Large portions of this movie are in German or French, with English subtitles.
R
Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Brad Pitt
Lt. Aldo Raine: You probably heard we ain’t in the prisoner-takin’ business. We in the killin’ Nazi business. And cousin, business is a-boomin’.
It’s World War II, and a special team of Jewish-Americans (aka The Basterds), led by Aldo Raine (Pitt), is working its way through German occupied France, killing Nazis along the way in a brutal fashion. Meanwhile, Shosanna (Laurent), a Jewish woman – living under a false name in Paris – who survived the massacre of her family 4 years before, is asked to host a special screening of the latest Nazi propaganda film at her cinema. The Basterds hear about this and plan to take the opportunity to kill a lot of high ranking Nazis. What they don’t know is that Shosanna is planning a similar massacre of her own.
This is Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie, and I know people like to say (with regards to most of his movies), “if you’re a Tarantino fan, you’ll probably like it.” I never found that to be true, as he’s been pretty hit and miss to me. I liked this movie, despite his usual choice of style over substance sometimes being on display. In fact, from what I’ve seen of his directing efforts, this one comes in second place for me behind Pulp Fiction. If we include his writing efforts, this would then come in third behind Pulp Fiction and True Romance.
What I liked about this movie is that even the long drawn out conversations managed to have an underlying tension to them in almost every case. Yes, there are a few moments that could probably be trimmed, but I think Tarantino likes to hear himself speak, even if it has to be through the mouths of the actors reading his dialogue. But like I mentioned, most of the dialogue here serves a purpose. Whenever Col. Hans Landa (Waltz, in a great performance) sits down with someone in a seemingly friendly manner, you know you’re going to see a cat and mouse conversation that could spell doom for whoever he’s sitting down with. You always suspect that he knows more than he’s letting on, and that’s a tribute to Waltz’s performance.
Brad Pitt brings most of the comedy relief to the movie with his strained southern accent and light-hearted attitude towards the brutal killings his team is performing. Meanwhile, though her character might be a little dull and one note, Melanie Laurent does a good job bringing credibility and emotion to her role. Most of the other “Basterds” are left underdeveloped as peripheral characters, save for Stiglitz (Til Schweiger), who gets a quick, entertaining segment explaining his past.
Don’t go into this movie looking for much – if any – historical accuracy, especially with the conclusion. And don’t go looking for any big sweeping social message other than “Nazis were bad, m’kay?” Just go in looking for some entertaining performances, interesting dialogue, and gruesome violence. If you do that, you probably won’t be disappointed.
Re-writing history is fun!
10 – .8 for dragging in a few spots – .9 for some underdeveloped characters – .5 for going for style over substance at times – .1 because I have to take something off for the off-putting violence = 7.7
mrpurple1 said:
You misspelled the title of the movie… it’s “Inglourious Basterds” ….. you left out a U… just fyi… 🙂
nothatwasacompliment said:
oooooops. corrected.
mcarteratthemovies said:
I completely agree that Tarantino fans don’t automatically love his movies. He is a hit-or-miss kind of director, but it sounds like this one shouldn’t be given a pass. I’m going to see it very soon. I’m starting to respect Brad Pitt more. When he gets cast in parts that require acting skills and not flowing, flaxen tresses and bronze skin, he’s pretty damn good.
nothatwasacompliment said:
actually, in this movie, i’d say pitt is called on to do some OVER-acting, but he does that pretty perfectly too. it’s like he knows his character is ridiculous, but he’s not winking at the camera or going overboard. it’s silly without being stupid, which can be a bit of a tightrope walk in most cases.
Ross McG said:
imagine… being told to correct something that’s already spelt wrong. i think you have licence to spell this movie any way you want to nothatwasacompliment…
man, i gotta come up with a catchier name for you – Nothat? Complo? Ment Boy? NTWAC? like that last one actually, makes you sound like a tough rapper. are you a tough rapper?
nothatwasacompliment said:
no, not much of a rapper. you could refer to me as ‘jer’ since my name is jeremy and most people don’t like to pronounce all 3 syllables.
and that was my brother that corrected me previously. that’s how older brothers are…always picking on their siblings…
Ross McG said:
man, older brothers suck, NTWAC
mrpurple1 said:
I’m sorry if you thought I was picking on you…. I just wanted your blog to be accurate… didn’t want you to look bad or anything…. next time I’ll send you an email instead of posting a comment…. of course, you could have deleted the comment I guess….
mrpurple1 said:
Finally saw this one… think you were pretty spot on. The dread involved with many of the dialogue scenes, especially the opening… Chrystal had to look away… I didn’t even realize how long it was until it was over… it really moved along…. I would have liked to have seen more of the Basterds parachuting in, pulling some massacres, etc… but, in the end, it was good but not as good as say Pulp Fiction or Kill Bill, but on par or better than Reservoir Dogs or Jackie Brown…
Pingback: Top 10 of 2009 (aka Better Late Than Never) « The Robot Who Likes Pretty Things