FilmReviews: Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds

A Basterd's work is never done.


Just watched Inglorious Basterds and it was very entertaining and stunning.This was the first Tarantino film that I have seen fully and i was really amazed with it.The film is directed by Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill Vol.1 & 2/Pulp Fiction) and stars Brad Pitt (Se7en/Troy),Melanie Laurent,Christoph Waltz,Eli Roth,Michael Fassbender (300),Diane Kruger,Daniel Bruhl and Til Shweiger.The film basically has 2 storylines.One would be about a girl who gets her family killed and narrowly escapes the massacre by Nazis,who after the incident has taken a new identity as a cinema owner and is now being forced to host a propaganda film attended by several highly ranked Nazi officers,including Adolf Hitler.During that event,she is also plotting her revenge to assasinate each and every Nazi in her cinema.The other storyline would be about Aldo Raine's (Played by Brad Pitt) Jewish-American soldiers and their scheme to assassinate Nazis.Like most of Tarantino's films,Inglorious Basterds is divided into 5 chapters which follows the story of those 2 plots.Later in the film's climax,the movie's storylines will interconnect with each other.



I like Basterds' storylines as the main one shows Brad Pitt's Aldo Raine's pleasure to kill those evil Nazis,and the other one highly deals with good,old fashioned revenge.Tarantino's way of cinematic revenge,actually.Basterds had great performances from Tarantino's well-chosen cast.Pitt was clever in playing his Nazi killin' character Aldo Raine.His dialogues were smooth,cool and darkly funny at some times.Christoph Waltz was wonderful in his portrayal of his strudel eating,Jew hunting character,Col.Hans Landa.I just loved his sort of evil wittiness.And his priceless dialogue and the way he speaks.And,the character itself.He was simply likeable,even as the film's antagonist.Now,Melanie Laurent who plays a girl who wants revenge is very reminiscent of Kill Bill Vol.1 & 2's The Bride because of her will of vengeance.Ms.Laurent was incredible in playing her character,Shosanna.She was like The Bride in Kill Bill only without a bloody katana but in change for that,a well thought revenge scheme to kill those whom she wants revenge from.And we see her "revenge" in the film's glorious climax.The supporting actors' performances on their characters in Basterds were also good.From Michael Fassbender's to Til Schweiger's.They didn't felt dull and flat.They were solid,performance-wise and character wise.Oh,and speaking of the supporting actors' performances on their characters,I also found Eli Roth's Donny Donowitz who is Aldo's right hand man.He was just bad-ass physically and verbally.Anyway,since this is a Tarantino film,one we should talk about is the gratuitous,brutal visuals and Basterds doesn't fail in showing that.This film had one of the best shoot-outs I've seen on film.Although,most of the film's violence depends on the gunfights,it also shows Tarantino's darkly funny way of showing  violence in films.Unintentionally,i found the "shaving of Nazi scalps" funny.And it was because the dudes whom scalps they were shaving off were bad men who were killing people.Basterds has incredible bad-ass dialogue that you would find in a Tarantino-directed film and that's what this film exactly has.But not in a Pulp-Fiction level somehow.More of like a Kill Bill level of some sorts.The film had a gritty cinematography and Tarantino's trademark "vehicle trunk" point of view is present here for 2 times.And it was great.The standoff scene's camera work at the bar was amazing and specially the climactic scene near the film's end.Tarantino has a very clever and genuine directing style and one of the best things I love about his direction besides his stylishness is his dark satire.You know,depiction of violence in a sort of funny way.And Inglorious Basterds didn't dare not to have that.It was "that" which made the movie more entertaining and fun to watch as a Tarantino film.All in all,Inglorious Basterds is a great film with the theme of vengeance,great actors playing great characters,solidly clever,genuine dialogue and great bloody entertainment.As Germans would say,Inglorious Basterds is wunderbar or wonderful in other words.


Inglorious Basterds gets hit with a bat scarred with an 8.4 stars over 10.




*Inglorious Basterds is available on DVD & Blu-Ray distributed by Magnavision Home Video

Meanwhile,check out this clip from the film if you please.