By Alex Kartman
for MovieSet.com
Movie: ‘Inglourious Basterds‘
Grade: Borderline B/B- (3 out of 4 stars)
‘Inglourious Basterds‘ is not a movie. Well, I guess I’m wrong there. Since it is shown in theaters nationwide and has a long running time, you can call it a movie. It is not conventional, even, or ingenious enough to stand on its own. That’s not to say it isn’t good or even great at times. What I mean to say is that “Inglourious Basterds” is a Tarantino movie that in essence is a series of shorts.
Quentin Tarantino's INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
The film stars Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Raine, Christopher Waltz as the evil Col. Hans Landa known as ‘The Jew Hunter,’ and Mélanie Laurent as Shosanna. They are the stars and almost share equal screen time. Lt. Raine is the head of a special force of American troops, the Basterds, in World War II, in charge of wrecking havoc in Nazi occupied France.
Shosanna is an escaped Jew who runs a Parisian theater, which will be holding a Nazi film premiere Col. Landa tracks down Jews and terminates them, including Shosanna’s family, and he is in charge of theater security. The film follows these three characters and spins a web of a plot around the eventful film premiere, which the Basterds and Shosanna want to massacre. Along the way, mischief and mayhem ensue, in regular Tarantino style.
MELANIE LAURENT as Shosanna Dreyfus in Quentin Tarantino's INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
The acting is brilliant. Waltz won best actor at the Cannes film festival and he greatly deserved it; more on that to come. Pitt’s character is hilarious, with one of the best southern drawls I might have ever heard on screen. He isn’t the smartest of characters, but he has his technique down that he is a formidable force, even in overwhelming situations. Shosanna is equally as capable, and Laurent fills the femme fatale role with true beauty. She seems to be the main character in the film, even though the title is “Inglourious Basterds.”
Back to Col. Landa. He may be the most villainous character I have ever seen. He can easily be related to the Joker from last summer due to one fact: he became likeable. He has a jovial persona, cracks jokes and tries to humor his visitors. The vileness is each situation he’s in. The opening scene is him visiting a dairy farm to kill hiding Jews. He knows they’re there, and the farmer knows that he knows. The whole scene builds suspense, to show how evil he can be, and how far he will go to strike fear into a man. Tarantino uses this suspense throughout the film in three other instances.
CHRISTOPH WALTZ as Col. Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino's INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
Overall “Basterds” seems like a collection of cool scenes and sequences with hilarious gags, but it’s without a clear and coherent plot that flows well. Tarantino may have lost a little of his touch by rushing this film into production. It’s pacing is less than ideal, with some shots that linger far too long and dialogue that needs to be cut down to move it along.
Although Tarantino isn’t creating his own world for once, he uses WWII as a launching pad for himself. He rewrites history, and has no inhibitions with sticking to reality at all.
SPOILER ALERT, skip to next paragraph to avoid.
The real shock is the reverse holocaust that the finale is. Instead of being better characters than Hitler, the Basterds and Shosanna, recall to Nazi tactics to create the giant furnace. It is truly a question of morals, and should be chewed upon for sometime after leaving the cinema, due to the right or wrong debate.
END OF SPOILERS.
DIANE KRUGER as Bridget von Hammersmark in Quentin Tarantino's INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
What is beautiful about the film, is Tarantino’s obsession with cinema. I can’t even imagine all of the influential films for this one, but the opening harkens to a spaghetti western, and that style replays throughout. There is a fetishtastic sequence with Shosanna that seems like a film noir’s femme fatale. Finally, the movie is about a theater; the ideal place for Tarantino to show his love. Even the final line that seemingly breaks the fourth wall fits perfectly into this ridiculous yet reverent world.
“Inglourious Basterds” is definitely worth checking out, whereas it is one of the top films of summer, but it is heavily weighed down by what it doesn’t execute well.
More Inglourious Basterds
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And the winners are at the Cannes Film Festival…
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Catch Mike Myers’ funny walk, see Quentin Tarantino directing and scope out the beautiful set designs in several different behind the scenes video clips of ‘Inglourious Basterds.’
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