Posted on: August 22nd, 2009 [REVIEW] Inglourious Basterds
You probably heard we ain’t in the prisoner-takin’ business; we in the killin’ Nazi business. And cousin, Business is a-boomin’.
- Lt. Aldo Raine
If that line alone, delivered so over-the-top wonderfully by Brad Pitt, doesn’t get your butt into the theater to see Inglourious Basterds, then I don’t know what could. On that note, if the idea of a Quentin Tarantino flick about a group of Jewish-Americain soldiers whose sole mission is to kill Nazis dead doesn’t wet your shorts, then you may as well stop reading altogether.
I’ll cut to the chase – Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds is every ounce of awesome you hoped it would be and more. Taking place in Nazi-occupied France of 1944, Inglourious Basterds tells a tale of scalping Nazis, shooting Nazis, stabbing Nazis and caving in Nazi faces with a baseball bat. The Basterds are a small group, but a dedicated one; physically non-imposing but with a reputation more Goliath than David. They’re so bad that Hitler himself knows their very names.
Though this is Tarantino’s first writing/directing foray into a WWII period-piece, from the first scene right to the end credits, Inglourious Basterds drips with his familiar funk-western-70’s-exploitation style. Maybe not as potent as we saw in Death Proof, but he’s no doubt refined his throw-back approach into a more subtle, sincere air of nostalgia with a tinge of camp. This is very much a “Tarantino” film; long, one-cut camera shots, lengthly dialogue sessions and Ennio Morricone over slow-motion shoot-outs. Maybe not Tarantino’s most technically sound opus, but a valiant entry into the man’s catalogue. I can’t say personally if Basterds is my favorite, but I don’t begrudge any fan who does.
Like all Tarantino films, this one is about the characters and their performances. Inglourious Basterds features three show-stealers. First being Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo “Apache” Raine, and he is every bit as wonderful as you saw in the trailers. Brad Pitt chews so much scenery with every moment he’s onscreen and every line delivered, and it’s just perfect. This is one of those high-concept characters on par with his roles in 12 Monkeys and Fight Club.
Up next is a character that is receiving the most attention and critical acclaim, including winning the best actor award at Cannes, where the film premiered. That character is the film’s antagonist, Colonel Hans Landa, played brilliantly by Christolph Waltz. Nicknamed the “Jew Hunter”, Landa prides himself on a self-proclaimed ability to find Jews, or to “think like a rat” as he says. Landa is by far the most complex character in the film, every part intriguing as he is terrifying. He makes Toht from Raiders of the Lost Ark look like Oscar the Grouch. Truly an excellent performance, one no doubt deserving a best supporting actor nomination.
The award for biggest-grin-inducing role goes to Eli Roth, writer/director of Cabin Fever and the Hostel films, had a role in Death Proof, directed the Thanksgiving trailer for Grindhouse as well as Nation’s Pride, the movie within the movie in Inglourious Basterds. Eli plays the muscle of the Basterds, Donny Donowitz, notoriously known as “The Bear Jew”. Donowitz has made a name for himself by beating Nazis to death with a Louisville slugger. Slightly psychopathic, the Bear Jew almost gets off on wiping off SS scum. I really dug the character, and Eli has a great screen presence culminating in what could be one of the most important, jaw-dropping scenes in the movie. There simply wasn’t enough of the Bear Jew to satisfy an audience hungry for Nazi scalps.
This is my only real issue with Basterds, and to some this is a big one; there wasn’t nearly enough of the Basterds themselves. B.J. Novak, as Pvt. Utivich and Samm Levine as Gerold Hirschberg both only get one real scene with a mere few lines, and there’s three Basterds whose names aren’t mentioned nor do they get any lines. This is made up for with the addition to the team of Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz played by Til Schweiger – this is another phenomenal character, the silent but deadly German, that we were just dying to see more of. It’s not that Inglourious Basterds was necessarily lacking characters or development, but that they are all so interesting that we really only scratch the surface. I want more.
If you go into Basterds expecting just a two and a half hour Nazi killing shoot ‘em up, you’re bound to be surprised. Tarantino does a wonderful job of taking his time to immerse us into the world and the story, slowly bring us to a boil and when our hearts start pounding, he lets it rip and the next thing you know Stiglitz literally has his fist inside a Nazi’s mouth. The film is full of atmosphere and scope. The set-design and costume-design sells everything perfectly and Tarantino can direct an actor like it’s nobodies business. It’s amazing, he’s taken one of the most sensitive historical subjects, one of the most deplorable, horrific circumstances in the history of our existence, and turned it into a photo album with the contrast turned up to eleven. Basterds is funny. It is exciting. It is violent. It is classic Tarantino.
I haven’t had this much fun watching Nazi’s since Raiders.
I leave you now with some wise words from Aldo Raine.
My name is Lt. Aldo Raine and I need me eight soldiers. We’re gonna be dropped into France, dressed as civilians. We’re gonna be doing one thing and one thing only… killing Nazis. Members of nationalist socialist party conquered Europe through murder, torture, intimidation, and terror. And that’s exactly what we’re gonna do to them. We will be cruel to the Germans and through our cruelty they will know who we are. They will find the evidence of our cruelty in the disemboweled, dismembered, disfigured bodies their brothers we leave behind us and the Germans will not be able to help themselves from imagining the cruelty their brothers endured at our hands, at our boot heels, and the edge of our knives. And the Germans will be sickened by us, the Germans will talk about us and the Germans will fear us. Nazis ain’t got no humanity! They need to be destroyed. Each and every man under my command owns me one hundred Nazi scalps… and I want my scalps!