Inglourious Basterds: Movie Review

Inglourious Basterds: Movie Review

Rating: 6/10
Cast: Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Michael Fassbender, Christoph Waltz, Diane Kruger, Til Schweiger, Melanie Laurent
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Is this the Tarantino film which will divide the fans and the critics over the wunderkind's abilities?
Set in an alternative World War 2, where Germany still invaded, Inglourious Basterds is essentially two stories intertwined into a common narrative.
The first is that of Shosanna, (Melanie Laurent) the only Jewish survivor of an attack led by Nazi Colonel Landa (an absolutely stunning debut by Christoph Waltz).
After narrowly escaping with her life, Shosanna finds herself running a cinema in France where Hitler and the rest of the high rank and file of the Third Reich are to attend a premiere.
At the same time as Shosanna plots her revenge, Lieutenant Aldo Raines and his motley crew of Nazi (or as he says in his southern Tennessee twang, Nah-zee) hunters are in league with the British and a German double agent and plotting to kill Hitler at the very same premiere - as well as killing Nazis wherever they find them (after having been dropped into France to wreak havoc on the Nazi regime)
So the traps are sprung - but will any of them bring about the end of World War 2?
Inglourious Basterds is a curious beast - it will be the Tarantino film which the diehard Tarantino fans will adore but may leave others lost as to the ongoing appeal of the man who revolutionized films with the likes of Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs.
Tarantino has grown as a director - sure, he's still referencing and homaging his favourite film genres (Basterds is in part spaghetti western, part Mel Brooks, and the Dirty Dozen) and providing long scenes of stretched out dialogue (which all end in graphic violence) as well as running strands of narrative into a giant patch work screen quilt.

But some are going to find this film a little drawn out in parts (dare you even whisper it, slow)- and an odd sum of all of its parts.
Personally, I felt its best scene was its opening one - as Landa quizs a French farmer about hiding Jews over a glass of milk in occupied France. The dialogue and sense of dread during this section of the film had everyone in the cinema on the edge of their collective seats.
If the one great thing to take from this film is Christoph Waltz's debut movie performance as the lead Nazi, then that's enough for me - his Landa is oozing slime and menace mixed together with a multi lingual charm. You're never quite sure when he's about to explode - and when he does, it's equally mesmerizing and shocking.
Maybe that's part of the Basterds' strength - it has some stunning character performances (leaving aside Brad Pitt's Aldo Raines - which seems to have come directly from a comedy or an outtake of O Brother Where Art Thou? - and Mike Myers who appears to channel Austin Powers as a top UK official).
But more than the character moments, it has some of the most gorgeous long shots committed to the screen; sweeping camera movements and Tarantino's trademark 2 hander scenes where character swap dialogue and deep rooted opinions - it's clearly a director who's still in love with creating beauteous moments of cinema.
And once again, he uses music sparingly to great effect - with long scenes simply using the dialogue to bring them to life before the music kicks in as a precursor to some violence.
Ultimately Inglourious Basterds will spark plenty of debate after you leave the cinema - as some claim, it's an intelligent antidote to a summer which has seen many in-your-face action flicks; whereas others believe Tarantino has lost the plot.

Go and see it yourself - and make up your own mind.