We Americans Love Revenge Movies

Sunday evening we saw "Inglorious Basterds." (Yes, that's the way it's spelled. Why, I don't know.) It was the #1 movie this weekend.

First, let me say that the movie is beautifully filmed. Brad Pitt is funny - but he's not in the movie much.

It's not surprising that it's a blockbuster because, first and foremost, it's a REVENGE movie. They always do well. Whether it's a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western or a Charles Bronson vehicle, revenge movies have always been successful.

They bring out the worst in us.


But this movie is unique. It turns Jews into Nazis. And makes a comedy of it. It's appallingly insensitive.

This "Dirty Dozen" team of cute Jews are monsters.

Fortunately, in real life, what Jews and the rest of us have tried to do about the Holocaust is to continue to remind people of the atrocities and to say "Never Again."

I recently read something about director Quintin Tarantiono in Newsweek. He was quoted as saying, If I had a gun and a 12-year-old kid broke into my house, I would kill him.

I found that disturbing and sad. Just as I found hearing people (young men) laughing and cheering in the movie disturbing and sad.

And scary.


***