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Inglourious Basterds

Buzz says:   MPAA Rating: R
Current Showtimes: No showtimes available

Of the many films I’ve seen this year, I don’t think there has been one with such misleading advertising as Inglourious Basterds. The trailers make the film out to be a World War 2 men on a mission film, when in reality it is so much more than that. The majority of the dialogue is in subtitles, and their isn’t that much action in the 150 minute running time. But, despite defying what I thought I was going to see, this is still a great film. After the thoroughly disappointing Death Proof, writer-director Quentin Tarantino has returned to form with this intelligent, suspenseful movie.

The film follows two different stories; first there is Shosanna, a Jewish woman, who after narrowly escaping the slaughter of her family by Nazis, begins running a movie theater in France. When the Germans decide to have the premiere of a pro-Nazi film at her theater, she decides to get her vengeance by killing all the Nazis who will be in attendance by setting fire to the place. The other story focuses on The Inglourious Basterds, a Jewish eight man crew led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), hell bent on killing every Nazi they see in the most gruesome ways they can think of. The Basterds soon gain knowledge of the movie premiere in France, and decide to set up their own plan.

As usual, Tarantino relies heavily on his skill at writing dialogue to tell the majority of the story. I’m sure there will be people who won’t like how much dialogue there is and the tiny amount of action in comparison. However, unlike the overlong and pointless dialogue of Death Proof, Tarantino uses his dialogue in this movie to build suspense and give some depth to the characters. Sure, the film probably could’ve lost ten minutes of certain scenes, but overall Tarantino used his dialogue to great effect here. The actor who gets the best of Tarantino’s writing is Christoph Waltz, who plays a Nazi officer nicknamed “The Jew Hunter”. His scenes in the movie are by far the most intense, and he will probably garner a best supporting actor nomination at the end of the year for his phenomenal work as a sadistic villain.

There are certain problems that hurt the film. The Basterds as a group are never really fleshed out like the other characters, and could have used more screen time. It also seemed that two out of the eight randomly disappeared for the last half hour never to be seen again. There are also a few plot holes near the end that took me out of the movie for a moment.

Tarantino has certainly made a war movie in a way only he could; filled with dialogue, no battle scenes, and hysterically inaccurate history. I have a feeling this is a film that will be recognized for a long time as one of Tarantino’s best, and apparently Tarantino thinks so himself as Aldo Raine says in the film “This just might be my masterpiece.”