“Inglourious Basterds Turns 10”

I like to wax poetic about the ways movies change over time; the years go by, movies are watched and re-watched, our perspectives on them change as they (and we) grow older, and eventually we might come to understand them to the fullest possible extent. Yadda yadda. 

Sometimes movies change, or at least our appreciation of them changes, because they tap into a future zeitgeist. Film can’t predict the future, but people are predictable enough that the future tends to write the same chapters over and over again. For instance: There are neo-Nazis out there in America (and the rest of the world right now), and wouldn’t you know it, Inglourious Basterds is turning 10.

I suspect more than a couple writers will seize on that relationship and churn out pieces about Basterds‘ relevance in light of the rise of modern day fascism. For me, Basterds is relevant because Quentin Tarantino keeps on making movies about movies, a’la Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, because Basterds might be a WWII historical revisionist fantasy*, but it’s also a movie about movies. 

You can read my full thoughts on that and on the film’s 10 year anniversary over at Paste Magazine.

*A good fantasy! I hold Inglourious Basterds among the top movies in Tarantino’s body of work. Jackie Brown is #1, as it should be.