Two and a Half Hours: Not Long Enough

Inglorious Basterds has never been near the top of my list when it comes to Tarantino films, and i never knew why. But upon this most recent viewing of it, i believe i have come to a conclusion; it simply isn’t long enough. Now, i know that may sound crazy for a film that comes close to a 3 hour mark, but this is the truth. In order to help you understand this problem, let me divulge further.

The problem begins with the title characters, the basterds. Quite frankly, they aren’t in very much of the film. out of the entire film, we only truly see the entire group together in about two scenes, those being the beginning when they are rounded up, and the scene in which Donnie kills the German officer. Other than that, they are split up and we only get to really see a few of them at a time. Not to mention, the film goes immediately from introducing these characters to seeing them in action. We aren’t given any context as to what happens between them assembling and landing in Nazi France. This leads to these characters either being mostly forgotten throughout the story, or left out entirely. I just watched the film and i can only name about three of them honestly.

However these aren’t the only characters given unfair screen time. The “main” character of the film, Shosanna Dreyfus is given just as little screen time. She is introduced in the opening scene (which features more characters who are merely in the film for about 20 minutes, i might add), then revisited in the middle of the film, only to be brought back at the end. And at no point are we truly given any character ark for her.

But of course these characters all have it the best. There are many characters throughout the film given even worse treatment; characters who just barely make the cut of being main cast, but are quickly forgotten. Examples would be the aforementioned farmer and his family from the beginning of the film, Michael Fassbenders’ character who quickly gets killed, and Bridget Von Hammersmark whom we are introduced to in the middle of the film only to see her get killed before the final showdown.

So what does this all make for? It makes for a story that seems very condensed. We end up jumping from storyline to storyline before feeling truly concise. We don’t get to know enough about the basterds, we don’t get to know enough about Shosanna, and we don’t get to know enough about Hans Landa and the rest of the Nazis.

Now, don’t get me wrong, i don’t think this is a bad film. It seems nowadays that everyone wants to try their hand at WW2 films, and Inglorious Basterds stands at the top of the heap, next to Saving Private Ryan and Schindlers List. However, it seems that it may have been a good idea to split up the story into multiple films, in the same way Tarantino took the 4-hour-11-minute Kill Bill and split it up into two films. That would have given us a chance to get more in depth with the very interesting story-lines as well as see more characterization. So, how would a 5 hour version sound?