#44 Review for ‘INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS’

"Tarantinolicious"
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Director
Quentin Tarantino

Cast

Christoph Waltz

Brad Pitt

Mélanie Laurent
Screenplay

Quentin Tarantino
Certification

18
Running Time
153 min

This blog contains * Spoilers *!

Ok firstly no one can be surprised about how much I’m going to be biased about this film. I’m a Tarantino buff… ok fanboy. However I am going to give good points and bad points of the movie as best I can. This is my most anticipated film of 09 so if this becomes my film of the year will anyone be surprised? So lets just start.

INGLORIOUS BASTERDS is a story about the assassination of Hitler. Now the film is being marketing as a men on a mission film but it really isn’t that. It a revenge flick. The main story is the Shoshanna arch (if you will) because she’s in the majority of the chapters in which the film is structured. When going in I thought the film would be just Brad and Eli going around killing Nazi’s for two hours. But it’s really not. The trailers have given it no justice. The Basterds are in it for about a third of the film. Either they shot loads and never used it or just bad marketing. Did they think people would only see it if there was Nazi death’s? But why they didn’t show more of the Shoshanna scenes is beyond me?

So the story is about the Basterds, an elite team of Jewish born American’s who get dropped in Nazi occupied France (not that you see it they just appear there). Then after some killings and history lessons they find out that a Nazi propaganda film by Joseph Goebbles called ‘Nation’s Pride' is being premiered in a small Paris cinema run by non other then Shoshanna. So once the Basterds catch wind of this they plan on blowing the cinema sky high but it’s not only them who are planning on blowing it up. Dun Dun Daa…

Now let’s get onto the heart of the controversy. Quentin does re-write history. But A) it’s Quentin Tarantino, are you really surprised and B) the way he re-writes history is an entertaining one. I am going to say what it is because I found it pretty funny. You ready. After the Basterds plan goes down the pan, Eli and Omar grab two MP44’s and go to two on Hitler as the cinema burns down. Eli actually stands over Hitler shooting his face into the floor. It’s quite disgusting but funny because it’s Eli doing the work (him being the director of the Hostel films and Cabin Fever). So that’s it’s. That and pretty much everyone dies in the end. All his beloved characters get killed by the other faction until the end where three if not to of the main characters live through the war.

If there was one word to describe the atmosphere of the film, it would be tense. It’s not just the opening scene where Col. Han’s ‘The Jew Hunter’ Landa is testing and toying with a French farmer to find the last remainder of Jews in the area, but through out the film. Han Landa’s character is such a great one and deserves all the applause he’s been getting. Through out the film there’s a feeling as if your about to get caught by the German’s. whether it’s a Shoshanna scene or a scene with the Basterds. But I guess that’s needed in a WWII film involving Jewish people (The Pianist, Schindler’s List).

I knew I was a true fanboy when I could tell which soundtrack has been in his other films (and which films they have been in). During the opening credits the font and style kept changing which confused me at first but then I realised they are all the styles of the opening credits for all his other films. So to others it looked somewhat strange but to the fans was brilliant. Also Julie Dreyfus is in the film and fans will notice her from Kill Bill vol 1, well I did. And lastly some old voices came back to lend a hand, namely when Aldo Rein is on the phone with someone I noticed its none other then Mr White Hervey Keitel and during the history lessons with Samuel L. Jackson.

Now everyone in the film acted well in my books. The American’s where over the top, the British where quaint and the Germans there creepy (no offense I like German people). There was a few people that stood out namely Christoph Walts, Mélanie Laurent and Daniel Brühl. And they grasped the script perfectly. Everyone really got into character and it felt somewhat believable (especially Mélanie Laurent and Daniel Brühl’s relationship).

Ok, now onto the final paragraph. I could have rambled on for hours but this is it. This was the first Quentin Tarantino film I saw in the cinema and I’m glad it was this over lets say Kill Bill vol 2. It’s a pretty epic war movie but some bits did feel disjointed and you could see it was going to be a twelve hour TV series. But over all Fans are going to go nuts for it. I can see why people didn’t and won’t like it but they’re the people who think ‘The Godfather’ is the best film ever (if you get me). Inglorious Basters won’t be hailed as the greatest war film because everyone knows ‘Apocalypse Now’ is but it is a great night out at the cinema.

I added this little section for the top Quentin Tarantino film and where Inglorious Basterds fell into it.

Tarantino Top List

1. Pulp Fiction
2. Reservoir Dogs
3. Kill Bill vol 1
4. Inglorious Basterds
5. Deathproof
6. Jackie Brown
7. Kill Bill vol 2

Oliver Hunt