Eli Roth (left) and Brad Pitt star as a pair of Jewish-American soldiers in Quentin Tarantino’s World War II epic, Inglourious Basterds
Quentin Tarantino seems to love making movies as much as anyone could adore a given profession. Every frame that takes the screen just drips of creative zeal and enthusiasm. Genres are liberally spliced together, as if the filmophile that is Tarantino admires every type of feature so much that he would never dare settle on a single category. Heavily stylized and wholeheartedly driven by the inspiration of movies before it, a Tarantino picture convincingly — and paradoxically — brims with both nostalgia and innovation.
The latest entry into Tarantino’s iconic filmography (which already includes cult favorites Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill) is the ambitious Inglourious Basterds. Beautifully subtle one moment and delightfully off-the-wall the next, Tarantino’s work here may not be his finest achievement (that title still goes to Pulp Fiction), but there is no denying the 46-year-old continues to possess one of the industry’s most enthralling minds.
A World War II epic delivered in the vein of those spaghetti Westerns Tarantino so dearly admires, Inglourious Basterds spent more than a decade in preproduction purgatory before finally getting off the ground. Three months after a hurried cut of the movie debuted at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, the finalized version is finally making its way into theaters.
Inspired by — but by no means a remake of — the more properly spelled 1978 flick, The Inglorious Bastards, Tarantino’s film uses five chapters to intertwine its story threads together into one overarching tale. The wonderfully titled opening vignette, “Once Upon a Time … in Nazi-Occupied France,” goes toe-to-toe with the Reservoir Dogs diner scene and Christopher Walken’s Pulp Fiction monologue as the best sequence Tarantino has ever written.
As Nazi Col. Hans Landa (Austrian actor Christoph Waltz, who earned Best Actor honors this year at Cannes) politely questions a French farmer (Denis Menochet, La Vie en Rose) about the whereabouts of certain Jewish refugees, Tarantino weaves an uneasy tension with the nuance of genuine conversation. The dialogue in this carefully shot scene — so brilliant in its simplicity — is vintage Tarantino.
The genre blending is in full force early on as excerpts from Western composer Ennio Morricone’s famed scores play over the war-ridden images. As the plot moves on to its second chapter, Tarantino speeds up the pace and again delivers some of the most entertaining cinema he has ever produced.
At this point, we are introduced to Lt. Aldo Raine (a scene-stealing Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and the Basterds themselves, a rogue infantry of Jewish-American soldiers who carry the sole objective of killin’ and scalpin’ 100 Nazis each. Hilariously forward in their tactics and blunt in their treatment of the imprisoned Nazis, the Basterds are one captivating bunch to watch.
Throughout the third and fourth chapters, however, Landa, Raine and the Basterds are largely shuttled to the sideline, and the film does lose energy in their absence. The ensuing events involving characters played by Mélanie Laurent (Paris), Daniel Brühl (The Bourne Ultimatum), Michael Fassbender (Eden Lake) and Diane Kruger (National Treasure: Book of Secrets) just can’t compare to the sheer entertainment Inglourious Basterds treats its audience to in the first two chapters.
Although some may even complain the story grinds to a complete halt while setting up its finale (a problem that plagued Tarantino’s previous effort, Death Proof), any fan of Tarantino’s writing shouldn’t struggle to say interested.
The pacing issue is largely stemmed in Tarantino’s own success at making Landa and Raine such compelling characters. The Oscar-winning writer could not have penned better lines for Waltz and Pitt, and the pair of actors could not have delivered his words any better. Waltz’s revealing performance is controlled by a quiet cynicism and deceptively gracious demeanor, while Pitt goes the other way, drawing laughs throughout with his outlandish Southern accent and brash nature.
As the movie goes on, you realize Tarantino is not a filmmaker who lets his audience forget who’s behind the camera. Bizarre on-screen graphics and musical selections that would seem out of place in anything else feel like par for the course when they suddenly pop up in Inglourious Basterds.
The same can be said about the unnecessary but no-less fascinating background information Tarantino provides for his fringe figures (the exposition is narrated, of course, by Samuel L. Jackson, The Spirit). And appearances by Hostel director Eli Roth, The Office‘s B.J. Novak and Mike Myers of Austin Powers fame fulfill Tarantino’s unconventional casting quota.
When all the storylines Tarantino set in place converge during the film’s final chapter, the ensuing madness is every bit the chaotic clusterf— one would hope for. As the dust settles, let’s just say Tarantino is a bit free-wielding in his retelling of history, crafting a stunning climax that calls to mind the unforgettable ending he gave Reservoir Dogs.
In the film’s final moments, Raine looks over the newest creation from his idiosyncratic brand of art and — in what can only be a thinly veiled bout of self-reflection from Tarantino — declares, “This just might be my masterpiece.”
Well, Inglourious Basterds is not quite his masterpiece — but it sure is close.
tfloyd1 at umdbk dot com
RATING: 4.5 stars out of 5
