Review of Inglourious Basterds (2009) by Louis D — 31 Dec 2015

I looked forward to this film so much, especially as I admire Quentin Tarantino's talent for writing dialogue and creating truly memorable movies. At first I was disappointed. I sat down to this film after seeing action packed trailers and expected something different. On my second viewing, I knew what to expect and appreciated the film for what it is, a damn good movie.

Tarantino writes like no-one else in the business, his dialogue is sharp, funny, exciting and very clever. I loved Pulp Fiction for this very reason but what he does here is different. Pulp Fiction was in English. Inglourious Basterds is presented in a mixture of English, French, German and Italian and despite this added challenge, Tarantino still nails it.

The plot is great, the tale of a Jewish girl named Shoshanna, having suffered a personal loss at the hands of the Nazi's taking revenge entwined with the tale of a band of Jewish-American soldiers being dropped into France to hunt and kill the Nazi's. The film is broken down into five chapters of which the first four are juxtaposed between the story of Shoshanna and Raines basterds. By the fifth chapter, the stories have merged into one. The meat and potatoes of the movie is in the dialogue, with action thrown in here and there to break everything up. There is nowhere near as much action as the trailer promises but the film doesn't feel overly long, despite it's 2 and a half hour run time.

Character-wise, Inglourious Basterds is great. Brad Pitt does well as Lt Aldo Raine while the main highlight in his group of soldiers is Til Schweiger who is hysterical as the Nazi murdering German soldier Sgt Hugo Stiglitz. Melanie Laurent does a good job as Shoshanna but the movie is stolen by Christoph Waltz who has a blast and deservedly won an Oscar for his role as Colnel Hans Landa of the SS. Tarantino has managed to write interesting parts for all of his characters and it's a pleasure to watch such talented actors in their elements on the big screen.

On the whole, Inglourious Basterds is a great movie and arguably Tarantino's best since Pulp Fiction. It is packed with references to older movies and fans will see Tarantino's love for cinema all over this film. If you sit down expecting what the trailer promises, you might be disappointed, as I was at first but give it another try. This is a story that will improve with repeated viewings, you will notice new things every time you watch and the music at times is an absolute joy to listen to. Tarantino should definitely of won best original screenplay at the Academy Awards for Inglourious, I would probably have given him best editing as well as best sound too. In the pantheon of movies from 2009, this stands up there with the best. Definitely a superior movie, Inglourious Basterds stands shoulder to shoulder with both The Hurt Locker and Avatar as one of the best films of last year.