Movie review: Inglourious Basterds

by Alex Bentley

There are certain directors who do not make films for the masses. Wes Anderson, Spike Jonze, Jim Jarmusch – all require that you “get” their filmmaking aesthetics in order to truly appreciate their films. They might make the occasional movie that connects with the general populace, but by and large their filmographies are filled with projects that only appeal to certain segment of filmgoing society.

Likewise, Quentin Tarantino is one of the most polarizing directors working today. His films are long, loquacious, and contain extreme violence. They're also mostly homages to low-brow films from the '60s and '70s, which causes some people to dismiss him as derivative. His latest, Inglourious Basterds, is classic Tarantino – not that it will necessarily go down as a classic film (although it is great), but that it hits all the checkpoints listed above and more. Quite simply, if you are a Tarantino fan, you will find tons to love. If you're not, then it has the potential to frustrate you to no end.

The title refers to the ragtag group of World War II Jewish American soldiers recruited by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt). Raine, with his thick Southern accent and conspicuous ear-to-ear neck scar, has brought them together for one purpose and one purpose only: killin' Nazis. You see, this is not your typical modern war movie where the good guys (read: American) are just doing their best to survive and win the war for God and country. No, the Basterds (a purposeful Tarantino misspelling, by the way) are out for blood and, at the behest of Raine, “100 Nazi scalps” – each (and since there are eight of them, that's a lot of scalps).

Tarantino structures the film in a similar fashion as he did Pulp Fiction, breaking it up into five distinct chapters. What's curious (and, in retrospect, brilliant) is that two of the chapters don't involve the Basterds at all. The first is the opening segment of the film, which introduces Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz, who steals the movie). Landa specializes in finding people, be it Jew, French, or Basterd. Landa seems to always put himself exactly where he needs to be, which is right in the way of anybody opposed to the Nazis.

The second non-Basterd chapter is related to that one, as it follows Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent), a survivor of one of Landa's attempted exterminations, who now runs a cinema in Paris. She unwittingly catches the eye of Frederick Zoller (Daniel Bruhl), a German war hero whose life story has been made into the propaganda film, Nation's Pride (Stolz der Nation). Their acquaintance sets into motion a series of events that will have them, the Basterds, and high-ranking Nazi officials (including Adolf Hitler himself) on a collision course.

The first thing to realize, if it wasn't already obvious, is that this is not a historically accurate film. Tarantino's main inspiration is 1978's Inglorious Bastards (Quel maledetto treno blindato), though Basterds is not a direct remake. Like that film, Basterds is pure wish-fulfillment fantasy, with no basis in actual history other than the time period and a few of the characters. As in the Indiana Jones series, who doesn't like to see Nazis get their comeuppance?

The second is that, despite moments of extreme violence, Basterds is much more about talking than action. Tarantino's films always feel like they're much more violent than they actually are because of the intensity of the violence when it appears (in other words, be prepared to see actual scalpings). But it's his dialog that rules the day – long stretches go by with no more action than someone drinking from a glass or smoking a pipe. Tarantino's script is not hindered one bit by the fact that half of it is relegated to subtitles due to the number of French and German speakers. Tarantino even has a little fun with those, sometimes leaving a line untranslated (Merci, Oui), and sometimes using no subtitles at all, giving the audience no clue as to what's being said.

Tarantino always makes sure to include the right music to complement his films, and Basterds is no exception. Basterds is chock-full of the work of Ennio Morricone, so much so that one could be forgiven to think that Tarantino repeats songs from Kill Bill, which also featured many of Morricone's compositions (and he just might have in one particular scene). The music doesn't play as key a role in Basterds as it did in many of his previous films, but it still hits you hard when it needs to.

Pitt is making his first appearance in a Tarantino film since the Tarantino-penned True Romance, and he seems to relish every minute of it. His accent may or may not be from Tennessee (Raine's home state), but it's pure country, and the way Pitt delivers each of his lines with gusto never fails to amuse. As stated, Waltz is more than equal to Pitt in the acting category (in fact, he won the Best Actor award at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival for his role). What's refreshing in his portrayal of Landa is that he's much more than one note. Oh, sure, Landa is evil incarnate, but in Waltz' hands, he's also the most charming and persuasive person known to man, pushing just the right buttons to find out what he needs to know.

None of the other Basterds get extended screen time, save for maybe B.J. Novak (The Office), who plays Pfc. Smithson Utivich, and Eli Roth, who plays Sgt. Donny Donowitz. Mike Myers has a small part as a British officer, and its his best work in years. And keep your ears peeled for the voices of Tarantino mainstays Samuel L. Jackson and Harvey Keitel, who elevate mere voiceovers into something unmissable.

After the misfire that was Death Proof, Tarantino's half of the Grindhouse movie, it's great to see the director round back into form. Tarantino's films may be derivative, but no one does derivative in a more original fashion than he does.