Brad Pitt, the Cinematic Palate Cleanser

Like a good sorbet, Brad Pitt is a remarkable palate cleanser for eminent filmmakers. Big, acclaimed directors use him in their movies to follow up tremendous feats by taking a break from the strain and stress of them. This is not to say that he enables these directors to indulge horrible inclinations. Rather, he gives them breathing room, no doubt to placate the studio, after a strenuous release.

First, I thought of Joel & Ethan Coen, whose No Country For Old Men was an amazing addition to their already impressive filmography. That film, of course, came out in 2007, two years after Cormac McCarthy's middling novel. (Btw--I've often said that the worst books make the best movies, and vice versa. See: The Shawshank Redemption and The Great Gatsby. Think of their disparate aesthetic attributes, and how the film version inverts the literary attributes of its adapted story.) In 2008, the Coens released Burn After Reading, a thoroughly entertaining but ultimately disposable movie. You couldn't even respectably compare it to their previous movie without diminishing the greatness of the latter.

The same goes for Quentin Tarantino. He's a great director, arguably the best working today. I love Death Proof, but I don't think Inglourious Basterds actually follows this (chrono)logically. I think a truer predecessor would be Kill Bill, Vol. 2, which I think ranks with No Country as one of the best movies of the decade, and which first had the superimposed chapter titles on the screen as part of the film. Earlier today, I watched Vol. 2 and was again reminded of how truly amazing that movie is. Inglourious Basterds, which I saw last night, does not come close to that movie when it comes to emotional impact.

Both of these follow-ups to great movies by great directors have one glaring similarity: both star Brad Pitt. He's not, admittedly, a great actor, but occasionally he can surprise you with his abilities. In Burn After Reading, for instance, he was absolutely hilarious as a gym trainer who finds himself way over his head in a farce about espionage and a fairly innocuous "mem-wah" by John Malkovich's character. I still laugh just thinking about the incredulous, shocked dismay on his face after John Malkovich punches him in the nose in the car. I maintain, though, that that was an entertaining movie--very entertaining at times--that let the Coens relax after the amazing achievement of their previous movie, but it was not among their best work.

On to Tarantino. I liked Inglourious Basterds, but I don't think it matches either of the Kill Bills when it comes to overall emotional heft or sheer technique. In truth, it's a farce about Nazis. Don't get me wrong--I'm all for making fun of Nazis, but it's harder to do now, and have the same comic, topical resonance, than before. Chaplin's The Great Dictator came out in 1940, and it mercilessly made fun of Hitler. This movie does not really lampoon Hitler. He cartoonishly rants and raves, sure, but he is off-camera most of the time. Christoph Waltz plays the main antagonist, "the Jew Hunter," a Nazi officer who, ahem, hunts Jews. (I foresee an Oscar, by the way.) Pitt is the Allies' equivalent of Waltz's character, and their oppositional temperaments really undermines Pitt's effort. Waltz is frightening and absolutely merciless, like Javier Bardem in No Country.

The movie as a whole, though, does not leave you with the same wide-eyed "Wow" reaction that either of the Kill Bills. This is not Pitt's fault, but I think the movie does not stay with you like many of Tarantino's other films. I don't care much about this, and am easily prepared to give Tarantino a little pass when it comes to this movie. I don't mean it's bad, but I don't think it has the legs of his previous films.

I also don't think Pitt is bad. Let's face it, though: he's a cinematic sorbet. Even though Tarantino insists in interviews that this is a movie close to his heart, it does not even come close to his past works' greatness.

After serious, difficult, and insanely great movies like No Country For Old Men and Kill Bill, these directors deserve a little Brad Pitt.

R