My Thoughts: Inglourious Basterds

I just got back from Quentin Tarantino’s latest effort, Inglourious Basterds, and while it was not at all what I expected, I thought it was excellent. From a couple of interviews that I heard with QT – I figured that this would be a classic ‘elite army mission film’ akin to Dirty Dozen or Where Eagles Dare. While the general spirit was there, there simply wasn’t enough action to live up to those comparisons.

This is especially because the beginning of the film was extremely slow and dialogue intentive. There are a number of scenes that are 10 to 15 minutes in length that are very minimal in action and very heavy on dialogue. I don’t think it was a bad thing – it was perfect at setting the scene for the brutality that would come later. This is especially true for the initial introductions of German SS Colonel, Hans Landa also known as the Jew Hunter (played by Christoph Waltz). The dialogue is so enthralling and the Colonel is so convincing that by the end of Chapter 1 of the film, you are almost cheering for him to successfully locate the Jews that he is hunting.

While the first two thirds of the film is rather slow moving, by the end you have completely forgotten that thought and you realize that while each of the previous 4 chapters were rather lacking in terms of brutal action, it was really a Quentin Tarantino building to a masterful crescendo. The sparse use of blood and brutal action (at least to the point that you would expect from Tarantino) only make it that much more startling when the blood is flowing later in the film. In the end, the movie lives up to the hype of depicting the perfect ‘Jewish revenge’ that could have been.

The majority of the reviews of this film discuss how Waltz’s Colonel Landa stole the film. I agree that Waltz’s performance was absolutely masterful, however I was left absolutely fascinated by Brad Pitt’s portrayal of the Basterds leader, Lieutenant Aldo Raine. Raine is almost a modern day outlaw cowboy who is willing to do anything necessary for his cause – killing Nazi’s. Pitt steals every scene with the help of Tarantino’s amazing writing. He has some of the most memorable lines of the film with vulgar, brutal comedy.

I almost wished that Tarantino had focused more readily on this character – I am left wondering so many things about where Raine come from, why he is so angry with the Nazi’s, and what happens to him after the end of the film. This is something that I haven’t heard many others say, Pitt is almost scene as an afterthought by many in comparison to Waltz, or Eli Roth’s performance of ‘The Bear Jew’, however I absolutely mesmerized by his performance.

Overall, it is safe to say that Tarantino has done it again. He was pretty much created his own genre of film and it comes across perfectly. It is absolutely great to see some original thoughts in this world, and I only wish that there was more of it.