Review: Inglorious Basterds

Lord, where to even begin here? I’ve been actively dreading this review since I saw Inglorious Basterds a little while ago. Tarantino films are complicated enough to watch. The concept of giving an academic opinion on such a tricky film as this made me quake in my boots moments after leaving the cinema.

A second viewing recently quelled some of my fears. First-off, this is definitely a film you need to see more than once. I mean, sure, I loved it the first time round. Like, really loved it. But the second viewing, after I was free to research and dig without having to hide from spoilers, it just intensified and amplified the whole experience for me. I noticed the subtle nuances in the acting regarding the characters and where they were at that specific moment. Inglorious Basterds need to be seen, digested and seen again for full understanding and context. It was just made that way.

The premise of Inglorious Basterds, if you’ve not seen the trailer, appears to be this: 10 or so Jewish-American soldiers are dropped into a Nazi-occupied France during the closing stages of World War II. There, they pretty much wreak havoc on every Nazi soldier they find in a variety of gruesome and merciless ways (and the ones they do show mercy to are horrendously compensated for this). They decide disposing of the enemies in these outlandish and cruel ways isn’t quite awesome enough, so they decide to blow up a cinema on Nazi-night, thus ending the war.

Sounds pretty straightforward and cool, right? Ever seen a Tarantino film before? The trailer accounts for 2 of the 5 chapters of Inglorious Basterds. About halfway through this 152 minute-long epic, we realise that it’s not the Basterds who are really the main characters at all. The focus of the film shifts repeatedly between them and Shoshanna, who’s story is far too wonderful to give away.

Some would argue the pace is slow, where as I instead feel that the film lingers upon it’s own dialogue and characters, not wanting to spoil its own world by moving too quickly by them. The first chapter is a 20-minute conversation between two people sitting at a table. That’s it. The film maintains that perfect balance of making us relish the extended dialogue sequences, whilst cheering when these parts are interrupted by some good-old-fashioned Quentin-patented mayhem.

It certainly is a film that defies genre. While the action is important, it is not prominent. The drama is diluted by a lot of well-timed and well-placed black comedy and the magnitude of the war itself is only really touched upon in the final act. The best thing about all that is that each of these contradictions blend in with, and even complement each other to the point where what we’re viewing looks less like a jumbled mismatch of over-ambitious ideas and more a multi-layered, perfectly planned miracle.

Acting-wise, it’s no surprise Christoph Waltz was named Best Actor at Cannes. It’s a part that quite literally has to be seen to be believed. Keep an eye out. Elsewhere, Pitt impresses with a predominantly comedic turn as Aldo Raine, leader of the Basterds. Pitt’s at his best in the second chapter as he interrogates a Nazi Officer on the whereabouts of another squad in the area. On his refusal, he send out Eli Roth’s Donny Donowitz, a huge, angry Jew with a baseball bat. Awesome.

It’s actually Roth who impressed me more than most in Inglorious Basterds. The scene where he delivers some almighty punishment using his weapon of choice is preceded by Donowitz inspecting the officer’s badge and asking “you get that for killing Jews?”. It’s a perfect question, injected with so much controlled anger and sadness that it makes for one of the most powerful moments in the film. Despite Chapter 2’s more fun-loving tone, it’s certainly one of the more affecting moments in the entire thing.

Tarantino here has not only exceeded expectations, but exceeded them to such a degree one wonders if Inglorious Basterds could ever truly be topped as his best film. The film’s final line echoes this. And, to be honest, if this is the best we ever see of him, it’s a more than fitting case for his genius overall.

*****
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