Review: Inglourious Basterds

Courtesy of Universal Pictures

Inglorious is definitely not the word used to describe this movie. Equal parts western, war film and historical drama (and with touches of revenge film and food porn), Inglourious Basterds can be described as epic, violent, insane, ballsy and even righteous. And if you got down with Tarantino Fest '09 as suggested, you would see where all the pieces fall into place with this film.

Quentin Tarantino loads up on the Ennio Morricone music cues and goes to town. The opening scene at a lone farmhouse in 1940's Nazi-occupied France is shot like a Sergio Leone film and ends with a punchline that'll reverberate through the rest of the story. In this scene we meet one of our heroines, Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent), as well as the main villain of the movie, Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). Sure, Hitler and Nazis in general are the villains of the story, but Col. Landa gets all the best scenes as one of the top detectives employed by the SS.

Much is made about nicknames, especially ones bestowed upon by the enemy. Landa is so good at his job that he is called "the Jew Hunter," a title he seems to love (depending on who he is talking to). Several of the Basterds are known throughout the German ranks by their nicknames, such as the Little Man (B.J. Novak, some fella from The Office), the Bear Jew (Eli Roth, director of Cabin Fever and Hostel I & II) and Aldo the Apache (Brad Pitt...you probably know who this guy is by now). The Bear Jew especially makes the Germans sheisse in their lederhosen, as his reputation is that of a baseball bat wielding madman. And in this case, the rumors happen to be true. What is surprising is the amount of emotion Roth brings to his eyes as the Bear Jew a.k.a. Sgt. Donny Donowitz, as he prepares to bash a Nazi soldier's head or as he guns down Nazi Officers and their wives and girlfriends. His face says several things, but glee and enjoyment aren't among them. It's more like his duty as a Jewish-American to engage in these barbaric acts on behalf of the many innocents.And make no mistake, this group of Jewish soldiers (and one renegade German soldier) engage in barbaric acts on a regular basis. That's what they set out to do, to make the Nazis nauseous at the sound of their name (another instance of reputations proceeding people), as they picture all the horrible things done to their comrades, scalping making the top of the list. And in typical Tarantino fashion, the movie is over-the-top violent, but in spurts (again, think Leone). Shoot outs are quick and ruthless and long tense sequences are punctuated with bursts of action. And sometimes Tarantino gets pretty graphic, but really only when it matters the most. He doesn't linger if he doesn't have to.But the Inglourious Basterds are only half of the movie, and if there is any major complaint to come when everyone sees the movie is that there is not enough of the Basterds. They really only get three scenes (though they are long and awesome scenes) and the rest of the movie goes towards setting up a very crazy climax. Shosanna has been hiding in Paris as a Frenchwomen for four years, and has come into ownership of a cinema. Nazi war hero turned movie star Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Brühl) sees Shosanna changing the marquee outside and is quite smitten. He tries to talk her up and she (understandably) is cold to him. Doesn't phase ole Freddy one bit though and he manages to get a big Nazi movie premiere switches to Shosanna smaller, more intimate theatre. A decent amount of time is spent going into how Joseph Goebbels (Sylvester Groth) planned on creating a new era of cinema and how Nazi propaganda films were going to spearhead the movement. And this all ends up tying into how Shosanna decides to bring down the Nazis herself during the screening by using the nitrate film stock as explosives, which itself is a loaded metaphor that can be looked at from different angles. What if the film stock used was old Nazi propaganda movies, like some Leni Riefenstahl bullsh*t? Killing Nazis with their own films? Delicious. Leave it to Tarantino to make a movie about bringing down the Third Reich with the power of cinema.Quentin, known as much for his dialogue and use of language as he is for violent imagery, explores the importance of language throughout the whole movie. From the opening scene, it is important as to who is speaking German, French or English and who can and can not understand the different languages used. It even gets as intricate as regional dialects, as in the scene where German-speaking undercover officers get called out on their "strange accents." Or when several English-only Basterds pose as Italians, with the idea that German ears can't pick up on Italian too well (an idea shot down by the ever so smooth talking polyglot Col. Hans Landa). But most importantly, this movie is fun. It looks like it was fun to make and it is certainly fun to watch. There are plenty of mopey and dreary war films and straight up war films, but this is the first time in a long while that someone made a war movie that was also a good time at the cinema, not just a slog through battle reenactments. Tarantino indulges in just about all of his film fetishes, using great war iconography as the backdrop, and just like that, we have a sweet movie to watch and rewatch for years to come.

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