"Inglourious Basterds" [Sic] is Sick, and Brilliant

Quentin Tarantino is well-known as a film director with a twist, or perhaps, with a twisted mind. His latest offering "Inglourious Basterds" may be his best film since "Pulp Fiction." Set in World War II France, he says it is more of a spaghetti western than a war movie. Actually, it is more of a spy film with loads of violence. Regardless of how one categorizes the movie, it captures an essential absurdity of life, the counterpoint of humanity and inhumanity and how easily people slip from one to another.

The title refers to a squad of Jewish-American soldiers led by Lieutenant Aldo Raine aka "Aldo the Apache" (well-played by Brad Pitt) who go into France before D-Day to kill as many Nazi troops as they can. Their hallmark is scalping their victims, which in usual Tarantino fashion is shown in rather gruesome detail. However, there is much more to this than a remake of the "Dirty Dozen." A Jewish-French girl escapes from certain death to run a cinema in Paris. There, a young German war hero falls for her, and a romantically complex situation covers a good 20% of the film. At the same time, a plot called Operation Kino has been launched to kill the Nazi leadership at the opening of a propaganda film.

Mr. Tarantino asks rather a lot when it comes to the suspension of disbelief. For instance, a German propaganda film would never have premiered in Paris. Yet, his ability to craft a story that alternates between horrific violence and odd-ball humor lets him get away with more than most directors could.

When it comes to the violence in his films, he has a style that permits the most horrific gore without making the audience physically ill. Indeed, the usual reaction to, say a scalping, is an involuntary flinching followed by an uncomfortable giggle. Given that he has made a film set in World War II, one expects the violence more than in another genre, and that makes it a bit more palatable to the squeamish (who probably would have walked out of the film before the first half hours is over).

Unlike his other films, there is one role that simply outshines all the others, that of Standartenfuehrer Hans Landa, the "Jew Hunter," played by Austrian actor Christoph Waltz. As written, the character is quite possibly the most interesting and wonderful bad guy since Hannibal Lecter. As played by Mr. Waltz, it becomes the performance of the year. Indeed, Mr. Waltz won the Cannes Film Festival's Best Actor award for the role. Early next year, one expects that he will add to it a Golden Globe and an Oscar. His work alone is worth the price of admission.

© Copyright 2009 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

Kensington Review Home