Inglourious Basterds
Inglourious Basterds Quentin Tarantino’s film Inglourious Basterds is a whole lot of movie. Upon purchased the DVD one aspect that was brought to my attention was the misspelled title. This film, despite popular belief, is overwhelmingly good and tastefully produced. In this motion picture Tarantino shows that there is a mature side to his film production as opposed to his earlier film of slightly childish nature like Kill Bill and Death Proof. This side is still talkative but prone to longer sentences, drawn to more complex topics, and lures you into a complexly addicting plot.
In his interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Tarantino stated that he spent over a decade on the film because the plot of the story kept growing and expanding. According to Tarantino, all his films make the audience laugh at things that aren’t supposed to be funny. There were definitely some of those times. One example is a scene including a fierce Jewish Nazi hunter named Sgt. Donny Donowitz played by director/ producer Eli Roth. Roth’s character, nicknamed “The Bear Jew” by the Nazis, specializes in bashing his enemies to a pulp with a baseball bat.
A german Nazi officer and his two men are captured by the Basterds and made to point out where the Nazis are. The German officer refuses and “The Bear Jew” lives up to his reputation. When the Basterds have one of the men point out the Nazi locations, they let him go but not without something to keep the Basterds on the Fuhrer Hitler’s mind. Having carved a swastika into the soldier’s forehead, the scene where Hitler, played by Martin Wuttke, sees this and throws a fit that should be nominated for a comedy award.
This is just one example of many throughout the film that show you how good of a director and producer Quentin Tarantino is. Inglourious Basterds is divided into 5 chapters: “Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied France,” “Inglourious Basterds,” “German Nights in Paris,” “Operation Kino,” and “Revenge of the Giant Face. ” In a Nazi occupied France during the time of World War II, Colonel Hans Landa, known as the Jew Hunter, issues the slaughter of the family members of a Jewish refugee named Shosanna Dreyfus, right before her eyes.
Barely escaping with her life she, in later years, now owns a quaint cinema in Paris, France that she runs with the help of Marcel, a French Negro man who is Shosanna’s projectionist and lover who would gladly die for her if it meant she’d be happy. Later in the film, a young German war hero named Fredrick Zoller, takes an interest in Shosanna. Fredrick convinces the second officer in command, Josef Goebbels, to premiere his propaganda film “Nation’s Pride,” starring young Zoller, at her theatre.
She uses this opportunity to take revenge and plots her retribution to perfection. With the guarantee of every Nazi officer in attendance, including the Fuhrer and the entire Third Reich, this premiere catches the attention of a Lt. Aldo Raine, known to the Germans as “Aldo the Apache. ” Aldo leads a group of ruthless Jewish-American guerilla soldiers called the “Basterds,” and they plan to intrude on this illustrious occasion and “end the war. ” The Basterds have one simple job: kill the enemy.
They also have a particularly violent approach to how they accomplish this; they scalp their enemies. Lt. Aldo Raine made it very clear what he wants from his soldiers, “the scalps of 100 Nazi soldiers. ” It is shown throughout the film that he is very serious about receiving his Nazi scalps. They are known and feared throughout the German army. As the merciless executioners advance and the scheming young girl’s plans are set in motion, their paths will cross for a momentous evening that will shake the very archives of history.
This film is directed by Quentin Tarantino starring Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Eli Roth, and BJ Novak. It is said the film is supposed to run about 6 hours. Because of that length, there has been talk of this movie being split up into multiple pieces like the movie Kill Bill, another Tarantino directed film. Mr. Tarantino gives you much to chew on and even more than some viewers can handle. The film’s opening scene, which takes place inside the constrained confines of a farmhouse room, is a spectacle of choreographed camera movement and tightly coordinated performances.
This sequence sums up much of what is enjoyable about Inglourious Basterds. Tarantino, in this film, mixes great dialogue with great music and action. There are a lot of intense scenes throughout the movie. However, beyond the opening scene (which while long and drawn out, worked well), some scenes later in the film do suffer from the typical Tarantino “over-dialoged” style and go on too long. However, mixed in between the drama and violence were moments of humor that worked very well and didn’t suck you entirely out of the movie.
To some viewer’s disappointment, the movie was not action packed, but that’s just not the way the film was produced. While there are action set scenes in the film, it’s mostly about the dialog. There are a lot of characters in the film, some of which seem like they could have been cut without doing the film much harm. Also, you must be a fan of subtitled movies, because there is a lot of that. The opening scene is almost entirely subtitled. Overall, Inglourious Basterds is a great, intensely serious yet humorously amusing film. If you’re a Tarantino fan you’ll most likely enjoy the movie.
Even if you’re not and don’t have an issue with graphic violence mixed with close encounters and great dialogue, you may have a good time with it as well. I would rank this movie 4. 5 out of 5 stars but maybe I’m just being biased. WORKS CITED Inglourious Basterds. Dir. Quentin Tarantino. Perf. Brad Pitt and Christoph Waltz. Universal Studios, 2009. Film “Inglourious Basterds – Official Site. ” Inglourious Basterds. The Weinstein Company, n. d. Web. “Quentin Tarantino Talks Inglourious Basterds. ” Interview by Henri Sordeau. Rotten Tomatoes, n. p. , 11. Aug. 2009. Web. 01. Oct. 2011
