Those Basterds!!. Review on Inglourious Basterds Movie

Inglourious Basterds

Directed by: Quentin Tarantino

Starring: Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Christoph Waltz, Melanie Laurent, Eli Roth

Running time: 2 hrs 33 minutes

Entertainment Quotient: It’s a Tarantino film! Enough said?

What’s happened to the good old movies? First Kaminey, now Basterds. Looks like the filmmakers can’t get enough of blasphemous titles! I think it’s time that we stand up and applaud the homecoming of big, bad cinema. It’s gruesome, gory and in your face. It is vulgar, coarse and outrageous. It is perfect…

Plot:

I believe the hardest job in critiquing a Tarantino film is narrating the plot. With his signature non – linear narrative that moves back and forth, it is hard to narrate in sequence. In essence, Inglourious Basterds (yes, the misspelling is deliberate) is a hard core revenge saga. Tarantino just needs an excuse to get a blood fest to work with.

The context of the film is WW2. The film is set in Nazi occupied France and traces the attempt to assassinate the Fuhrer(Hitler) by two separate forces. The “Basterds” are a group of Jewish American soldiers, whose main aim is to kill Nazis. Their leader is Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt). Donny Donowitz (Eli Roth) is second in command. He is known as the ‘bear Jew’. His signature weapon is a baseball bat.

The other threat is Shosanna (Melanie Laurent) who wants to exact revenge for the death of her family. Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), an SS Nazi officer had murdered her family while she had escaped alive. Now she has changed her identity and become the proprietress of a cinema. The premiere of the film Stolz der Nation (A Nation’s Pride), a Nazi propaganda film, is set to be showcased in her theatre. Shosanna realizes that the presence of so many high ranking Nazi officials provides an excellent opportunity for revenge. She resolves to burn down her cinema during the premiere.

Meanwhile, the British have also learned of the plan of the Nazis to attend this premiere. They send a British officer to Paris to lead an attack on the cinema with the aid of the Basterds and a German double agent Bridget Hammersmark (Diane Kruger). But all is not as it seems. Here’s where Tarantino adds his maverick touch – both Shosanna and the Basterds remain unaware of each other’s plans throughout the film. What follows is chaos, deceit, and blood… a lot of blood! This is cinema, Tarantino style!

Themes:

Inglourious Basterds is a revenge saga accompanied by gore violence. It is coarse and in your face; as real as realistic cinema gets. This film is not for the fainthearted. Those of you who enjoyed Kaminey would definitely have a swell time. As so happens in most Tarantino films, death is shown to have no significance. This lack of emotion towards the loss of life is what rouses the viewer. There is a sense of impending doom and the ability of the characters to embrace their doom is what makes for riveting cinema.

Things don’t just happen. Tarantino makes things happen. Scene by scene, the story unfolds with abrupt pace. There is no time wasted, none asked for. Mercy doesn’t exist in the cruel, bad world of the Third Reich and Tarantino makes sure that we, the audience, see it that way. Surprisingly, even though there is utter neglect of emotion in the film, it is the emotion that the characters bring with their portrayal that really sets the film apart. You can see the contempt in Shosanna’s eyes even though she hasn’t even spoken a word. When Aldo Raine enters the scene, you know this is a person you shouldn’t mess with. This emotion is raw. There is no underplay – the ferocious tenacity is what keeps the viewer to the edge of his/her seat till the end.

All the chaos that Tarantino had unleashed leaves for a riveting climax. And yes, he doesn’t disappoint. Tarantino doesn’t give you time to shed tears over death of a loved one, he moves on. The end might not be a fitting end, but it suited the flow of the film. Sometimes, things don’t always turn out the way you want (oops! A spoiler). Yet, there is a feeling of redemption.

Cast:

Brad Pitt disappoints big time. I am sorry, but he appears to be a miscast. I just can’t picture him doing no – nonsense cinema. His accent appears farce and fake and he is overacting at times which doesn’t have a major impact. Eli Roth as Donny Donowitz ‘the Bear’ is gruesome. The word mercy doesn’t exist in his dictionary. Still, being a Jew, the audience can see the contempt and hatred that he harbors towards the Nazis. So, even though he might not ‘pay for his deeds’ his act appears ‘justified’. Shosanna, (Melanie Laurent), the orphaned Jew, is the strongest of the female characters. Her ‘matter of fact’ approach towards real life situations really impresses until she lets out all the pent up hatred towards the Nazis. These outbursts of emotions and violence do make the film gory, but they also make the characters more human and closer to real life.

Christoph Waltz as Hans Landa, takes the cake. He is one of the strongly etched villainous characters to be portrayed on screen in recent times. Unlike villains with brute force, he is a person who knows how to wield his authority. He is also aware of making situations suit himself. Watch out for his chameleon act. He is one cunning personality. He switches sides to save his skin. His loyalty lies only to his life. Christoph Waltz has done an amazing job. He deserves a Golden Globe if not an Oscar for his performance.

So what doesn’t work? Very little, actually. The major downside is that almost half the film is in subtitles as French and German are constantly spoken. Thus, to enjoy the Tarantino experience, you have to spend the bucks. Some people might not enjoy “reading” a film, but it doesn’t hinder the action on screen. It is a minor downside compared to such riveting cinema. Brad Pitt is another thumbs down. I really would have liked some other actor who could have carried his role with more authority. He appears to be a try hard on screen.

All in all, after classics like Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and the Kill Bill series, Tarantino once again proves why he is the King of gore cinema. Even though Reservoir Dogs still remains my favourite, Inglorious Basterds is more than paisa vasool… In the age of nonsense cinema, go and applaud some no – nonsense work. For, it is those Basterds, who else!

My rating: 4.5/5