Inglourious Basterds, History Revised

Hello dear readers, It's time for another wonderful movie review from your Pal, Bunni!

I saw Inglourious Basterds yesterday, lst showing when it opened, it’s cheaper that way, the big stadium seater not to far from me, just a walk and bus ride.

Close to a nice place for lunch afterwards, and I avoided the drenching downpours later in the day, so it was all good and a great way to spend my usual Friday’s off.

I’m not a huge fan of Quentin Tarantino. I have previously gotten his films from the Library, the early ones were the best; Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill # 1, (kind of). The last few I could do without, Death Proof, just not my idea of great action and suspense, too campy, trashy, blood spurting for the sake of blood for my tastes.

So, that being said, I decided to see this new offering, his seventh full-length film (10 years in the making!) in the cinema specifically because of Brat Pitt’s hilarious looking character and over the top performance as Lt. Aldo “the Apache” Raine, the Nazi-scalping leader of the “Basterds”, Jewish-American Soldiers out to kill as many Nazi’s as possible. Aldo is an ex moonshiner, good-‘ol-boy from the deep south, Tennessee I believe. His accent alone is worth the price of admission. He is so funny in his tone and delivery, than even when he’s speaking serious lines, they turn out to be comical.

Another great performance is from the main villainous character; German SS Officer Col. Hans Landa, “the Jew Hunter”, played to perfection by Christoph Waltz, who won the Best Actor Prize at Cannes for this portrayal. The two female leads are beautiful and spot on in their characterizations. The lovely “Shosanna”, Melanie Laurent, who escapes certain death in the opening chapter to reemerge as the owner of a cinema in France, 1943, and the Beautiful double agent “Bridget von Hammersmark” Diane Kruger, who gets herself into some daring and complicated exploits.

This film is 2 and ½ hours long! So eat, drink and fortify yourself before. It would take too long for me to write about all the various chapters, plot twists and other elements in this review…I’m sure you can find other reviews on line that do so, if you so desire.

The short of it is….if you can consider anything in this film short:

It opens in a German, Nazi occupied Country, France in 1941, this is “Chapter 1”. Each subsequent chapter tells a different part of the story, all relating to the climatic ending in the Cinema owned by Shosanna, where history is re-written, some would say for the better.

This being a Tarantino flick, the buildups to the action are sometimes tediously long, so long in fact that it gets to be annoying. You find yourself thinking, “alright already, enough of this nonsense, you are just grandstanding”. I feel a great movie should totally immerse yourself in the action, not take you out of the plot to wonder to yourself when the director is going to get on with it. Quentin is too full of himself and his technique. He is sometimes all over the map, with many styles and genres, it can get tedious. Granted, the bulk of the movie has very good technique and action, when it finally arrives. But, the dragging out scenes just for the sake of suspense is annoying.

Still this is a minor criticism, and it might be just me, so don’t let that deter you. Plus, being a movie about World War II, it is devoid of any battle scenes, or much fighting action, per say. You get a smattering of blood and violence at the end of the various chapters/vinettes, and by then you are so sick of waiting for something to happen, it's like, ok, ho hum, it's about time, what next?

The ending, however, is worth the wait, and there are some real surprises! The final conclusion is kind of predictable, given what our Hero, Aldo, likes to do. The music is also very good and well placed for the action. How the Giorgio Moroder hit from “Cat People” sung by David Bowie makes it into there and is effective is testament to Tarantino’s quirky filmmaking, and it does work!

Well, enough of my ruminations, here is the official trailer for your enjoyment!

You might have noticed that Brad Pitt is making the rounds and promoting this movie very heavily. Some interesting quotes of his are below, from his various interviews:

July 28^th – He’s a domesticated man

At the Berlin premier of “Basterds”, Brad revealed his new curfew to the London Daily Mail: I’m a dad now – my partying ends at 6 p.m.”

Aug. 10^th – He’s a great role model

At the Hollywood premier, he joked that he took his character home with him to the family: “I did! I’d tell those little basterds to get out there and start scalpin”! And: “I’m just a drunk!”

Aug. 13^th – He’s not going to be elected in New Orleans any time soon

In an interview on the “Today” show, Brad graciously dismisses talk of becoming a candidate: “I’m running on the gay marriage, no religion, legalization & taxation of marijuana platform, I don’t have a chance of being elected”.

Brad, I'd vote for you anytime! See some cinematic Basterds, people, you'll have fun! Lord knows we see enough REAL BASTARDS in the news every day ;-).