Inglourious Basterds
Starring: Brad Pitt, Melanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Bruhl
Director: Quinton Tarantino
Genre: War, Action, Drama
Rated: R
In Nazi occupied France a group of Jewish American soldiers brutalize and scalp Nazis to strike fear in the Third Reich.
Inglourious Basterds is the latest film from Writer/Director Quinton Tarantino. This is a Tarantino fantasy so if you are looking for a factual account of World War II it’s best to look elsewhere; If you are open to his spin on what would happen if a group of Jewish soldiers banded together to assault the Nazis, then this is your film.
In typical Tarantino fashion this is not a straight forward film it is broken up into chapters with each chapter focusing on a different group of people with all of them leading to the final chapter where all parties intersect.
There is an extensive use of subtitles as a lot of the dialog is in both French and German, even in the subtitles the beauty of Tarantino’s dialog comes shining through.
The real standout of the film is Christoph Walz as Colonel Hands Landa the “Jew Hunter” Walz draws the audience in from the opening scene and does not let go the entire film, If Walz is not nominated for an academy award he will have been robbed.
Brad Pitt delivers a hilarious performance as Aldo Raine the head of the Basterds who demands 100 Nazi scalps from each of his men due to his Apache roots. Aldo’s Accent is particularly amusing when he is speaking Italian.
I was quite surprised by the amount of Violence in the film, I actually thought there would be more. Overall the Basterds is one of the best films of the year with fantastic performances excellent dialog and story and an unconventional style that could only be from QT; who else stages a shootout in a claustrophobic basement?? Although not based in fact as the tag line says it all “Once upon a time in Nazi occupied France” This is the World War II fairy tale I have been waiting my entire life for.
