Inglorious Basterds

Directed by: Quentin Tarantino

Starring: Brad Pitt, Melanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Michael Fassbender, Til Scheiger, Daniel Bruhl

Synopsis: Once Upon a Time in Nazi occupied France...a young Jewish woman called Shosanna Dreyfus (Laurent) manages to survive the massacre of her family at the hands of Col. Hans Lander, The Jew Hunter, and escapes to Paris. At roughly the same time, Lt Aldo Raine (Pitt) and a squad of 9 Jewish volunteers undertake a mission to cause terror amongst the Nazis, deep in enemy territory. They ambush patrols, scalping them, but always leave one man alive to spread word of their deeds. Three years later, we catch up with Shosanna, who has successfully reinvented herself as Emmanuelle Mimieux, owner of a movie theatre. She unwittingly becomes the object of affection of pvt. Frederick Zoller (Bruhl), war hero of the hour thanks to his skills as a sniper and star of Goebbels’ latest propaganda movie called “Nation’s Pride”. In a move which he feels will curry favour with Shosanna, Zoller convinces Goebells to hold the premier of “Nation’s Pride” at her cinema rather than the larger Ritz theatre. Realising that she was to have all of the German High Command sitting in her theatre, Shosanna hatches a plan to kill them all. At the same time however, the Allies have also heard of the impending premier and dispatch Lt Archie Hicox to join up with the Basterds and assassinate the High Command themselves...

Review:

Tarantino’s eclectic style can be seen from the off as we are treated to the old-style Universal Studio logo – a trick that Sam Raimi recently pulled with Drag Me to Hell – to evoke the feeling of a bygone era of cinema. Then he expounds this by using three very different sets of typeface on the cast cards; a big hint that we’re not about to see a straight-forward war movie.

Brad Pitt portrays Lt Aldo Raine in a very Larger than Life style, a cross between Lee Marvin, George Peppard and John Wayne. The rest of the Basterds are barely fleshed out except for Eli Roth’s Donny Donowitz (aka the Bear Jew) and Hugo Stiglitz played by Til Schweiger. After a brief introduction in which Raine lays out their mission plan, we jump ahead three years, in which time the Basterds have been very successful indeed in carrying out their mission. The latest survivor of their work is even sent to be interviewed by Hitler himself. We the audience are only given a few tasters of their handiwork, including the interrogation of a sergeant who bravely – yet futilely – refuses to give them information.

Tarantino has been talking about making a “men on a mission” movie for....ever, it would seem and when the teaser trailer was finally released and the marketing machine kicked in, we were lead to believe that that was what he’d finally made, as the promos solely focussed on the Basterds’ storyline. Tarantino could have made that movie, and it would have been exciting, violent, bloody and thrilling. But it would have been lacking a soul. The Basterds are not sympathetic characters. To make a movie solely about them would be the same as following ten serial killers as they torture and kill people for 90 minutes. Inglorious Basterds needs a soul, and it’s provided by Shosanna Dreyfus, played by Melanie Laurent.

That’s not to say that Shosanna’s plot thread is any less thrilling. Having reinvented herself as the proprietress of a local movie theatre, Shosanna finds herself with an unwanted, persistant suitor. Whatever feelings he has for her however will never be reciprocated because she can’t see past his uniform, which she hates with all her heart. Frederick Zoller however is quite a sympathetic character – charming, intelligent, a sniper who singlehandedly forced the Allies to evacuate a town. However he takes no joy in killing, it’s just a skill he has. When he watches Goebell’s film of him, he is sickened by it and leaves the auditorium.

How many rom-coms have there been about mismatched couples? The misunderstood man chasing the beautiful but cold-hearted woman? If this were any other type of movie, we’d be rooting for Frederick to finally succeed in turning Shosanna around and winning her affections. Here, though, they might as well be called Montague and Capulet.

Frederick’s affections also put Shosanna in deadly danger as she finds herself being questioned by none other than Col. Hans Lander, the man responsible for her family’s death. We the audience are already aware of his cunning and skill as a detective, not dissimilar to Peter Falk’s Columbo in the way he genially meanders around the subject before honing in for the kill. During his talk with the farmer at the start of the film, Lander describes the way Germans think as Hawks, whilst Jews think like rats. Lander can think like a rat, but he acts like a hawk , hovering above his prey waiting for them to slip up and reveal all to him. When he interviews Shosanna therefore, we’re on tenterhooks- does he know? Does he suspect?? Shosanna’s reaction at the end of the scene is exactly how I felt.

When I originally saw the promo teaser for Inglorious Basterds I remember posting on a forum, wondering how Tarantino was going to work in his predilection for women’s feet and his eclectic music taste into a period-set war movie. Well, he has managed to work in both, to a wonderfully devastating effect. First the feet, which involves another tense scene, between Lander and Brigit Von Hammersmark, a double agent played by Diane Kruger. The audience knows that Lander knows that Von Hammersmark is a spy, and he wants her to know that he knows. That he has concrete proof and no amount of bluster can alter that.

Tarantino always chooses his soundtracks carefully and they always prove to be an important aspect of the movie as a whole. I was left a little cold by the soundtrack for Death Proof as I felt he was being deliberately obscure for the sake of it, but Inglorious Basterds contains some tracks which truly evoke the type of war movie Tarantino is aiming to emulate. Not only is there a mix of French and German songs from the period, but Tarantino also uses themes by Lalo Schiffrin (“Tiger Tank” is a perfect “on a mission” theme – listen to it on the way to work and imagine you’re in your own little spy movie) and Ennio Morricone . However the pinnacle of Tarantino’s music in this movie – or any of his movies to date, is the use of David Bowie’s Cat People (Putting Out Fires).

The song is used while Shosanna gets ready for the premier of “Nation’s Pride”. At first, the scene reminded me of any number of romantic movies where you see the lead actress getting ready for her Big Date (for some reason I was most reminded of John Hughes’ Pretty in Pink). But, then I realised that it was much more than that. Shosanna isn’t going on a date. She’s not going to the Prom. She’s going to kill Nazis. She’s putting on war paint. She is John Rambo, she is Schwarzenegger in Commando getting kitted up and putting on the camouflage. She has a steely look of determination in her eyes as she applies a red streak of blusher across each cheek, which sent shivers down my spine.

There are, unfortunately a few niggles with Inglorious Basterds. I’ve never been a fan of using chapter cards in a movie. With Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill it was helpful because of both movies had a non-linear timeline, jumping back and forth in the story. Here though the structure is linear and I found the chapter titles unnecessary. There are also two pieces of exposition that are narrated (by an uncredited Samuel L. Jackson), which are done in such a laid back manner they reminded me of scenes from The Dukes of Hazard.

As much as I enjoyed the movie, I find myself conflicted by Tarantino’s use of film references. On the one hand I enjoyed the direct references to The Searchers, Bonnie and Clyde, Last House on the Left, and even his own Reservoir Dogs, but I am unsure whether the film itself benefits from these knowing winks. There are other, more oblique references, which are more in keeping with Tarantino’s style: Brad Pitt’s character name being a tribute to the actor Aldo Ray, the small cameo of director Enzo Castellari (director of the original Inglorious Bastards as well as The Last Shark and Bronx Warriors to name but a couple) and the use of Antonio Margheriti as an alias (Margheriti directed a whole bunch of action/war movies, including the notorious The Last Hunter). These I enjoyed because I’m a snobbish film geek who knows that these references would go straight over the head of most of the audience. So maybe it’s me. As I said, conflicted.

Verdict:

I’ve written so much on this movie and yet have barely scratched the surface of its many delights. Not only is it an excellent movie but it is one which I will be watching again and again. I haven’t felt so enthralled by a film since LA Confidential or The Matrix.

9 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)