Inglourious Basterds Review

Quentin Tarantino's New War Movie Starring Brad Pitt

Aug 17, 2009 Gareth Harding

World War 2 gets the Quentin Tarantino treatment in Inglourious Basterds, starring Brad Pitt. It's like Kill Bill meets The Dirty Dozen.

When asked about the historical content of Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino claimed that he “didn’t want to be bound by anything that wasn’t creative” (from an interview with Tarantino in August 2009’s Empire magazine). Albeit an early attempt to quell the inevitable criticism from history buffs, it really wasn’t necessary. Inglourious Basterds makes no apologies for being fictitious, nor should it for that matter. It’s just Tarantino being Tarantino, only this time in a very unusual setting. Yes, Inglourious Basterds is over the top, and yes, it’s unnecessarily violent in places, but despite these misgivings it is a very enjoyable film… If a little too long.

Inglourious Basterds Plot Summary

Set after D-Day in Nazi-occupied France, theBasterds are a group of Jewish-American G.I.’s, who, led by Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) are sent to cause havoc behind enemy lines by claiming as many German scalps as possible (literally). They’re a collection of the most unforgiving soldiers in the U.S. army and are feared through the German ranks.

In the form several linear vignettes, Inglourious Basterds introduces us to several unrelated characters that will at some point all cross paths.

After seeing her family murdered at the hands of evil S.S. Col. Hans ‘The Jew Hunter’ Lander in the film’s opening scene, we see Shossana Dreyfus 3 years later, running a Parisian cinema under a fake identity to conceal her Jewish background.

When German propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, proposes that his latest film release be premiered at her cinema, Shossana sees this as the opportunity she’s been waiting for to exact revenge on the Nazi’s that killed her family and hatches an audacious assassination plan.

However, Shossana is unaware that a secret British operation is already underway to assassinate key political figures at the premiere, including Adolf Hitler, who will be in attendance. Lt. Archie Hicox (Michael Fassbender, Hunger) is sent to rendezvous with the Basterds and German film star, Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger), whom they will escort to the premiere as a means to gain access.

But with both assassination attempts being high risk, will everything go according to plan?

Trademark Tarantino in Inglourious Basterds

Inglourious Basterds is an extremely enjoyable, if totally far fetched movie. There are flashes of Tarantino’s unique filmmaking gene throughout. Basterds’ opening scene involving Col. Lander’s (played superbly with a film-stealing performance by Christoph Waltz) visit to the LaPadite family home to flush out the hiding Dreyfus family has all the trademarks of a classic Tarantino confrontation.

Lander is friendly, but a little too friendly, masking a threatening interior similar to that of Samuel L. Jackson’s Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction. The calm exterior and circuitous line of questioning to Mr. LaPadite will inevitably descend to a violent end. It’s a brilliant introduction to the main antagonist and a great set-up for the rest of the movie itself, as well as a sign that Tarantino is back on song.

Brad Pitt and his team of Basterds are also a great collection of characters to add to Tarantino’s eclectic repertoire. Each with their own history, they are a collection of some of the strangest people ever brought to life on film. It must also be said that after coming across less than convincing in the teasers, Brad Pitt puts in a fine performance as Texan Lt. Raine and, if anything, him and the Basterds are slightly under used in the movie.

A Little Too Much From Quentin Tarantino?

There are parts of Inglourious Basterds that seem slightly mismatched however. The strange choice of musical accompaniment is quintessentially Tarantino but isn’t quite palatable for a Second World War movie. There’s the use everything from David Bowie to an Ennio Morricone-esque Dollars Trilogy composition, used during the opening scene, with Hans Lander’s visit to the LaPadite family being likened a spaghetti-western showdown. You can see what Tarantino is trying to do, being experimental with a soundtrack is something that worked well in the Kill Bill films but it fits like a square peg in a round hole for a 1940’s period film.

It is also slightly disappointing that, although clearly a tongue in cheek effort that has more in common with Churchill: The Hollywood Years than any war epic, Inglourious Basterds comes perilously close to turning into a farce towards its latter stages. It’s a darkly comedic film, yes, but a scene in which Aldo Raine and his gang attempt to pose as Italians in a last ditch attempt to gain access to the film premiere is a little too slapstick and the joke is over-stretched, as too is Hans Lander’s demise from sinister baddie to clown in his last few scenes.

Despite some brilliantly tense scenes, at times some of Tarantino’s vignettes are too longwinded in their approach. As discussed, the film’s opening is brilliantly directed, as is a wonderfully written bar scene involving British Lieutenant Archie Hicox, Bridget von Hammersmark and a group of off-duty German soldiers (which has a touch of the Reservoir Dogs about it). But Tarantino can at times over-egg the pudding in less important scenes with some over-shooting, something that adds about a half our to the film, when in all honesty it probably isn’t needed. Although slightly too long, and played for too many laughs in places, this doesn’t cloy the film to a significantly detrimental extent and it can be said that Quentin Tarantino is very much back on form with Inglourious Basterds. It’s certainly a very different take on the war genre.

Verdict: 4/5

Inglorious Cameos -

• Mike Myers dons another English accent to play General Ed Fenech

• Samuel. L. Jackson takes up some brief narrator duty during the film

• Harvey Keitel is the general on the other end of the phone to Brad Pitt toward the end of the film

The copyright of the article Inglourious Basterds Review in Action Films/Thrillers is owned by Gareth Harding. Permission to republish Inglourious Basterds Review in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds premiere