Inglourious Basterds

Posted on August 14, 2009 at 4:26 pm by lkeddie | Permalink

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Released 19th August 2009

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Hollywood film-makers like Quentin Tarantino always reassuringly restore our faith in the mighty muscle of the commercial movie market because they take a well-trodden genre and reinvent it as their own. The brilliant and original writer/director who tirelessly strives to bring something unique to the table has done just that, experimenting with the war genre, but recreating his own pulp fiction version, complete with a heavy Euro slant to set it apart from his other, more US-centric tales. And the subject matter does need just that kind of international detail, too. The result is a wonderfully witty, dangerously playful, and stylish fantasy war film that blends WWII fact and fiction in a storyline that accumulates into an indulgent imaginary ending that is gory glory to behold: If only Hitler had met such a hellish fate…

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Although some might argued that the Tarantino trademarks are lacking in this project that follows a more linear storyline, rather than non-linear, the QT essence is still very much apparent, complete with a magical musical medley of hand-picked numbers by the master himself. The opening sequence, or chapter, shot like an homage to the great American westerns, but set in rural France, has the most profoundly terrifying, but utterly humorous, dialogue-dependent opener of any of Tarantino’s work with a polite, but tense verbal standoff between a French farmer hiding Jews and a chameleon SS character. It is one of the most scintillating curtain-raisers seen in a long time. For fans of QT’s over-the-top, ’shoot-em-up’ action, the aesthetic violence finally pours forth, but not before you are kept anticipating the Nazi’s punchline.

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The show-stealer accolade goes to Austrian actor Christoph Waltz as the shockingly hilarious psychopath, Col. Hans Landa, who must surely be Academy-nominated for his memorable performance. Waltz as Landa is a wolf in Nazi’s clothing, a schizophrenic personality who deliciously toys with his paranoid victims in the most charming, and almost civilised of ways, before delivering his damning verdict in a variety of forms. Waltz is truly magnificent, and Tarantino’s triumph in this particular film.

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For a film with such a title, though, there is less emphasis on the Basterds beginnings and antics than expected. Those settling down to watch a Tarantino-Pitt showdown will be very much mistaken - and rightfully so from the name. There is less scalping than expected, but just enough to keep the QT violence-hungry aficionados happy. Brad Pitt plays merely a member of one of a number of highly entertaining groups that the storyline focuses on. That said Pitt delivers one heck of fireball rogue in Lt. Aldo Raine, and deserves due respect, but his star does not shine as brightly as Waltz’s.

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Credit is also due to the actors behind the strong female characters of Shosanna Dreyfus, a Jewish cinema owner, played by Mélanie Laurent, and Deutsches Kino darling Bridget von Hammersmark, portrayed by Diane Kruger. In true Kill Bill style, QT loves flaunting his femme power that acts as his film’s sexy foundations, holding together potentially volatile situations. However, as always, these women prefer to tempt fate and meet their maker in the most poetic nature possible. There is also a marvellously acted and quintessentially British scene gloriously camped up to the hilt by Michael Fassbender as Lt. Archie Hicox and Mike Myers as General Ed Fenech that must not be missed, as well as the pub shoot-out scene that actually happens in a blink of an eye, but is inspired to witness.

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Inglourious Basterds is Tarantino at his creative best, utilising a genre he admires, and cleverly marketing it to an international audience, using mother-tongue dialogue. But it is also Tarantino flexing his visionary muscles and exploring other outlets for his storytelling, albeit it moving partially away for his norms, that should only be encouraged.

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By Lisa Keddie

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Synopsis

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In the first year of the German occupation of France, Shosanna Dreyfus witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa. Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema. Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine organizes a group of Jewish American soldiers to perform swift, shocking acts of retribution. Later known to their enemy as “the basterds,” Raine’s squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget von Hammersmark on a mission to take down the leaders of the Third Reich. Fates converge under a cinema marquis, where Shosanna is poised to carry out a revenge plan of her own.

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Film Facts

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Official site: http://www.inglouriousbasterds-movie.co.uk/

UK Release Date: 19th August 2009

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Writers: Quentin Tarantino

Cast: Brad Pitt (’Lt Aldo Raine’), Eli Roth (’Sgt Donnie Donowitz’), Mélanie Laurent (’Shosanna Dreyfus’), Christoph Waltz (’Col. Hans Landa’), Michael Fassbender (’Lt. Archie Hicox’), Diane Kruger (’Bridget von Hammersmark’), Mike Myers (’General Ed Fenech’), BJ Novak (’Pfc. Smithson Utivich’), Samm Levine (’Pfc Hirschberg’), Til Schweiger (’Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz’), Daniel Brühl (’Fredrick Zoller’)