500 Days Of Inglourious Human Condition

Or something like that.  I had a movie marathon the other night.  Barb and I started the night off with (500) Days Of Summer, a lovely little relationship movie that I had been anxious to see.  The movie is quite captivating, due mostly to 2 very appealing stars, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel.  With her big doe-eyes, Deschanel has been a charmer for quite some time, first making an impression on me way back in 2000 in Almost Famous.  She's perfectly cast here in the role of a free spirit wary of getting tied down.  But it's Gordon-Levitt who carries the movie in my mind.  He is a revelation here, a real leading man with depth, something that is sadly missing from many of today's top young stars.  One minute he is funny and charming, the next soulful and at a loss.  It's an honest performance and I think it's one of the best of 2009.  (500) Days Of Summer balances a fine line between serious romance and romantic comedy.  It's what I would call a quirky romance with believable characters.  I really enjoyed it and so did Barb.  Killer soundtrack  as well and the best use of Simon & Garfunkle in a movie since The Graduate.


Next up for me was Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds.  Pete already gave his take on this movie and I am pretty much in agreement with him.  I enjoyed it quite a bit but I can't quite put it up there with what I consider Tarantino's best works, which in my mind are Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and the Kill Bill saga, in that order.  I liked it much more than Death Proof, which I thought was a lot of pretentious, show-off dialogue with some great car stunts thrown in. 
   Tarantino has said that IB is a spaghetti western set in WWII and that is really a pretty good description.  It's very hard to take the film seriously at all, even when some of the acting (particularly by Christopher Waltz and the 2 female roles played by Melanie Laurent and Diane Kruger) is outstanding.  It's set up more like a comic book, which is fine, but that tone hampers some of the more serious moments in the film to the point where I was thinking "This moment should be more powerful."  Perhaps that was Tarantino's intent, to make the movie a jarring experience and more like a popcorn rollercoaster movie.  Nothing wrong with that, it just left me more ambivalent about the fates of the characters.


Next up was part 1 of Masaki Kobayashi's 1959-1961 masterpiece, The Human Condition.  I have touched on this film numerous times here in the past but for those who don't know, I'll lay out a little info.  First, the film is probably not for everyone, but I wish everyone would see it.  When I first saw it years ago it had a tremendous impact on me.  It stayed with me for a long while and, no kidding, made me reassess what I felt was important in life.  With that said, the reason I say it is not for everyone is because:

• It was filmed in black & white
  
• It's a Japanese film with english subtitles
• In it's entirety, it is nearly 10 hours long

It was made in 3 separate parts, each one over 3 hours in length.  Part II picks up right where part I left off and part III picks up right where part II ends.  It is one long story, a remarkable, heartbreaking journey of a man through unthinkable conditions which test his sense of right and wrong as well as his will to live.  It is at times terribly brutal and at other times touchingly delicate.  But at all time, it is remarkably poignant.
   The story takes place during WWII, with Japan at war and using and abusing the Chinese people in any number of ways.  The protagonist, Kaji, is a Japanese pacifist who believes that treating people with decency and respect is the only way.  He wants to avoid service in the war as it goes against every belief he holds dear.  In fear that he will be called up, he refuses to marry his longtime sweetheart, Michiko.  When the chance comes for him to take a laborer foreman job at a mine - a job that comes with a the bonus of being ineligible for the draft - Kaji takes it and brings Michiko with him.  He is appalled to see the abuse that the laborers - Chinese slaves - must endure.  He goes about changing the system and the corruption it has bred.  He meets heavy resistance from everyone and soon it is a battle of wills not only for the very lives of the slaves, but for Kaji's soul as well.  Part I of The Human Condition deals with Kaji at the mines.  It leads up to a devastating conclusion that sets up part II.
  The Human Condition is many things: a testament to the human spirit, a great treatise on humanity and one hell of a love story.  The new DVD from Criterion feature a MUCH improved print that makes the viewing much more enjoyable.  If you are so inclined, make it a point to see this movie at least once in your lifetime.