Review of Inglourious Basterds (2009) by Xgary X — 14 Jan 2014

Quentin Tarantino returns with the story of the Basterds, a group of Jewish soldiers performing guerilla warfare and terror tactics behind enemy lines to strike fear into the hearts of German soldiers during World War II.

Inglourious Basterds is a very difficult film to pigeonhole. It's part Jewish revenge fantasy, part gung ho war film, part knowing parody of patriotic flag wavers and 100% Tarantino. His trademark patchwork of styles and references is as evident as ever; the opening scenes are pure Leone, turns into The Dirty Dozen and then zig zags off on tangents all over the place.

It's impossible not to enjoy a film with this premise (unless you are a closet Fourth Reicher or member of the BNP) and Brad Pitt's hilarious send up of a hick war hero is almost as good as Christoph Waltz's high camp evil Sherlock Holmes (complete with pipe).

But I'd have to say much of the film that does not feature these two could've stood for some judicious pruning and very oddly for a Tarantino film, the soundtrack sometimes just did not work. Unlike the likes of Lucas and Cameron though, Tarantino is a pure film fan's film maker so when he gets too self indulgent, it is with the direction, dialogue and characters rather than visual bullshit and so even at their worst his films are always interesting and of merit.