Tarantino Tales: Episode 7 - Inglourious Basterds

For a fanedit that takes a 2 and a half hour film and turns it into a 1 hour episode, it's amazing how the edit manages to portray a coherent story.

Any sharp eared viewers will instantly notice the use of 80s songs (primarily a good bit of Bowie) replacing the bulk of the soundtrack which, aside from some select scenes, makes the edit a fun experience, and even enhances a few of the fan favourite moments ("psycho killer" playing during the bear jew scene is a personal favourite).

Diehard fans of the original film like myself will however notice the diminished presence of one of the greatest villains ever created: Hans Landa. Although still included, his scenes have been either edited or removed altogether, which sadly gives him a lesser presence than his theatrical counterpart, however, adds an interesting new perspective of the edit which now thrusts the general nazi army/ideology into the antagonist role.

This episode of tarantino tales is certaintly a fun watch and aside from a couple distracting audio decisions is a very tightly edited video that serves as a fresh perspective for those familiar with the film, and a worthy enough affair for those hoping to experience it for the first time.

Very interesting project. This is my first edit viewed in The 'Tarantino Tales' series. And I enjoyed it tremendously.
I think the idea here is not to make a better movie than the original. So, the whole concept of asking how it compares to the original is irrelevant. Instead, this is about the fun in experimentation, creativity.
It's a neat and tidy showcase of the great filmmaking of Tarantino in a compact presentation sculptured by a firm editorial work.

I sure be checking other edits in this project.

First of all, I loved the feeling that I was watching an anthology. The intro, which I’m assuming is in each of the 10 films was really well edited and felt like I was watching the opening of a Tarantino TV show.

The pacing of this was fantastic. I will admit I’ve only seen Inglorious Basterds twice - so I really never even noticed when cuts were happening. I actually like watching fanedits of movies I haven’t seen a bunch of times because sometimes I think it makes us too hard on the editor when we are expecting certain things to happen and then they don’t or are changed.

The music editing was probably my favorite part. The songs chosen were all classics and perfectly fit each scene. I found myself going to YouTube to watch the original scenes to compare the soundtracks because I wasn’t sure if the songs were originally in the movie. They were edited in so seemlessly. Even how they abruptly cut out in certain instances felt like Tarantino himself edited the scenes.

The story - I think the narrative flows very well even in this shortened format. I did remember the opening of the original film being Shosanna as a child hiding in the cabin and I was curious if by not starting the edit with that scene would make her motivations less clear. Then we get to the restaurant scene and ArtIsDead brilliantly does a quick flashback to the opening. The rest of the scene is so well acted that we get the entire backstory without even seeing it.

I liked that even though a lot was cut, the scenes that still needed the time to breathe and get their due time never felt rushed. The restaurant and buildup to the Mexican standoff were still as tense as I remembered them, even though I know a lot was cut.

Fantastic job and this is highly recommended! Now to find the time to watch the other episodes! Bravo!!

I have to admit that I only watched this edit because the fan editor kindly asked me to review it. 'Inglourious Basterds' happens to be one of my favorite films of all time, which already makes me cringe at the idea of messing with it. Also I don't really see the point of shortening a movie down to one hour just for the sake of it.

Nevertheless I enjoyed this different retelling of a familiar story. The audio-mix is truly outstanding, especially the way the music moves into the background (most notably in the first two acts). Nice title-animations in the beginning, and decent music replacements overall. I don't regard the replacements improvements, but I was rather amused with the song added to the bashing scene with the Bear-Jew haha. Well done. And being a fan of the Floyd I truly loved the finale, great idea and again a perfect soundmix. But like other reviewers already pointed out: some of the songs felt a bit unnecessary or even out of place.

Another thing I really liked was the omission of the overlong name-guessing scene in the basement - the only flaw in the masterpiece. I wonder if it wouldn't have been possible to insert a shot between she shot of the German lieutenant drinking and the subsequent shot saying that he's had enough - to solve the continuity error. Apart from that, all other cuts are flawlessly executed. There are a lot of big and short omissions, and I only noticed them because I know the original by heart.

My least favorite part of this cut is probably the lunch scene with Emanuelle and Landa. In the original, it's (another) brilliant scene, but it doesn't really work without the weight of the original opening scene. The short black-and-white flashback that substitutes it doesn't provide that weight, no matter how well that sequence is edited. It's simply too short to make a real impression. But than again, the goal of this edit was of course to do it all in 60 minutes, and there's a lot going on in the original movie to be condensed into such a narrow timeframe.

So despite this I did enjoy this cut for what it aims to achieve, and I think the fan editor made the most of it, despite all limitations of the conceptual goal.

A/V - Nothing to complain about, although I watched on my 1080 monitor with average headphones so I may not be the best judge.

V Editing - There were a few moments where I noticed a cut, but far and few between.

A Editing - I felt like most song placements were a bit off. They were often turned on and off or down (as though they were diegetic, but then sometimes not). They feel a little sporadic and randomly placed. Usually a film has a moment or two where a big music piece is placed over a montage or climatic scene, here its used frequently and not always at a fitting time. Loved the use of Psycho Killer though, the placement was perfect.

Narrative - I think for the most part it works but there were a few shortened scenes that were noticeably shorter and its hard to tell if that was because I am pretty familiar with the film or not.

Enjoyment - Overall it was a fun experiment that is obviously not trying to be a replacement for the film, but my biggest gripe is that as I watched I realized how much I wanted to just watch the original film because so many of the best scenes and moments are either shortened or completely gone. For example, the basement scene is shorted pretty substantially and as a result, the tension is somewhat deflated.

I really hope this review doesn't come off too harsh because I still think it works well as what the editor intended for it to be which is a tribute to Bowie in a bite-sized form of the original film.