Review of Inglourious Basterds (2009) by Rob S — 11 Dec 2015

I remember that this was my second Tarantino film. A few days before, I watched Reservoir Dogs with my brother, introducing me to Tarantino movies, and I was ecstatic that my Dad agreed to take me to Inglourious Basterds since the trailers made it look like a good revenge film. I was surprised that the film went beyond this notion and was simply fantastic overall, leaving me smiling as I left the theater.

Let me just say, the early trailers for this film are deceiving. They make it appear that the premise is simply Brad Pitt and his men killing Nazis in a brutal manner throughout. This is definitely not the case, and actually touches on subjects I never would have imagined. Tarantino shows his knowledge for German cinema throughout as the main character of the B plot - Shoshanna - comes to own a cinema, and the Nazis are dealing with where they should hold the premiere for the new film by Joseph Goebbels - Nation's Pride.

The villain, played by Christoph Waltz, is such an amazing character to watch. At certain points, he exhibits intellect and detective skills near Sherlock Holmes levels, and at other times he makes us laugh with how out of touch he is with certain customs. The first twenty minutes of the film is almost fully dedicated to this Hans Landa, and it proves to be among the best sequences Tarantino has ever written.

I fully believe this film had a better screenplay than Django Unchained, but to me, it makes sense that the academy went with The Hurt Locker for best original screenplay. It makes sense not because The Hurt Locker fully deserved it, but because The Hurt Locker was a film that this country needed in 2009 to shape our perspective on the war being fought over seas.

While Inglourious Basterds is not an accurate depiction of World War II or one of the most important World War II films, it is certainly one of the most fun to watch. It is tense, funny, crowd-pleasing, and at the same time it is a very smart movie with well-developed characters, an intricate plot, meta characteristics, and above all, extremely well-written. This now holds the spot of my 2nd favorite film by Quentin Tarantino, behind Pulp Fiction.

4.0/4.0.