eli Roth partially attributed his performance to the historically accurate costumes, saying quote, being in wool underwear will make you want to kill anything. That's really funny. If you wrote that one then kudos on a a great delivery. I like that one. Thanks man. I'm struggling with #2 #2 sounds like man you. You got me today dude. I can't tell it's either two or three. I think 1's true. 2 sounds very Tarantino Y, like he loves to put people in his movies that are relatives of old movie stars that he knows.

38:52 I'm going to say 2's The Falsehood, but I think it's probably 3. Bob, you are wrong on both accounts. Is 1 the falsehood it was? What 1 The Fondor. The White Ribbon. Oh yeah, You know who directed that? Michael Haneke. Yeah, Hanukkah. He. Hanukkah. He directed your favorite film of all time, Amor 0. Oh nice. Yeah, what a great, great, fun family film. Oh man, listen, you saw by far the tamest Michael Hanukkah film. Like by a lot. What? What is the White Ribbon about? The White Ribbon is about a town in, I don't know if it's Germany or not, but it's it's kind of a metaphor for the way that the Nazis treated the Jewish people.

39:42 Yeah, that movie doesn't have a lot of violence in it either, so that's another tame one from him. But in any case, you know this movie and that movie have a lot in common. Except in this movie Hitler gets machine gunned in the face. He sure does do the the the practical effects of it's not Hitler, it's when Goebbels is getting like machine gun in the face. Like you can just see the fake face getting blown. No, dude, that's Hitler. That's Hitler when they're doing that at the very end of the movie. Well, I think. They show both of them happen. I, I, I thought it was Gobble's face, but whichever. Yeah, but, but it's, it's beautifully terrible. Oh my gosh. And it's like, really, really gross. Yeah, Bob, I'm really proud of myself. I was, I was thinking about this one and I was reading about it and I was like, you know, I'm going to test Bob's knowledge of palm winners.

40:38 The the Cannes Film Festival is really hard to keep track of for me in terms of like, you know, you look at the list of movies that played there and then you don't remember, was that movie actually in competition or were they just kind of debuting it there? And I always feel like they pick a winner and then the winner of the Palm Door is never the movie that ends up like making it into the lexicon, you know, the pantheon of of movies. And so you said a prophet. And I was like, oh, I remember seeing it. I remember it being an international competition. That sounds right. I would never have remembered that. The White Ribbon, you know, whatever. Yeah. You got me. Nailed it. All right. All right, man, let's get back into talking about the movie that we actually are reviewing today, Inglourious Basterds. And let's talk performances.

41:24 This is a huge cast full of people who would go on to become stars that weren't quite stars yet and led by one of the biggest movie stars in the world in what is essentially A supporting role. Like, he's really not in the movie that much. Brad Pitt. Yeah. And, and honestly, the first time through, the one of the big things I remember saying was that we didn't care for the the bastard's military unit and any scenes that they were in. And like this time through, I'm like, what were we saying? Like I, I just felt like they were barely in the movie this time and their little bit of a role enhanced the film more than detracted from it.

42:07 Like I like, I thought that the opening scene of them and establishing what they are doing in the country, in the French countryside was perfect. And it led to a lot of other things that that made a lot of sense when Hitler is talking about, you know, the these bear Jews and, and, and them, them messing up all their plans. Like you understand how afraid they are because you've seen how terrifying they are. And that's all that Tarantino needed them to do was he needed a like AI don't know. It's like a 8 to 12 minute scene to establish how terrifying they are. And then they just kind of go into the background and do their thing. And I that worked for me this time. Yeah, totally agree. I just wish there was more of them, you know?

42:50 Like the exact opposite of how we felt four years. There's not enough bastards in this movie that's called Inglourious Basterds. Like, like, just put them in more scenes, please. And again, that's another area where I feel like, OK, if this was a four hour movie or miniseries, would it be even better? Or would we hit the point where it's like, all right, this is a little too much of the messing with World War 2 history. And I can't, I honestly can't decide what I would like better when it comes to this movie. Now the grass is always greener on the other side. Bob, I, I think what we got is, is just about perfect, so. When it comes to the bastards themselves, the people in Brad Pitt's unit, I do have a bit of a quibble. And it's like.

43:33 Only Brad Novak? Well, yes, only. Brad Pitt and the Bear Jew and the the guy that was a Nazi and defected and became like Stitz. Stiglitz. Stiglitz. Who goes Stiglitz. Yes, yeah. Those are the only three that like have faces in the movie, if you know what I mean. Like they're, they're fleshed out a little bit and then, you know, the bear Jew dies, Stiglitz dies, Brad Pitt's off getting kidnapped and he's thrown in the back of a truck with BJ Novak, who you only know if you've watched the office at this point, right? And he's like, oh, Udovich is that you? And then Udovich is like, Yep, it's me. And they literally don't give him one line in the movie before that moment.

44:15 And I, I just kind of wish that like if that's going to be the guy next to Brad Pitt at the end of the movie that we had had, I don't know, a scene featuring him before then. He's just in the background. And it I just, you know what I mean? Like give me 15 seconds of Udovich before the end of the movie. Yeah, I mean, I I think that the the few points where Udovich works. Well actually that's you just stated the falsehood, Bob. That's my job here. I am the stator of falsehoods. He spends the entire inter Garrison scene with Unovich. Yeah, he does. That's what I'm saying. He gets put in the back of the truck and they both have bags on their heads. And he says, Unovich, is that you? And then they get taken into the interior like he.

44:57 But before that part of the movie, Unovich doesn't have any lines. OK. Yeah, yeah. And like, I don't even know that they introduce him at any point, you know? Yeah, I mean, they do at the very start when he's like going down the line and they're all saying their names. But that's that's literally it. Yeah. I'm trying to think. I think he has a line or two in the scene where they're interrogating the German about like, you know, German positions on the map. I think that he has a line or two in there. Maybe. Yeah, I just. Felt like the most the most faceless guy becomes, you know, Brad Pitt's right hand man at the end of the movie. And I really do love the use of the way they use the bastards throughout the movie. Tarantino was heavily influenced by The Dirty Dozen. And you get that Like we're super, you know the scene where they rescue Stiglitz from the prison and they just run in and machine gun all those guys and then they have this cool like almost slow MO reveal of all of the all of them coming out from all the different crevices.

45:55 It's really cool. I just wish we had more of them. Yeah, yeah. I, I think for me, I'm OK with how much they are in the film, partially because I think it serves to reinforce what they represent in the film, which is not a active, like destroying the entire German military. They're this silent deadly threat in the background that you always have to worry about, you know, if, if you are, you know, Germany. And so I, I think that they kind of represent that by not having them in the film a ton, but talking about them a lot. It's not like that works for me well enough. I get enough scenes with them.

46:35 I think that the, the final scenes with them in the theater and trying to speak Italian and all of that works perfectly for me. And at that point, all three threads have tied together. So I'm like, I, I, I get enough bastards in this movie. I, I think that every scene they're in is, is carefully chosen and well executed. And so I'm, I'm in with them. Can we just talk about the Italian scene for a second? That's the best part of the whole movie. And and the famous thing about from that is Brad Pitt, you know, Bon Giorno and he and he makes him say his name three times in a row and each time he gets more combative about it. And it's just worse and worse.

47:16 And it's like, it's obvious that Londa's fucking with them. Right. But yeah, my favorite beat in that whole scene is that he goes through all three guys. And, you know, in the scene before, he basically told the third guy, like, you don't speak any Italian, so just keep your mouth shut. Yep. And then the third guy is the guy who says his name one time. And Londa's like, ah, good job. Yeah. Like, you actually pronounce that very, very well. Good job for you. Yeah, no, 100% and and the way that it's one of those moments where you're like, Brad Pitt is an incredible actor. Oh, he's he's such a good comedic actor too. He doesn't get enough credit. And then you have Christoph Waltz, just a stupendous actor.

48:00 And seeing the two of them next to each other, it feels like you get something special that you don't get the rest of the movie. And I just, I couldn't get enough of the two of them. And like, Brad Pitt is so obviously from the South and like the way he scrunches his face up and the disdain that he has, I all of it just works. And it's just. Perfect. The third time he has to say Gorlami. He just he just leaves it a real quietly. Yeah, Gorlami. It's it's so good. Can I ask you what one question about the script? Why does Tarantino have Landa murder Diane Kruger's character? That's the only thing I couldn't figure out in this film. Because at that point he has already left the the stuff in the box or he knows that he's going to do that. And like I I just was completely confused. Like he's already planning on betraying Hitler. Why does he murder this famous German actress who is also planning on betraying Hitler?

49:14 I think honestly, it kind of goes back to your whole thing about Brad Pitt saying, are you going to take that uniform off? Like I think he really is. He's not only an opportunist who happens to be employed as a Nazi all through the movie, he says stuff about like, I don't really like hunting Jews, but who can control the nickname? I think he likes being a Nazi. I think he, I think he actually agrees with and identifies with the ideologies of a Nazi. And this person is a traitor and he's going to kill her because that's not only his job. He's really pissed off that someone would think that they could outsmart him, you know, and even more than being a Nazi, I think it's that thing where at the end of the movie, he's caught by surprise that Brad Pitt outsmarts him. You know what I mean? He's he's used to being the cleverest person in the room. So I think it's a combo of like a he really is a Nazi and he thinks that he can just talk his way out of it. And Brad Pitt gets one over on him and BI think he's offended that she thinks she can dupe him. Yeah, that, that is very good.

50:13 I hadn't thought of it that way before, but you're, you're 100% right. Especially about the smartest person in the room. Like when when he talks about surrendering to them and he's making all his demands and they, you know, and then later they're finally out in the woods and he's like, and now I surrender myself to you. And like, he's just so pompous and like, punchable. Well, even at the even at the negotiating table, he's like, I thought you guys would have a little more respect for me. And they're like, no, we don't. Yeah. He's so appalled at the lack of. Propriety. Yeah, propriety. I like that, the the lack of propriety. But Brad, I want to talk about the other parts of the cast here because we all know Christophe Waltz is amazing. There is the Shoshanna thread, there is the Hans Londa thread, and then there's this kind of like only in the movie in the middle parts, British troupe Michael Bassbender and Diane Kruger.

51:08 And I want to talk about them a little bit because you think they're going to be a major part of the movie and they are built up in a very meticulous way and methodical way. And then they're just not in the movie anymore. And for a long time, that was one of my biggest gripes with this. I actually really liked it. I liked watching this well laid plan fall apart in real time. I thought that it was man, like Fassbender's so good in this movie. And Roger Ebert even said like, this guy's going to be a movie star and he deserves it. He's so freaking good. I really struggle with Diane Kruger in this movie, an actress who is good in a lot of stuff.

51:49 But I'm, I want your opinion on her in particular because I felt like, you know, a, she's not good at acting her way out of that Tavern, right? That doesn't mean that Diane Kruger, the actual actress, isn't playing the character well. But I found in even in other scenes that she felt like her line deliveries just didn't feel as natural as other people's. Like, she was kind of struggling to get into the Tarantino rhythm of the dialogue. Yeah. And I just couldn't place whether it was her as an actress, whether it was Tarantino directing her or whether it was one of those, like, Django Unchained things where people think Jamie Foxx is bad in that movie, but then forget that for 2/3 of the movie, he's playing a guy playing another guy.

52:35 And. And I don't know if, like, maybe that's what's going on with her. I don't know what you think of her. People think Jamie Foxx is bad in Jango Unchained? Yeah, people are dumb, dude. Well, I I know that I. Just. I didn't know that that was like a common enough thing that it's just shared on the Internet with Jamie Foxx sucks as Django. That's that's the dumbest thing I've heard all day. Diane Kruger. I, I think out of all of like the main actors in this film, which I, I would put her in there, I think she is the weakest. But I don't know if it's because of her acting as much as I don't know. I maybe she actually is good because she's always trying to play someone who is trying to convince everyone else that she is who she is saying that she is. Like every single scene she's in, she's trying to convince the Germans that she's a German movie star in this random bar in France, which doesn't make any sense at all. And she's trying to convince Londa that she's just there with her Italian escort and, and she knows how fake and terrible this is, and she knows how smart and dangerous Londa is. And so like, I don't know.

53:51 I actually think that her hesitance and her stilted delivery on certain things kind of works. It kind of feels like she's a movie star who's in over her head. I never bought the Diane Kruger was shot in the leg. That was the thing that didn't sell. Like that was the moment I was like, oh, I don't know if she's as good as I thought that she was in this movie. Like every other time somebody is getting a swastika carved into their forehead or something. Like you, Christoph Waltz really sells it. At the end of the movie, it feels like he's getting a knife dug into his skull, whereas she's laying there on the Gurney, like with a bullet in her leg. And it just never felt like, I don't know, it just didn't feel like she was selling bean shot.

54:37 You know, if you're really, if you were really going to go method, get yourself shot in the leg, Come on. Yeah, have your your bones in your legs shattered by a bullet. Do it for the story. That's real commitment right there. I held off on talking about Melanie Laurent the entire episode because Brad, I think she is the best thing in this movie. And I was really, really, really glad that when you intro to the film, at the beginning you said that she was the star of the movie, because she is. Breathtaking in just absolutely incredible. Like every single scene that she is in, she steals immediately. Her eyes are striking and powerful. She the way she delivers her lines are like cutting. And then those moments of fear that she has when she's meeting with Londa, I'm just blown away by it. And like I was reading some stuff about the movie apparently back then, Strussel, I'm referring to the scene where she meets Londa as an adult for the first time. Strussel is made with pig fat back then. And so, so people have said that like even then, Londa was suspicious that she was a Jew and was testing her by saying, hey, that's.

55:55 Interesting. Strudel strussel. I don't think they're eating strudel. I think they're eating strudel. Sorry Strudel. All you know all the German desserts. Streisel, Yeah. Streisel. Yeah. So they're eating strudel, which was made with pig fat, and they're drinking milk, which is a representation of her family farm. And I'm like, there's a part of me that's like, there's no way that he would know that this is Shoshana, who escaped from the farm seven years before. Yeah, I think he would have done something. And you know, to your point about him choking out Diane Kruger, like. Like he would have done something. Yes, 100%. But I I think the strudel thing is a more valid point of like I there's a part of me that just wants to believe that Hans would eat that with everyone new he meets just as a way, as a way of testing if they're Jewish.

56:44 I like that. Like that makes sense to me. Well, I think that kind of gets me into the last thing I want to talk about before we go into our final segment, and that's Tarantino's writing. I wonder sometimes, Brad, why it is that we appreciate when Tarantino obviously nakedly makes references to movies that he loves and like shoehorns them in. Why we celebrate that, but we don't like it when a superhero movie does something fanservice Y Is it just because the fans that he's servicing are so niche and so nerdy? Servicing is a strong word. I used it on purpose. Is it just because, like, film nerds like to be winked at in a way that they don't like the general public to be winked at? Because, you know, there's, there's things in this movie like he has a complete aside where the camera is panning over everybody at the premiere and Goebbels is talking to Emil Yanings, who is famous silent movie actor. He was the first, either the 1st or the 2nd recipient of best actor at the Oscars.

57:50 When the sound movies hit, his thick German accent kind of prevented him from being famous anymore. So he moved back to Germany and then started a bunch of Nazi films. And like, it's a, you know, it's a famous story of silent Hollywood. It has nothing to do with this movie. And including him is just kind of like a fun little wink the camera. But there's so many of those in this movie, you know, Fassbender and Mike Myers talking about films and the number of times that they talk about GW Papst in this movie, it's just like, at a certain point it's like, I like this 'cause I'm a nerd. But would we criticize this same thing if it was an MCU movie and they were making references to like, you know, someone off run of Spider Man from 1995?

58:33 You know what I'm saying? Yeah, no, I, I think, I think that people always want to criticize others and never criticize their own stuff. So I think that both things you are saying are true. But do you see it as like a detriment to the movie overall or more just something that you kind of say, like, yeah, that's just Tarantino. You have to kind of take it with the rest of the stuff. I think the, I think the difference this this might sound crappy. I think the difference is that film nerds, when they see this, they're like, Oh yeah, film nerd, dumb, cool silent films. And when Marvel nerds see something like a one off Spider Man thing from 1995 put into the movie, they can't not tell everybody about it to show that they know the cool reference that's happening.

59:28 You know what I mean? And I think film nerds do that too. But there's not as many film nerds, so you don't see it as much and so it doesn't bother people as much. Is that fair? Yeah, I guess my my question still is though, Brad, like as a guy who doesn't know the references as much. Oh yeah, I don't care. It doesn't bother. Me it doesn't bother you, OK. No, not at all. You can tell they're making a reference, but does it take you out? Either take you out of the movie or like, make you roll your eyes a little bit. No, I honestly it it brought me into the movie more like like for me it's like, oh, they're like, this isn't just a. Historical fiction, like they're genuinely setting this movie in the world of 1940s Germany, France.

1:00:13 Like to, to me that that would be something that they would talk about. They would talk about the famous German director Pops. And so, yeah, I, I, I totally was fine with it. All right, man. Well, on that note, it is time for our final segment of the day, which we call. Let's make it a double. We're near the end of the episodes of Things, listening to the film and Whiskey Show. Let's have another film with this one, even if it's struggling. It's the final segment of the day. Now let's make it a double. Let's Make It a Double is the part of the podcast where we pair this movie up with another film to make the perfect double feature. Brad, why don't you go first today? I'm still kind of thinking of mine. Yeah, I I think that I am going to pair.

1:00:57 You're still thinking of it too. Of course, I'm still thinking about I have AI have a movie that I want to pair it with, but I feel like there's a better option. Ah, man, all right, so I'm going to pair this movie. I'm going to pair this. Movie with JoJo Rabbit. I think that's fair, yeah. I, I think, I think my other option was Taxi Driver. I, I think that there's a place where, you know, everybody in this film is asking themselves who they are. And I think that Taxi Driver is about a man who's just constantly trying to figure out who he is. I, I think there's a thread there, but it's not a, it's not a huge one.

1:01:40 I think if you want to watch 2 like top notch films, probably Taxi Driver, but I I think JoJo Rabbit would make for a really fun evening to to watch that and then this it would make for a really fun night. I think the obvious one to watch what this would be The Dirty Dozen, just because there's so much influence on this movie. But I think I like The Great Escape better. And then there's enough of that sort of like breeziness to the way that the GIS are portrayed that I think you could pair this up with The Great Escape pretty well. So like, if you want to spend 5 1/2 hours watching World War 2 stuff, you could do a lot worse than watching Inglorious Basterds and The Great Escape back-to-back. I mean, you could go with Fury, another Brad Pitt film that was totally, totally good and not bad at all. I liked it, it was OK.

1:02:29 I remember watching it and not being very impressed. It is a slow movie. Yeah. Yeah, you know, it's not a slow movie. Inglorious Basterds and The Great Escape. And that's why I picked it, Brad. So there you go. The Great Escape. Yeah, it's a good one. I I like that. Let's give this movie some final scores. I will not, I will not delay any longer, Brad. I think I gave this a 6 1/2 back in Season 1. You give it a six. A So that was low. I was really waffling between an 8 1/2 and a nine this time around. I do still think the ending lets me down quite a bit, but I think it has the bones of almost a perfect movie in it. And if you made a couple minor tweaks, especially what we talked about with the the way the ending is laid out, I think this could be a 10 out of 10.

1:03:12 And because of that, I'm going to land at a nine out of 10 on this movie. Bob I walked away from this viewing. I I think this was my fourth time watching it. I think this is a perfect movie. I think that Tarantino knocked it out of the park and every single element of the film just Rav just it works together perfectly with the rest of the film. So yeah, I'm a 10 out of 10, Bob. I think this movie is incredible and it it's it's one that's grown on me over the years. So you'd still rank it below Pulp Fiction and Django, but it's at a 10. I think so. OK, I think all, I think all three of them are 10 out of 10 films.

1:03:52 I like it man. So we're coming out to a much higher average on rewatch at a 9.5 out of 10, but we want to know what you think. Is this more in line with what you think about Inglorious Basterds? You can find us on social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or TikTok at Film Whiskey. Or jump onto the discord. We are on there every single day talking about bastards. You can find a link to our Discord at the end of every single one of our show notes. I'm Brad G.