Inglourious Basterds

Rating: ***1/2 (out of 4)
Cast: Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Melanie Laurent, Eli Roth, Micheal Fassbender, Diane Kruger
Director: Quentin Tarantino



Quentin Tarantino's 'Inglourious Basterds' is a dazzling piece of film making, a further testament to Tarantino's reputation as one of the most inventive filmmaker in business. He has a knack of tackling violent, risky subject matter. He understands, and crafts it into a substantial piece of art. This is in striking contrast to a lot of his lesser peers who merely exploit the violence in making mediocre films.

His works also always comes with a strong sense of auteur; that sharp, delicious dialogue, abundance of film references, delightful musical score accompaniment, all that are trademark Tarantino.

'Inglourious Basterds' is full of all that. The film opens with the first chapter 'Once Upon a Time in Nazi-occupied France', with its title, music and scenery all evoke a reference to Sergio Leone's spaghetti Westerns. In come Christoph Waltz, terrific throughout the film as the cunning yet charming 'the Jew Hunter' Col. Hans Landa. He confronted a farmer suspected of hiding Jews. The whole sequence is a tensed cat-and-mouse game, not by action but by Tarantino sharp dialogue. He leisurely takes his time to let his brilliant dialogue build up its momentum, starting from the Col.'s friendly request for farm milk to an eventual reference to rats. That is vintage Tarantino. One of the hiding Jews, Shosanna (Melanie Laurent) narrowly escaped from the massacre, only to feature later in the film.

The second chapter introduces 'The Basterds', a group of Jewish American on a mission to 'kill the Nazi'. They are headed by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt). Here, Tarantino's trademark stylized violence make its first appearance in the film.

Subsequent chapters shapes up the revenge plot, which is itself a ultimate revenge fantasy only a true film buff like Tarantino is able to come out with. Film reference galore, the basterds was involved in a assassination plot with a German movie star, Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) as a British spy. They also teamed up with a British soldier who is a film critic(!), sent by the British military authority because the mission requires his German film knowledge.

Meanwhile, Shosanna was plotting her own vengeance at a movie theater she operates, using the highly flammable nitrate film prints as a secret weapon. In the run up to the climax, there are more tensed cat-and-mouse espionage sequence, again driven by sharp Tarantino's dialogue. One of which involved Shosanna's nervous encounter with her old nemesis, Col. Hans Landa in a French restaurant, another involved Beidget and the basterds trying to outwit the Nazi in a pub, which eventually ended with a bloody shoot-up.

As for the climax, the two revenge plot converged at Shasanna's movie theater, at an exclusive premier of a new German propaganda film, 'The Nation Pride', attended by all the Nazi top official, and by Hitler himself. Of course, none of this is historically accurate. This is all wild fantasy that is strangely satisfying to watch, especially to the true film buffs.

I was having a hard time deciding whether to give 'Inglourius Basterds' a four star or a three-and-a-half. I finally decided on a three-and-a-half. I usually reserve my four star rating to films which I think, are flawless. 'Inglourius Basterds' is undeniably a very good Tarantino film, I only had some minor problem, particularly with the sequence involving Bridget the movie star, the basterds, and a bunch of Nazi at a pub, which I think is a little overlong and loses some momentum as a result. But there's so much in the film that I suspect I will like the film even more on a second viewing.


* In the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, 'Inglourius Basterds' was an official selection (in competition). It also won the Best Actor award for Christoph Waltz's performance as Col. Hans Landa