Inglourious Basterds / Basil Hayden's

0:01 In 2009, director, Quentin Tarantino wrote and directed a movie that literally changed the course of world history in 2019. Jim Beam gives us a small batch Bourbon that tries to change the course of bourbon history. The film is Inglourious Basterds, the whiskey is Basil Hayden and we'll review them both. This is the film and whiskey podcast. Welcome to the film and whiskey podcast, were each weekly review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey. I'm Bob book.

0:51 I'm Reggie and he is Jordan McCain. Jordan McCain. Welcome back to the show, man. Thank you very much your debut. Two weeks ago, has been met with glowing praise. I doubt that well me too, but you're back this week, we're looking at this week. We are looking at the 2009 film Inglourious, Basterds gentleman. Had you seen Inglourious Basterds prior to this watch? I actually started watching it and college and quit when they started. Scalping people decided it was so like movie for like 15 minutes and yep, pretty much right after the opening scene. Yeah, he laughs. He's gone. So he had seen like one twentieth of this film. Okay.

1:33 Yeah, I had seen it before my dad and I watched it probably in about 2009 or 10 know whenever it first came out on DVD. So yeah, I'd seen it before and I remember my the only overarching feeling I remember from it was that it was kind of boring boom that like kind of kind of long shots fired. It's very good fellows. Ask yeah. Yeah every long The movies, they're just very well that it's very good Falls that, you know, what's really? I think that's actually a really good point because I found this movie to be really episodic. Yes. And in Tarantino's known for having chapters in his movies. But never had, I seen a movie that Tarantino had done where characters are, like, completely confined to the chapter that they're in and they don't impact the rest of the movie at all.

2:19 And I thought, I really struggled watching this movie all the way through as like one narrative and They influence each other. But yeah, guys. I think I might be with you on this movie and we'll save our most of our criticism for the end. Yeah, but not my favorite. Quentin Tarantino movie. Yeah, were shots fired. Now, have you guys seen any other Tarantino I've seen Django Unchained and Kill Bill one. Okay, I have seen the first half of Pulp Fiction and it's turned movies off so many the first half, I'm telling you see in the movie, Pulp Fiction, bad things happened, That's true. That's pretty much the tagline for every Tarantino bad things happen. Yeah.

3:00 So long story short I've seen that and I've seen Django Unchained. Yeah, well of Django and change good and I liked what I saw mostly of Pulp Fiction. Now I will give my hot take because I've told you guys this before and most people that know me know this about me, right. I think Django Unchained is the best movie Quentin Tarantino has ever made. Sure, I think it's better than Pulp Fiction and I'm in the very small minority saying that but because in glory, Afterwards and Django came out back-to-back in his catalog, right? I'm going to be comparing them a lot because I think everything he does in Django hits the nail on the head and very little of what he does. In Inglourious Basterds works for me, huh? Well, it seems like I was looking at his film catalog as well and it seems like whatever kind of style he's attempting to create it. He uses a lot of it from Inglourious Basterds to Django including a lot of the same actors correctly source for Nolan I started doing using the same people over and over again. Yeah.

3:58 Absolutely. A lot of them are in the hateful eight as well, right, right. The same people so it could just be the beginning of. He's kind of found his Niche and really wants to move with it, right. I don't think it's unfair to compare them, so let's talk a little bit about Tarantino the filmmaker here because at this point, he had made, I don't know, six movies and like that Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown both of the kill bills and then if you want to count Death Proof from the Grindhouse movie, you can count that too. And so, he's a seasoned vet, one of the most acclaimed, directors in Hollywood, one of the most controversial directors in Hollywood. For sure. I think he bit off more than he could chew with this movie. I think the subject matter requires a level of sensitivity that he does not have. And I'm not saying you have to like, sanitize your film because Django wasn't like that, all right? But when you're doing a movie about World War 2 and the Holocaust.

4:51 Yeah. And you know Jewish Vengeance and things like that. It's a little to flip it, for me. It's a little too. Like it doesn't take the subject matter seriously and it seemed like he just used it as an excuse to get kind of his more perverse and nihilistic world view out there. Okay, I'm so glad you're saying this because I really struggled with that how he handles something. Like, I didn't struggle with it as much as how he handles racism in Django. But I did struggle with how he deals with the Third Reich. Yeah, with the Holocaust because I don't mind them him creating a parity which is always been used to combat a Prejudice or to combat some kind of regime.

5:35 A parody often works for that is often one of the most thoughtful ways. But when does a parody become insincere and no longer. Take the subject matter is trying to parity, seriously? Yeah. And I think part of what he does with the movie too and obviously guys, if you've listened in podcast you know we're getting into spoilers but the character of the Bear Jew. Is one of the most problematic characters, I think Tarantino's ever written because that is a character that is so motivated and fueled by hatred. Yeah. And it's Justified hatred. Don't get me wrong. The, not everything that happens to the Nazis in this movie is deserve while desert, right? But he sinks to the depths as a character that morally make him, no better than the people that he's murdering. At the end of the film.

6:20 There's something about the ending of this movie. That is just disturbing to me. Really unsettling. And and when they're in that theater in there, gunning down the people in that theater, they cut to this close-up of the bear Jew. You know, Donny with this machine gun and it's this look of just pure Vengeance and hatred and it in the film. Does a good job of making me struggle with these things, but I'm not sure that Quentin Tarantino is a sophisticated enough writer and director that he intended that to be the case, I think he really got caught up in. It would be cool. To see a Revenge fantasy. Yeah, here's how I'm going to play it out. And some of the finer points of like the morality of this movie, get, get lost in the mix for me.

7:05 We will be cruel to the Germans through our cruelty. They will know who we are. And they will find the evidence via cruelty and the disemboweled dismembered and disfigured bodies. Their brothers, we leave behind us. And the German won't be able to help themselves, but imagine the cruelty, their brothers, endured at our hands and our boot heels, and the edge of our knives. And the German will be sickened by us and the German will talk about us and the German will fear us when the German closes their eyes at night and they're tortured by their subconscious for the evil, they have done, it will be with thoughts of us.

7:46 They are tortured with It's a good. That's what I like to hear. All right, so, we'll get into a little bit more of Tarantino, as a writer director, and a little bit. But guys, I want to hear your thoughts on the acting in this movie because this is one of the bigger ensembles Tarantino had ever directed to this point. And I think across the board, the performances are really great. Yeah, out-of-this-world. Yeah, totally. So if you had to pick number one performance in the movie, who would you highlight Christoph? Waltz Christoph Waltz for sure. Yeah. He's not very favorite. Brad Pitt's my favorite. Yes, but he didn't do the best Christoph. Waltz. Brad Pitt is so The me in this movie because it's like, is he really bad or is he really, really good? I don't know.

8:29 Yeah. I he just I feel like Brad Pitt has taken this weird turn in his career where he just kind of takes on these weird projects I love it. Yeah. And does weird roles and he's great at them. Yeah, for sure. So getting back to Christoph Waltz then of course. What is it about that performance? It's his sincerity. Yeah. It's the way that he is terrifying because Cuz he's so assured of his own power. Yeah, of he's so assured of the outcome that will happen in any given situation. That the only time in the entire movie, you see him off kilter is when he realizes that Brad Pitt isn't going to do what he thought he was. Yeah.

9:15 And other than that, he knows exactly what's going to happen all the time. Yeah. And if he just, he controls every scene, he's the thing that makes him such a great villain, is that he's not like that. Mustache twisting guy like he's not you know man I'm gonna take all your money. Say look it's not that bad but you know the word that kept popping in my mind and this can be really silly but I kept thinking of impish. Yeah he's like a little happy elf half the movie. He's so is he kind of like a playful like a low-key? He kind of he's like playful and cunning and you go a long with his sort of Flights of Fancy but you know that underneath it there's this current of intimidation. Yeah. You know that whole opening sequence which I'm sure. We're going to get into.

9:55 I think that's the best part of the whole film. Yeah, I agree. He's sitting at the table of this guy La Petite and just all sorts of charm and then you get the comic relief of can I smoke my pipe and he pulls his private? It's like comically large. Yeah, but he's able to convince you from moment to moment that he is smarter than everyone in the room that he's calculating. Right? But that he's also capable of doing unspeakable things. It's so well-written. He's yeah, he's so well written. If you Tarantino wrote this script and I was kind of like doing some research on the film and he was talking about how he's actually had this script with him or like close to his chest for about eight or nine years and he honestly thought it couldn't be made because he did not think anyone could play that character.

10:44 Yeah. Until Christoph Waltz auditioned for it and then that was basically his own green lighter. And I yeah I can't imagine anyone else being so. East and sincere. Yeah. Freaking creepy the whole time and the amount like as an actor to he speaks four languages in this film. Yeah flawlessly. Sure. And he does it amazingly he. Yeah Christoph. Waltz is performance. Just I would truly say is one of the best performances in any film I've ever seen. It's great and it was totally deserving of the Oscar. Yeah, that he won. I feel like we need to point that out. You know, it's similar to who reminds me of the tension I felt. Did you guys see baby driver? Yeah.

11:25 The foxes character and baby, Joy interested, maybe you feel the same way because even though you knew he was evil, he was really Earnest and like smiled a lot. But every time he was more overtly threatening their sure he was. Yeah, every time he walked on screen, you were terrified, that's how I felt every time this guy walks on. See ya Rick Something's Gonna hit was interesting you know who I would actually. Think about him being a comparison to is Sherlock Holmes. Hmm yeah, well an evil person. I'm a detective Yeah and I'm a good one. Yeah, the only other person that I made note of which is saying something because I only made note of to it was the character of Shoshanna. Yeah. My gosh. And it's because they only she's the only other one in the movie that they really give an arc to.

12:09 Yeah, and they give her an opportunity to kind of shed a tear. At one point, you see her being, you know, paralyzed with fear when she's met with Hans Landa in that restaurant scene. What'd you guys think of shoshana? So I think that the movie would Been better served if the Inglourious Basterds weren't even a part of it. I completely agree with that. Movie was a movie about Shoshanna. Yes. And Lieutenant lies. It would be one of the best moves. Bastard, serve, no narrative purpose in this movie and it bothers me. Every time I watch it because you see the opening with shoshana, it fades out. It comes in on the bastards. Yep. And you know, you think you're going to see them invade and go on. And the next time you see them, they're already in Europe. They've already made a name for themselves. They've attacked this, you know.

12:55 These German troops, right? And they really just kind of float in and out of the movie. Yeah. And you know, obviously if you know the end of the movie where the theater blows up and everything else, it's it's a thing that Tarantino's guilty of it, a lot of ways, but it's Overkill. Yeah, because shoshana would have done it anyway. So the bastards really serve no purpose to this film and I'm so happy. You pointed it out. Yeah, yeah, it drove me nuts. I literally realized it because I thought about and I was like, obviously the bar scene last for About 20 to 25 minutes and obviously the bastards are kind of in that scene. But even that it's the British secret service agent and to the bastards that aren't really a part of the conversation, right?

13:36 And so when you really think about it, the bastards are barely in the move they are. And you don't learn anything about them through the whole movie. Yeah. The only thing you learn is when like Samuel L Jackson comes in with random narration to kind of fill things in. And I think this speaks a lot to Tarantino's writing. Yeah. Because it sent, you know, he has come out and said it took him a decade to write this movie and I wonder sometimes where that effort was spent because in my opinion, this is Tarantino's. Worst script that he's ever penned. There's no character development and the ones that get developed are the ones that died off too early. Yeah. So like you see Hickox the British guy who's your introduced to him in this big scene with Churchill. Right.

14:18 And then the next time you see him, he's going into this bar to Rendezvous and then he's dead. Yeah. And he serves no purpose to the film. And you literally spent a half hour of the film getting to know him only to watch him die and not have any impact on the outcome of the movie. The scene ends up the only character that goes on. Is that actress, right? And then she gets choked out. Yeah, 10 minutes later which is super intense part of the problem that I have with it. And we've already mentioned that the bastards just kind of come in and out of the movie. The character that BJ. Novak plays. You davich. Yeah, you don't hear his name spoken on screen until Brad Pitt is Is captured put in the back of the truck with a bag on his head and he goes, you to pitch right?

14:59 And then he says, yeah, it's me. So you literally you go to plus h of this film without even knowing that character's name and then he's one of the only two that survive at the end. Does he have any lines aside from saying sir? Yes sir at the beginning? I guess he has a couple towards the end and again like there's no character development remark and that was honestly hard for me. Having watched the office. Yeah, really character of Ryan because he's killing people like it was just Ryan stand there and I hated him in the Only, you know and and what Tarantino does with kind of killing these characters off. Prematurely, I understand that he wants to keep us on our toes. Yeah, it comes across to me as too showy that he's trying to show off and by the end of it, he's killed off so many crucial characters that he doesn't quite know how to land the plane.

15:42 Yeah. And it really pulled me out of the movie because the only characters that I was emotionally invested in are not the ones I'm watching towards the end. Well I don't know if I'd agree with that because Lambda Lando Orlando. It's not Billy. Dee Williams Aldo Raine no Lieutenant, Lan de Holanda. Yeah. Are the only two, I really care about and they're there at the end of Surety. So, to me, I I personally feel like those character arcs mattered. You could have just cut out the other character arcs. Even the British guy, right? He was okay, you could have done something with him. But yeah, I personally was really attached to Mike Myers for the ten seconds that he was on screen wasn't great. Yeah, that was Brad and I both go that Mike my answer was but I think this is Tarantino as a screenwriter like at his most showy like yeah.

16:33 He's oh I can write in four different languages and I can make these scenes that go on way too long. The, the sequence in the bar it's very suspenseful yes. But it goes in waves because you have the one table that finishes a whole game of the credit card game. And then you're like, okay, let's get into this. Yeah. And then the other tables are, it's playing a card game, and it's just like, He's delaying what needs to happen and some of it suspenseful and some of it is just okay you could have cut a few pages out of this script. Well we were watching an interview with Tarantino talking. I don't know if it was about specifically that scene but he basically said that for True suspense and drama to happen. It's almost like you're stretching a rubber band I've ever heard this analogy and he basically says, you're just you're stretching the rubber band and you keep stretching and stretching and stretching and you might seem like you're going to get relief at certain We're going to get away with stretching the rubber band even further but eventually the rubber band has to snap and that's the moment that we're all waiting for.

17:33 Ya said my and he literally said my goal as a director is to try to stretch that rubber band further than anybody else could ever stressed. And I think that that backfired here. Yeah. That's just my opinion on that. But yeah, you know, so much of the dialogue to is centered around politeness and niceties, right? Like you've got people asking permit, you know, Hans Landa is always say. Is it okay if I do this is man, speaking English, please, and I understand why he's doing it. But after the fifth time it happens, it's like we need Exposition, we need dialogue, that moves, his plot forward, and I can't spend another five minutes listening to him. Ask, you know, if it's okay to take his shoes off, you know, I mean, see, I enjoyed that every single time Lieutenant landed it, I forgive it because it's Christoph Waltz and he can do whatever he wants.

18:20 Yeah. That's and I guess that's where I go back to and when you said it took Him a decade to write this. To me. It felt like he just got lost in the weeds. Yeah, and maybe he initially had something better planned for the bastard unit. Hmm. But it just kind of got lost and didn't translate well, whereas to me land and Shoshanna. Yeah. And her relationship with the gentleman at the movie theater. I thought brought a lot of depth to the movie. Yep. It really was just the bastards, which is funny because that's what that's the title game though. Sure. Yeah. It's a struggle. I think my struggle was just to Sean has narrative is that you view most of it through the lens of her being pursued by the German officer instead of her, being able to tell her story in her own way. She kind of does when she finally decides, she's going to blow up the movie theater but every inciting incident and maybe that's like, I do think what Quentin Tarantino does super well.

19:18 Is that he demonstrates? How much power? The Third Reich had because no matter what they were doing, anyone who was part of It was able to go anywhere they wanted, they felt completely at ease and every situation they never had to worry about being nervous or that things were weird that anybody was going to attack them like every other character literally did. Right? Because they have no power. Yeah, and so maybe that's how he just wants to further demonstrate how that power is exercised through. I can't remember the guy who pursues her the German officer, Daniel Bruhl plays him but I can't think of his name off the top of my head and I just a sniper. Yeah, I thought he was pretty good but I would have liked I don't know, I don't feel like she was characterized as well on her own as she was just through the lens of her being pursued, and keep saying no over and over again and then she finally gets the chance to like vengefully kill all the Nazis, right? Oh that's that's fun.

20:08 Yeah, that scene though when her face is on the movie screen and that good plays into the disturbing nature of it. For me, like, if there's something unsettling about that, and it's not, it's not cathartic. You spent the whole movie like, yeah, these guys are going to get there. Come up and then I think to see it happen and it's it's not really scored to any music. Yeah. And its destructive and I think maybe that is something Tarantino's trying to show on purpose and I'll give him credit for it if that's the case. But man, that seen just did a number on me. Well, I this might not be the best thing to bring up but I hadn't even thought about her being Jewish and she dies and her final image in the movie is her on fire.

20:50 Hmm. Yeah, I mean Holocaust imagery again but but Get bright back into like, is Tarantino being too playful, right? With a really sensitive topic and that brings me back to. Well, I guess maybe. I think about it though. And I look at Aldo Raine, who is the most ridiculous character in the movie. But in the end, what his ultimate goal is, to make sure that nobody forgets the Third Reich. Sure. Nazis for what it is. Yeah. And I think maybe that's, maybe this is Tarantino's movie trying to say and he might not do it well like we've said, but maybe this is his movie trying to Say hey don't forget what the Third Reich had done. That's a fair point. If a rat were to walk in here, right now, as I'm talking, would you clean it with a source of your delicious milk? Probably no, I didn't think so.

21:44 You don't like them. You don't really know why you don't like them. All, you know, is you find them repulsive. Consequently, a German soldier conducts. A search of a house, suspected of hiding Jews. Where does the hawk look? He looks in the barn and looks in the Attic. It looks in a Cell. Oh he looks everywhere, he would hide. But there's so many places, it would never have occurred to hock to hide. How about the reason the fuel has brought me of my arts and Austria and place me in French Cow Country today is because it does occur to me. Because I'm aware of a tremendous Feats. Human beings are capable of.

22:27 Once they abandon dignity, I do think that Tarantino in this movie is just a little bit too nihilistic. I don't think there's a lot of Hope in this movie, and I think that if you watch Tarantino's movies, he kind of goes back and forth between like, really hopeless or nihilistic movies, and really Redemptive movies. So like Reservoir Dogs, everyone dies, nihilistic Pulp Fiction, super Redemptive movie, you watch the character, Samuel Jackson's character, Jewels become redeemed out of that lifestyle, right? You know, with Inglourious Basterds, you see this? This nihilistic everyone dies, there's no meaning to any of it. And then you could Django, which is the story of a liberation of a slave. And, and that's part of what I hated about hateful eight as well, is that his outlook on race relations in that movie, is that they're all a facade.

23:17 We should just relations are all racing. That's my interpretation of hateful eight and we don't need to get into that today, but I really think that Tarantino like goes back and forth and vacillates between having films, where there's something Redemptive happening and having films, where there is Redemption. Right? And I think he's at his best as a filmmaker when he allows the Redemptive elements to kind of come through. Yeah, it's difficult for me, especially when we compare it to a sophisticated movie that I feel like handles the atrocities of the Holocaust really well like one of my favorites is Schindler's List. So sure I watch it once a year and I don't know if you sat down this is going to this might sound really gross but if you sat down and said which of these movies is more cathartic like which do you feel like glorifies the experience in which one do you really feel? Like portrays it.

24:02 Well I would just I guess I would personally have a hard time believing that the image of Vengeance that Inglourious Basterds portrays versus the in the image of a person. Personally putting up their life at stake to help people on a one-to-one basis. I don't know, you know what I mean? And I do feel like we need to say it's not Tarantino's job to make. That kind of inspect. He doesn't have to write, but it does make me question. Why does this? Exist, why does this need to be made? Yeah, and I think there's value in a lot of what he does. I think that you know, that opening Farm sequence is my favorite scene in the whole film is incredible. That I think that might be my favorite Tarantino.

24:44 Yeah, film a scene. If you want to talk about suspense, yeah, that scene does it for me. Do you guys have any other scenes that you would like to call out? As, you know, just absolutely Stellar the scene when shoshana and Christoph Waltz are in the the eating pastries and yeah. Which Falls along the same lines, is him and love petite. Sure, sure. I really enjoy that seen a lot. Yeah, I do think the bar sequence is not, it's not my favorite scene, but I think it, it's like the microcosm scene. I would point out because everything that works in that movie is there and everything that bothers me. Yeah, it goes on too, long Tarantino's being like way too self-indulgent, right? And then the climax of it, you know?

25:25 When the rubber band finally snaps I feel like it was filmed in such a way that its incoherent I can't tell who's shooting. Do and it just it wasn't a satisfying scene for me. Yeah, it's funny that bringing up those two scenes, next to each other and my brain. There's almost a disconnect which further goes reinforced. We talked about before it feels like there's two separate movies being fun. Yeah. And it's not a good thing. No, it really doesn't completely agree and it may have been better for him to make a separate movie about the bastards. Yeah, even if you see characters, kind of weaving in and out from the other movie, but Shoshana is tail is the heart and soul of this movie and I feel like, including the bastards distracts from that, you know, what I would call the movie about Shoshanna, all revoir shoshana, be great title for a movie, it would be a great title for removal, would know how to say that. First word, no stalled out.

26:18 Yeah, that's true. How rev War. Shanna grassy. Grants Bongiorno? Well, guys, I don't know about you, but I think that it is time to drink some whiskey. Let's get to it. Alright guys, so here we are testing out some basil Hayden's basil. Hayden's is a pretty high-end bourbon comparatively like obviously it's not in the thousands of dollars but you're going to be paying about $40 for a fifth of this stuff. It is made by the Jim Beam company. It's one of their small run Bourbons along with, Baker's Booker's and Knob Creek. So we know what we're getting here. Are you guys fans of Jim Beam in general?

26:59 Like regular Jim Beam? I don't know. I've ever had it. Yeah, it's just okay. Yeah. I've tried their black Jim Bean black because apparently it was some gold medal or something and it tasted like it smelled. And tasted like what I would expect nail polish remover to taste like and then they also have a double Oak because they're chasing Woodford, and it is also very bad. So I go into this not really having a lot of respect for Jim Beam. So yeah. What was the gold medal for? I wonder tasting. Like nail polish? Yes. Hey, spot on They were really good at that. So here drink this nail polish gold medal. It has notes of Hickory another.

27:41 What do you guys actually picking up on the nose of this one? Question mark. Yeah, so here's the thing about basil. Hayden's is very light in color. Yes, it's a Kentucky straight, which means the youngest of it is 2 years old, at least, but it is very light. It's only 80 proof and it does not give off much of an aroma. Like I don't even pick up much of the alcohol off of this, it smells like nothing. What's the proof 80? So I mean you know it's a lower proof bourbon but it should still have something coming off of it. Thanks. Oh yeah. Proof lower. Leti. Yeah let's get to The Taste. All right. Jordan what are you thinking about the taste though? I guess my comment would be similar to the nose. I don't know what I really taste. I don't know if I really taste anything. I know what I what the sensations are, but I'm having a hard time trying to figure it out. Yeah, I'll tell you what my first sip. It doesn't taste like anything.

28:35 It tastes like alcohol and it has a slight burn and then it's gone and the Finish. As I get further down in the glass, I've noticed it gets a lot sweeter. I'm picking up a lot of Sugar and like it's almost like a pecan pie. Hmm so like I don't know what you'd call that smells smells and tastes like Karo syrup and and pecans so it's very sweet after a while. But it it took me three or four sips of this to really start to pick up a lot of flavor on it. Very mild. Yes. I think if you wanted to be nice to it we would say is a very mild bourbon. Yeah. What do you think about the finish on this one? It kind of Burns and then disappears. Hmm, which might be a good thing seeing as it doesn't taste good to begin with. Yeah. The Finnish leaves way more bitter taste in my mouth and the others that we've tried this money have. Yeah, I would actually agree with that. It feels like at the top of my mouth. I just kind of have this lingering sensation of men. Wow, that sounds actually a really first reviewed I feel Brad.

29:34 All right, so let's let's score this out. Yeah. All right, I gave it a one on the nose which is I don't know if I'll ever give anything is 0. Like if it If it exists, I think it needs a one. Yeah, I give it a one as well. I started a tattoo but the more that I may say it probably took five to six minutes of sitting out for me to even detect notes of anything. But so, yeah, I gave it a one on the taste, where you guys at one point five, I gave it a two. Oh my gosh, I don't think I'd give it that low. I would probably give it a four or five. Okay. Like I said, it didn't taste like much to begin with, but as I sip It's definitely sweeter. It's more enjoyable as I go, but I wouldn't go above a 5 for sure.

30:19 Sure. Finish sounds like Brad's notes of men are not really looking optimistic. I gave it a 3 just because it's not II like a smooth finish. This one still has one even though it disappears pretty quickly. So I'm pretty satisfied with that but I still gave it like a 33 Brad 11, I get this finished a five I think. It's very average. Sure. And then overall balance I don't think I can really give this more than a for sure. I don't know what you guys put down but Brad gave it a 1. I'm very extreme. Yeah, it might dislike. Okay. I give it a 1, Jordan. I give it like a 2 or 3. Okay, nothing spectacular.

31:00 Let's let's score them out. So I am going to be at a 15 overall for Basil, Hayden's Brad. You are at a 4.5 4 and a half. Wow. Okay, that's fun right in the middle at an 88. So we're at 27 and a half. Which puts it about at an average of nine out of 44. This, I've you really screwed the curve here. I'll tell you what, guys? Yeah, really did. It would have been even worse. So, you're welcome. Jim Beam company, guys. This, this goes a long way to telling you, that just because a bottle of bourbon cost, $40 doesn't mean that it's good bourbon. Oh, you know, and and I'm sure there are people out there that really love their basil Hayden's. It's a really mild bourbon, but a lot of it is that you're paying for the bottle, you're paying for the marketing, and the advertising and the name basil. Ins.

31:43 Yeah, I if I had to rank the ones that we've drank this month, I would definitely put the Evan Williams above this and I would put this on par with or below the Very Old Barton. I would put this below all for you put this below Benchmark. Yeah. Is it because of the price point has of the price point, if it was a blind taste though, like what would you if it was a blind taste with no price attached but it equal equal The Benchmark. Yeah, it's a well, it's a Well bourbon. It does taste like a Yeah, it's not something that I would ever pay more than $10. Wow, Jordan, where you at with it? I've only had one other, but I definitely liked it a lot less than what did we have? When we do, I think you were here for the Very Old Barton. Yeah.

32:28 I love the Very Old Barton compared to this. Yeah. Especially compared to this both sound like Scooby-Doo, villains, but very old Barton. All right guys. So there you have it Basil. Hayden coming in with a lowest score we've given yet. Wow, Save Your $40 guys. As let's get back to talking about Inglourious Basterds. What you guys say? Excellent. All right, so back to the movie here guys, I feel like we are just being negative Nancy's today here. We when there's a lot in this movie to love, there is a lot in this movie to love, and there wasn't as much in the bourbon to love now, but there's a lot in this movie to love, particularly, I think some of the dialogue Quentin Tarantino is always going to be known for his dialogue, but he was doing some really interesting things in the very first scene with Hans Landa.

33:17 He talked about, they didn't bring me down off my mountains in the Alps or in Austria to come do this and then the very next scene. Brad Pitt says I came down out of the Smoky Mountains to do this and so you've got this. He's already setting them up like as foils to each other which I thought was a really cool way of doing that totally did any other lines of dialogue, stand out to you. I don't know if it was maybe lines of dialogue, but the way Lieutenant land uses, physical touch is so powerful when he, when he grabs the girl's hand at the start with a lot of antiques. Her sure when she's going to get wine and he grabs her hand and such like it's almost a familial type of thing to grab her hand and say no honey, you know, hold on. Uh I'd rather have something else but the way he does it is just its menacing.

34:07 Yeah so menacing I wonder if that's in the script like that that's danger direction or if that's just the Brilliance of Christoph waltz's performance, there Tarantino does this thing in this movie though, that, I don't like with the dialogue that there's a couple times where I think he's putting his In the mouths of his characters. So like the first time you see shoshana putting letters up on the Marquee, she's like kind of arguing with Daniel Bryan's character and she says something like, yeah, we respect directors in our country. Yeah. Like I felt like that was Tarantino, maybe giving a middle finger to like you don't respect me enough. That's so interesting. And and then at the very end of the movie, you've got Brad Pitt and BJ Novak staring into the camera as if you know because they've just carved the swastika.

34:52 Yes. And he says As you know what, I think this just may be my masterpiece and I'm like, okay, Tarantino chill out. Yeah. I see what you're saying. I did think that about Tarantino, when that line was delivered. I was like what's really being said here? Yeah, although there are some great when When Brad Pitt and Hans Landa, come face-to-face, finally, and Brad Pitt's just like cousin everybody out. And he's like, I thought we had mutual respect and he's like, no, we don't and they put him in the back of the truck and Brad Pitt. Just shouts really loud. Touch me again. And Kraut Burger. It's a great line. Yeah, I want to use it at some point in my life. Touch me again. Crown Burger. Yeah, I think most of Brad Pitt's lines are hilarious.

35:33 I think, the, he's so casual in the killing of Nazis. Yeah. Which contributes to what we have critique but also, I mean, it is humorous. You know, when he's like trying to get that, not see Captain to confess and he says, he never will, and he gets up and he goes well we're just tickled to death to hear you say that because we is the closest. Then we get the TV all, you know, it's like, yeah, things like that or like their troubling but they're also very funny, they're just wanting lines. Well, they're delivered. So well, yeah. Brad Pitt Just Nails, his character perfectly. So I want to get into some of the critical response to this movie and, and in our Anchorman preview episode talked about this guy Tibor, that works for the Boston Globe. I really love his critique of this movie. He's not a big fan of this film.

36:18 He gave it two and a half out of four stars. Wow. And he talks about Tarantino's. He calls it. A fevered junk, pop particle accelerator that is his brain moments of power and banality, meaning an absurdity, all Collide into each other and he creates movie mashups, that are as brilliant as they are pointless. Yeah. And I kind of have to agree with him. He goes on to say that this movie is like hyperactive and he says, the hyperactivity. It makes everything bearable, but it also keeps it from connecting, right? I think that's part of my issue with this movie. It's so episodic. I don't know if You guys watch Netflix a lot. But the Coen Brothers, just released a movie on Netflix, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and I feel like in a lot of ways, this is Tarantino's Buster Scruggs like just saying the chapters they all tell one overarching story but I don't feel like they connect to each other in a way that a narrative should write, they definitely can find characters to certain chapters and you're going back and forth between the bastards and Shoshanna story.

37:18 And I agree that it just doesn't all land for me. Yeah. Are you talking about the movie Goodfellas or Where is bastards? You know, everything that you said about Goodfellas? I think you can also apply to this movie though. Yeah, I think that's fair because it does at times because they don't always interact with each other. Like I don't think should Shawna ever interacts with the bastards at all. Now that I can, they almost feel like they're cameos in each other's stories, which the valid Buster scrubs as the same thing. They kind of allude to each other stories, but they're never necessarily altogether. Yes. And so each chapter with time differences, or with character difference, they do feel like Different stories interweaving. And when you see them on the same screen, you kind of are like, oh look, they're on the same ski.

37:58 Yeah, weird. And I wonder if it would have been better to do it like an anthology or more like a Pulp Fiction, where, you know that whole middle section when Bruce, well, it's kind of related because you have characters that come in and out, but would it have been better to just show the entire bastard story and then show the entire shoshana story as separate thing even if the endings are the same, you get two different perspectives on that. I just I don't know if going back and forth between them really works. Well, I think the thing, Thing that could have made it work because I think it's interesting. We're always interested in the whole universe, right? I mean, and, and in a lot of ways, because we've seen so many movies about World War Two, in general, even just seeing somebody about, like, you know, Heinrich Himmler, or these different characters were like, oh, I have background knowledge on these people.

38:42 I think it's, it's okay to have two separate Stories. The story of shoshana, the story of the bastards interconnected. Yeah, almost like you said, cameos. Just make the Inglourious Basterds, part of the story more interest. And that's the thing as the cutting back and forth, doesn't work because the narratives are not connecting on the same emotional level, right? You don't I mean if I didn't you think about bastard story was as compelling, it wouldn't matter like we would be on board for it because they're underdeveloped and their underutilized. It seems like he's holding up the real story whenever we go back to visit with them right? Because yeah, because you get that entire opening scene with La Petite and you you emotionally We are drawn to Shoshanna.

39:23 Mmm. And the first thing you see the bastards is Brad Pitt talking about killing Nazis, right? Because they want to and, and the only emotional connection and I don't know. Maybe this is saying something about us, the only emotional connection you have with the bastards is the fact that they're all Jewish and we all know about the Holocaust. Yeah sure. So maybe Tarantino is just assuming that that's all the backstory. We need to be emotionally connect. Yeah and I do appreciate that. He starts them out in completely different. Says and you know that as we go back and forth like they're going to come to a head and they're going to collide with each other at some point and even like and I think it's chapter 4, the the bar scene that you see Linda come in at the end of that, you're like, okay, he's on their Trail now, you know, it's coming but just for me, there's something about the payoff. That doesn't quite connect.

40:11 Doesn't hit home. No, I agree. And Tibor actually agreed, he said on a scene-by-scene basis, Inglourious Basterds. If is prime if well-worn Tarantino, the hard-boiled men, And women, the tents smart dialogue, seems that go on forever, the spurts of violence, that erupted to wipe the board clean so that the whole cycle can start again, but he also said it was Tarantino's weakest film yet because he's been playing so close to the fire with his subject matter. And he says, he feels like he was afraid to get burned. Hmm. Which I don't know if I'd agree with that last part. I don't think I don't think he was holding back in fact. I think that he probably could have used a little bit more restraint if anything. Yeah I think he jumps.

40:51 And I think he jumps in, and I don't know if he got burned or if he feels like feels like he accomplished his goal, but I definitely think he was in the middle of the Hall of that. Maybe it had been more explicitly about the Holocaust as opposed to the Third Reich. It might feel like he really jumped in the phone, but I don't think he helped. I don't know what he could have held back. Yeah, that's what I. Yeah, that would be more and movies. Like this to me are the most interesting movies of all because you can see the greatness in them. Yes. And it's just so frustrating. NG to see how they turned out kind of mediocre. Yeah, and I think there's so much to love in this movie. And we were even talking, you know, during our break about we had kind of pause the movie before chapter 5 and said, oh this wasn't as bad as I remember to being and then chapter 5 happens and I feel like his third act, the whole movie falls apart.

41:42 You have to be able to kind of bring that home and land the plane and Tarantino doesn't do it. And I think it's because he wrote himself into a corner he killed off all the characters we liked or the we were rooting for. And then, you know, shoshana is kind of coming back from the dead to exact revenge in Smyrna, with her sort of like, otherworldly ghost. Yeah, laughing. I think that, if I had to give this movie A score, I probably have to give it a six out of ten. It is not my favorite Tarantino. I think it's competently made and I think that the good probably outweighs the bad but that it really falls apart in the third act for me. Yeah, I think it's stunning.

42:22 I think it has some scenes that people will be able to study for the rest of their life and see how good they are this subject matter. And this maybe just just displays my personality but the subject matter and the way it's handled really affects the way that I look at it. I would not watch it again by travelpod. Choice. Yeah. And so I'd give it like a 4.5. Wow. Yeah. I The scenes with shoshana and Lieutenant land, huh? Drag the film up into one of the best films I've seen a, my, I really love this movie. No bread. I do struggle with all the things that we talked about with how the bastards don't really matter. But despite the fact that the bastards don't really matter, I still appreciate Brad, Pitt's performance. Like we talked about.

43:11 Here he is. So perfect for what he has written to do now. You can debate whether what he was written to do was important at all, or should have been in the film, but he was great at it. So overall, I look at it. And at the bar scene, I love the bar scene that truly was one of my favorite scenes in the movie, how it just kept going and going and going. And you think you're going to get relief and you think they're going to escape at least four separate times and then you keep getting dragged back into oh no they're all they're going to get caught they're going to get caught and then in the end they do get caught in the rubber band snaps and and the tension is all just floods into the room. Yeah. And I just, I would probably give it about an eight, an eight out of eight to eight and a half. Maybe. But I'd stick it in a yak that.

43:52 I do think there's a lot to love in this movie. Yeah. I think the Tarantino bit off more than he can chew. And, you know, I said I was going to compare it to Django what he did with Django and we'll get to it at some point, right? He doesn't end slavery in Django Unchained, right? The part of my problem with this movie is that he literally course corrects history. He has his alternative history which you can totally Do. That's fine. But to be able to change what has happened to Jewish people in this world. I understand the impetus I understand, you want to have that Vindication and that catharsis that comes with vengeance and eradicating the Nazis, but it kind of minimizes what they've been through, in my mind to act like it didn't happen, I want or to erase it and rewrite the ending. It doesn't do a service to the reality I do. I think he's rewriting the ending, though. I mean, I, I'm pretty sure Hitler didn't die in a movie theater in Paris in 1944.

44:51 I don't think he's rewriting the ending of the Holocaust, though. I don't think that in the world of Inglourious Basterds, the Holocaust didn't happen, well sure. But I mean, I don't, it ended a year early, you know, I'm just saying like but with what I'm saying is it's still happened and Tarantino do the alternate ending doesn't change the suffering of the Jews. It doesn't change the reality of what happened, I think? If anything, the end of the film, when you look at Lieutenant Aldo Raine Brad, Pitt's character, his whole goal is to make sure that nobody forgets. Yeah, the evil atrocities that was Nazi, Germany, sure, Third Reich. And so, I don't know if I would say it all that his goal was to rewrite history. I obviously, Hitler didn't die in a theater in Paris. I'm not trying to say that that didn't happen, but or that, that did happen.

45:40 But what I'm saying is, I still think Tarantino is tried he, I think he is Is trying to perpetuate the fact. Yeah, the Third Reich was Pure Evil and the very final scene of the movie is Aldo, Raine making sure that no one forgets who Lieutenant land. A truly is. Yeah, I see that. So you feel like he accomplished his goal? Yeah Tina's cool. I would say so yeah, sure. So there you have it guys. We are very split on this movie. Yeah. We've got 14 and a half. We would probably make Tarantino very happy. I think that he would be proud. I agree. No, actually, he would be much happier. If like we each pulled out a pistol right now and had a Mexican example. Yeah. So we killed each other asset for it to happen. It have to be 25 minutes and I'm sure minimum, yeah. So, let us know what you think.

46:26 All right, get on Twitter. I still can't decide if it's tweet at us, tweet it to us. Now you something with tweeting, tweet us, tweet tweet, tweet us at film whiskey or better yet. Call our call in line at 216 800 5923. Once again that's 216 5923 for the film and whiskey podcast. I'm Bob book, I'm Reggie and I'm Jordan will see you guys next time.