Inglourious Basterds
Starring: Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Christopher Waltz, Martin Wuttke, Diane Kruger
Written & directed by Quentin Tarantino
Rating: MA
Unfortunately for Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds displays little of the glory of his past masterpiece, Pulp Fiction. Pulp Fiction rolled into Cannes late in 1994 and swept away audiences. Things we have learnt to associate with Tarantino: wicked and witty dialogue, humorous violence and larger-than-life characters, sadly seem to be missing in Inglourious Basterds. However, the film is by no means terrible!
A group of Jewish Americans are dropped into the middle of Nazi-occupied France to wreak as much havoc as possible. In true Tarantino style, the group perform horrifying acts of savagery and corpse mutilation upon groups of Nazi soldiers.
We are taken to a small theatre in Paris that is chosen to exhibit Josef Goebbels's latest propaganda feature film, which will have the cream of Nazi high command in attendance. Including Hitler.
Two independent assassination plots are hatched, one by the Basterds and one by the Jewish cinema owner, whose family was massacred by the sickeningly comical Colonel Hans Landa (Christopher Waltz).
There are a few instances of classic Tarantino magic. The tension of the opening scene in which Landa interrogates a farmer who is hiding a Jewish family is immense. Also, the tension is built very effectively throughout the last half hour or so of the film. The apprehension of the unknown definitely keeps you on the edge of your seat.
However, for a war film, it’s relatively uneventful, actionwise. This can be attributed to the extremely long and juicy sequences in which the actors deliver lines loaded with subtext and hidden meaning.
Diane Kruger’s performance as a German film star is commendable. She delivers an air of playfulness and class that is continued throughout the entirety of the film. However, time is wasted when we suddenly pop up in England just so that Mike Meyers can unrecognisably be dressed up in makeup and prosthetics to deliver a few unnecessary lines.
Brad Pitt’s performance was quite good but his slightly overdone accent became irritating. Christopher Waltz’s portrayal of Colonel Hans Landa was skin-crawling and sadistically amusing. His character was probably the most consistent with Tarantino’s unique style. Perhaps another pleasing aspect of the characterisation was that Hitler (Martin Wutkke) is portrayed as a bumbling, erratic idiot (which he unquestionably was!).
Costuming and locations were all equally impressive. Everything looked genuine and was usually quite visually appealing. The scene in which a girl runs into the distance through a field was particularly effective. The camerawork was innovative and obviously well thought out, although at times the movement of the camera from character to character for long periods of time became slightly nauseating.
Finally, the most commendable aspect of the film was the languages. English was only used when specified or by English-speaking characters. Otherwise French, German or Italian dominated the dialogue. This added the realism of the whole situation, and the subtitles were not particularly hard to follow. In my opinion, when in Rome…
Although slightly disappointing, the film was by no means awful to watch and the two-and-a-half hours float by quite seamlessly. This fantasy ending to WWII is truly satisfying, and you leave the cinema perhaps slightly confused, but definitely content.
4/5 stars :)
