Quentin Tarantino has made some of the coolest movies in the last 17 years . He has an instantly recognizable style and broke much ground that has been only imitated since. The thought that Tarantio newest is a world war II epic is enough to get any fan excited at the possibilities where only he can take it. Inglourious Bastards is absolutely a WWII movie like you have never or really ever see, but will it reach the same cult classic status?
In Nazi occupied France, Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) has assembled a team of young American Jews hungry for revenge. Calling themselves the Inglourious Basterds (yes its suppose to be misspelled like that), their only mission is cause as much hell as they can and strike up so much fear from the Nazi’s that they will loose the will to fight by the time America enters the war using any means necessary. The Basterds are free from any laws or rules and not only try to kill every Nazi they can, but in such ways the German people will look at them as monsters or savages. Lt. Aldo wouldn’t want it any other way. When the Basterds get word that in Paris the Germans are going to throw a big premiere party celebrating the release of the Nazi propaganda film “Nation’s Pride” with not only Hitler’s right hand men, but maybe with a chance of the Fuhrer himself attending, go undercover to destroy them all at once and hopefully end the war.
Inglourious Bastereds gets very brutal sometimes and the Bastards do it with a smile. They do try to kill Nazis in horrible ways, but in this movie that’s part of the fun. For obvious reasons when the Jews commit these acts, you find yourself cheering and feel little remorse. Part of feeling this way is the opening chapter. The movie begins with a Jewish family hiding at a farm with an Italian family to avoid capture from the new S.S. Jew hunter Hans Landa only to be betrayed and slaughtered. From this point on you can only feel like the Nazis are only getting what they deserve. Tarantino knows this and takes full advantage. The Inglourious Bastard team are all unique and funny. Especially Brad Pitt’s LT. Aldo Raine. He delivers all the lines flawlessly and enjoyable. You will spend more than half the movie just waiting to see what he does or say next. Aldo Raine is one of the coolest characters on film. However, this is also the reason why the movie sags in the middle.
As it turns out that one of the girls from the Jewish family that was killed in Chapter one managed to escape. She starts a new life in Paris in chapter 3 opening up a movie theater and gets courted by a German war hero and in order to win her affection tries to move the premiere of his new movie to her theater to help business. Seeing a chance to get revenge she conceives her own plot to blow up the theater and getting her own revenge, only the same man that killed her family stands in her way. This is an ok side story, but it takes up about half the movie parallel to the Basterds storyline. The two merge together, but with the other story being so engrossing you just wish you could fast forward and get back to Aldo. Only by the fantastic acting and dialogue of actor Christoph Walts’s portraying the Jew hunter Hans Landa saves these chapters from being a waste of time. What Pitt does to bring out Aldo’s character, Walt’s matches with the the demented and cunning Landa. The movie is worth seeing just for these two performances alone.
Inglourious Basterds is a great ride and has all the dialogue,music, and jolts that all Tarantino movies have. It isn’t as fantastic from start to finish as the others, but there is enough surprises, including something that wasn’t in the history books, at the end to be considered great. The movie does dip, if you can call it a dip, enough to keep it from being perfect, but not enough for fans to care. You have never seen WWII like this, so check it out.
4 STARS
Russell's Reviews 