Tarantino Tales: Episode 7 - Inglourious Basterds

What can I say that others haven't! Fantastic edit, both technically and narratively. Since most people have already said everything I was going to say I'll just throw some random thoughts out there:
-- It was a very interesting decision to keep the first "carved swastika" hidden and just show Hitler's reaction to it, kept the mystery going, I initially didn't like it but the more I watched the more I liked it, and the fact that Aldo explains the whole thing to Landa at the end anyway really sealed it for me as a good change.
-- The Bowie music was flawless. "We could be heroes" right as Aldo is speaking, the banging drum and guitar lead-up to "...brief him", "Faaaaame!" as Landa walked in, making the music diegetic to the Hammersmark scene in the cinema, and the cinema massacre with the music blaring was GREAT. Extremely well done to the point that I can't even imagine how you did it.
-- Great work on the 10 second black-and-white flashback to Shoshana as a child! And the slight record scratch when she hears they're switching the venue to her theater was fun.

(NOTE: I was told this part was on an artistic choice done on purpose, so it gets a 10 and I'm leaving my comment here for posterity). The only thing I noticed is that I couldn't hear what Shoshana was saying in the theater because the new music was too loud. So much of the audio editing in the movie is flawless, but for me this is a very impactful moment, the stomped-down Jewish girl finally faces her tormenters and tells them "fuck you, now you die!" so to miss the dialogue was tough for me

Fantastic work ArtisDead! You somehow managed to cut 57% of the movie and keep 100% of the narrative, while adding a fun new flair to the whole thing with your soundtrack!

To be fair I only watched episode 7. But right off with the presentation I could tell this was going to be something special, and I was right!

This was very well thought out and I felt I was getting a whole story even though it was cut down to just over an hour.

The music choices were fantastic and fit the scenes all very well

This is something I can't quite put into words. You just need to experience it yourself.

This edit was really cool. It feels like the Basterds have a bigger share of the cake in terms of on-screen time and that’s what I really hope when watching an edit based on a movie called Inglorious Basterds. I am not familiar with ArtisDead’s body of work, but I must say he delivered on this one.
Of course the technical aspects were on par with what we expect from a fanedit. On the narrative side I was afraid at first, that the character of Christoph Waltz would be too much lessened. His performance is iconic in my opinion and I could watch the movie just for his acting. Even though I found myself missing him from time to time, this edit has him doing what he does. But it may have made him feel a little bit less intimidating. From what I can tell though, it changes nothing to the narrative in the end.
I’m not as big a fan of the music choices made here but I think the editor already knows that he and I have different views on that! Although I would not have modernized the soundtrack, the chosen songs were well suited for the themes and emotions throughout. I’m not sure about some editing choices though. For example, the first song, Heroes, drops down weirdly during the opening credits scene. And the song during the German actress interrogation was clear at first then became muffled when the door got closed like it was heard by the characters in the theater. Or the answer by the German officer who kills Shoshana fades so we don’t understand him quite well.
I have to say Inglorious Basterds is one of my favorite Tarantino movies and surpassing my enjoyment of the original would have been surprising, but it came close.
Overall, this edit was fun to watch and made me want to see more from the Red Apple Crew and from ArtisDead as well.

I always felt Inglourious was a bit of a tonal and pacing mess; some bits were golddust and some went on too long because QT didn't know when to quit. ArtisDead has tightened this thing up and focused on the main spine: Aldo Raine's attempt to get as deep into enemy territory as possible and the resultant two-pronged scheme to blow up the cinema with the upper command of the Nazis within.

The edit employs mostly Bowie music to give the piece more tonal consistency and a more rock'n'roll flavor but it also keeps some of the best scenes between Landa (Waltz) and Shoshanna to build to the theatre climax. Some scenes are still too languid (the briefing with an old Rod Taylor (never realized that was him!) and Mike Myers; when they pick up Shoshanna outside her theatre). These spare bits can't easily be deleted entirely. The messiness is in the DNA of the original material. Still ArtisDead has employed what must be 100s of microcuts throughout to make the thing move in a short time to the big climax which is further enhanced by an unexpected Pink Floyd song during the explosions.

As it is with most fanedits, if you don't miss anything (too much) that's been cut, then it's a success. And this episode (7 of 10) certainly is. I look forward to seeing what other editors do with QT's other films, which I generally liked better than this one.

Recommended for fans of IB and even for people who didn't quite like it before!

I've been watching the Tarantino Tales in order, but I skipped ahead a bit to watch this one. One of the main things this edit does is update the soundtrack, which was excellent. I liked that it focused more on Raine and the group a bit more. It then kind of starts rushing things with Shosanna. I can understand this because the stories are intertwined and you need to explain that a bit. You're have to explain Landa's backstory quickly, Raine's group and motivations, who and why a girl and a man are burning down their theater, and then pack it into an hour. My suggestion is to possibly lose Hicox's briefing scene with Mike Meyers, yet keep the bar in some form to explain the death of some of the Basterds like Stiglitz. Speaking of the briefing and bar scenes, those were two instances I felt the audio/soundtrack to be a bit heavy handed. It overshadows words that are being spoken and doesn't mesh well in those moments. When the music is extended into the scene you almost want to be able to turn the volume down on it because a conversation is starting. The edits made flowed really well and never felt it jumped out of place. Overall I really had fun with this. It is an excellent job and effort by ArtisDead and I'd like to say thanks for making it. This is a super enjoyable way to watch this film.