Inglorious Basterds

This is probably going to sound strange, but given how wild and unpredictable Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” is, it’s everything I thought it would be. I actually imagined that if the director of “Pulp Fiction” and the “Kill Bill” films made a WWII movie, it would turn out something like this. What I mean is, I was not expecting epic battle scenes with thousands of extras and explosions, main characters with big, heroic death scenes, or a swelling, John Williams-like music score. Instead, what I envisioned was a defiantly off beat film with colorful, interesting characters spouting off clever dialogue at great length (sometimes to a fault), as well as sudden, brutal, yet sporadic bursts of violence. Lo and behold, that’s exactly what I got. “Inglourious Basterds” is what the trailer said it is… WWII through the eyes of Quentin Tarantino.  And what a wonderfully warped sight it is.

This is a project that’s been on Tarantino’s mind for about a decade, going through various re-writes and re-imaginings and at times being dropped completely. But something about it kept eating at him, he knew he had to make this film. It wasn’t a question of if he would make it, but when… the time had to be right. Well, 15 years and 4 films after “Pulp Fiction”, the time had finally come. Frankly, I’m glad he waited. Tarantino has honed his skills as a director during that time, and he has never seemed as assured behind the camera as he does here.

So who are these “Basterds” in the movie’s title? They are a group of Jewish American soldiers led into France by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) for one reason and one reason only, to kill Nat-zis. The Basterds’ methods are so ruthless (scalping, beating, cutting) that word about them spreads very quickly and even reaches the Fuhrer himself. But the Basterds and their Nat-zi killin’ exploits are but one thread in a much larger story.

There’s Shosanna (Melanie Laurent), a French Jewish farm girl who witnesses her family get massacred by German Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) in the film’s long but brilliant opening scene. Shosanna makes her way to Paris, assumes a new identity, and becomes surprisingly hardened in the next four years as she plots her revenge. Then there’s British Lt. Archie Hilcox (Michael Fassbender), who is plotting something called “Operation Kino” with German Movie Star/Double Agent Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger). All of these story threads come together at a Paris movie theater where Joseph Goebbels is holding the grand premier of his latest film, about a Nat-zi war hero who single handedly gunned down hundreds o f American soldiers from one sniper position. Leave it to Tarantino, the ultimate cinephile director, to set his literally explosive climax at a movie theater in France! Gotta love it!

As he always does, Tarantino pulls together an impressive ensemble and brings out the best in them. Brad Pitt’s performance as the hillbilly leader of the Basterds is enjoyable, albeit a little over the top. “Hostel” director Eli Roth does better than expected as Sgt. Donny “The Bear Jew” Donowitz, Raines’ right hand who enjoys dispatching Germans with a baseball bat. Who’d have thought he’d make a convincing badass?!

Melenie Laurent pulls off the emotionally complex role of Shosanna and pulls it off well. But, as other reviews have pointed out, the real standout of this show is Christoph Waltz as Col. Landa. As the ultimate baddie of the film, he is badder than bad. One moment he’ll smile at someone warmly, the next he’ll be violently strangling them to death. He is charismatic and chilling at the same time, and he could very well be remembered as one of the great screen villains for years to come. That’s one of the real treats of a Tarantino film, he’s always looking for actor’s who aren’t necessarily on Hollywod’s radar, and in the case of Waltz and Laurent, he’s struck gold yet again.

As stated at the beginning, it’s a very dialogue driven flick, with some scenes of characters talking that go on for several minutes at a time. Now, for most films, this would be deadly, but Tarantino, somehow, is able to make it work. Much like in “Pulp” and “Reservoir Dogs”, there will be lengthy discussions, and then things just explode into bloodshed. Like in those other films, the violence in “Basterds” happens very quickly, and, for the most part, is over before we even knew it began. Quentin even employs one of his old staples, the “Mexican Stand Off”, and gives it a wonderful little twist.

If there’s a downside to this deliciously irreverent take on WWII, it’s that it is mainly talk- talk talk talk. And while, as said, Tarantino makes it work, there were a couple of scenes where characters would just go on and on and on… to the point where I thought, “Oh for Christ’s sake! Just get on with it already!” I saw it in a pretty packed theater, and there were points where the audience seemed to be getting a tad restless and impatient. Those looking for a straight forward war movie will be disappointed, but those looking for a Tarantino film, will lap this up and ask for seconds.  So, if you’re not a fan of Quentin’s verbose style of storytelling, and you know if you’re not, then I would suggest passing on this one.

“Inglourious Basterds”, aside from being set in WWII, is not at all a departure for Tarantino. All of his tricks, his quirks, his stylistic flourishes, his homages to other films… it’s all here. QT’s taken all the stuff he tried in “Reservoir Dogs” through “Kill Bill” and put it all in here. And at the end of this long but enthralling 2 hours and 40 minute ride, a character says, “This could be my masterpiece.” I could very easily imagine Quentin saying the same thing after watching the final cut of this film.