Inglourious Basterds

Rating R Genre drama Starring Christoph Waltz, Brad Pitt, Melanie Laurent Directed by Quentin Tarantino Publisher The Weinstein Company External Links

Inglourious Basterds is another masterpiece directed by Quentin Tarantino but this classic felt a little bit different than the director’s norm. 

People marveled at the scenes and stories of Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs because no one had ever seen anything like that in a movie before those movies. Nearly two decades after Pulp and Dogs I felt Tarantino has finally migrated away from the shock and awe factor his movies always have and made a movie that concentrated on the historical nature of a story.

Tarantino did his homework on the subject matter and he made the movie almost feel it was based on a true story. Actually, the way I figured out the movie was not based on reality was because of the ending, but I am not into spoiling movies in my reviews :P.

Unlike the two aforementioned classics, or any of Tarantino’s great movies, Basterds was about making a superb film with factual information and mixing those facts with his wild imagination. Which is a fantastic idea. 

Typically Tarantino would use his imagination in all elements of the movie including, casting, writing, and the story but like I have said before, this movie was different.  You learn a lot about how the Nazis were heroes to most German citizens and how the poorly the German soldiers would mistreat the French people as they went looking for concealed Jews.  The Nazis were in total control of most of Europe and they acted like they could control humans and their minds. Tarantino did a great job of making the viewer realize how horrible the Nazi movement was. 

Even though Basterds felt different there were still your typical Tarantino moments where you look at the person next to you and shake your head and say wow or laugh out loud.  The beginning scene was one of my favorite scenes as it was extremely emotional. It is more than captivating, it is breath taking and sets you up 2.5 hours of pure movie joy. 

Basterds is not super crazy or insane like Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs but it is still wildly entertaining. Basterds is brilliantly put together and oh so silky smooth. I looked at my watch an hour and a half into the movie and it felt like 15 minutes. The fun does not stop until the end.  

This is probably QT’s third best-directed film, behind the two heavyweights but that is not saying it is not a classic. The dialogue was top notch, the acting was superb, and every time I watch a QT movie I am in awe of the casting; the cast members all seemed perfect for their roles.  The best actor was Christoph Waltz who played Nazi Col. Hans Landa. He is nothing short of phenomenal and Brad Pitt also plays a terrific Lt. Aldo Rain. 

Both steal the show, but sorry ladies Waltz is more of a central character than Pitt.