Inglourious Basterds

Before I begin:

Inglourious Basterds will be I.B. for this review
Quentin Tarantino will be QT for this review.

I do this because if I spell out the title, my spell check will want to keep changing it and because I cannot spell Quentin Tarantino's name properly for an entire review.

Yes, when QT directs a movie, I get excited. I am unabashedly a fan of the man's work. He directs the kinds of movies, I would make, if I had the talent because he comes from the film school of just watching movies. Now, I rarely get 85% of his references because his knowledge of obscure cinema is ridiculous, but I almost always gets what he is trying to do. Now, that is to say, I just blindly love the man's films. Kill Bill remains one of the biggest disappoints of my life, in terms of film. The movie was too indulgent and too boring for me and I have been angry ever since. When I first heard about I.B. many many years ago, I was excited about the idea, until I saw Kill Bill and worried that I.B. could very well end up exactly like Kill Bill. Well, the first teaser showed up in my inbox about three weeks before it officially came out and I watched it about 15 times a day; I was hooked. I needed this movie and then the posters, more trailers, short television spots and interviews started filtering out and it was official, this was the movie I was most excited about for about a month. However, as I learned from District 9 and a few others this summer, getting super excited about a movie can very much lead to disappointment.

"Once Upon a Time....In Nazi Occupied France" a group of Jewish soldiers, led by Lt. Aldo Raine(Brad Pitt) terrorized Nazi soldiers by killing and maiming them. The groups called The Basterds, became infamous to the Nazi soldiers, a constant thorn in Hitler's side. These soldiers were merciless and methodical and Raine required every man in his group to bring him 100 Nazi scalps. That is one story. Another story concerns a French cinema being forced to host the next film in a long line of Nazi propaganda. This cinema, run by a young beautiful woman, Shoshanna Dreyfus(Melanie Laurant) is a gorgeous theater and the woman, has a secret but this secret leads her to want to kill all of the Nazis. So, she comes up with a plan to do just that. This film premiere is going to be such a big boost to the Nazi morale that Hitler decides he needs to attend the premiere and when the Basterds get wind of this, they also want to crash the party, with the help of an actress/spy Bridget Von Hammersmark(Diane Kruger). Through all of this, a brilliant, brutal and charming Nazi Colonel named Hans Landa is on the hunt for the Basterds and as he is known as the "Jew Hunter" he hunts Jews, especially ones that are hidden or perhaps Jews who are hiding in plain sight.

I.B. is split into 5 chapters, like a story, like a fictional story. It begins with the words "Once Upon a Time..." just like a story, like a fantasy story. Right off the bat QT is letting his audience know this is a fantasy. This is not the WWII we know from the history books, or from the stories of the people who were there. This is a pure fantasy. It is a revenge fantasy where a character nicknamed The Jew Bear(Eli Roth, not so much an actor) swings a baseball bat at the heads of German soldiers. It is a fantasy story that uses Samuel L. Jackson in a touch of post modern charm, in voice over narration explaining just how flammable film is. It is pure fantasy where the ending of WWII is changed to fit QT's vision of it. It is an audacious move. it is a move that requires balls, arrogance and serious talent. Luckily, QT has all three of those qualities in spades.

I.B. is, without question, a masterpiece in my eyes. The writing is crisp, no matter what language it is in (English, German, French and Italian are spoken). The camera work and direction are spot on. With QT being such a dialogue oriented director, he has to help give the movie punch, with a unique visual flare and with very tight close ups and nice circular camera shots (A QT staple) QT revs up the tension in every scene, even when two people are just sitting and chatting. Then you have wonderfully broad characters which allow the actors free reign to do what they want and QT gets exactly what he needs. Pitt's overdone southern drawl is perfectly hilarious and it makes us think that maybe Raine is not so smart, but is that just deceptive? Pitt's delivery of his opening monologue is pitch perfect and since the monologue is full of bad ass QT pulpy lines, Pitt does not have to over sell them.

Then you have Christopher Waltz. The man is a flat out stud. I had never heard of this man before. He is an Austrian actor, who from the looks of it has done a lot of Austrian television. Well, QT sure knows how to pick them because the man is brilliant. It takes a lot to make a Nazi movie that features Hitler and have someone other than Hitler be the main villain. Hitler, in this, is almost comic relief, but Waltz's Hans Landa is not to be messed with. From the opening scene, where he wonderfully mixes Tarantino's amazing dialogue (featuring a long metaphor about hawks and rats), with a perfect use of the props he is handed and a performance that should be mentioned among the best, most nasty villains, ever. Then, from that first scene, we are always scared of what he will do and what he knows. QT mentioned, in an interview with Roger Ebert, that he did not let Waltz rehearse with any of the actors because he wanted Waltz to surprise his co-stars. Well, kudos to that decision because I think it made the other actors on edge. His confrontation with Diane Kruger pops with the kind of unknown intensity that leaves an audience breathless. The scene transcends QT's foot fetish moment and then takes a pretty shocking turn.

QT said he never gave up on writing the movie because of the opening scene. He knew that scene was good. He undersold it, because it is amazing, but for my money, the basement bar scene is the best scene. QT has often mixed the mundane with the violent and this scene perfectly captures that ideal, all while keeping the dialogue and intensity popping. It is a lengthy scene with ebbs and flows but it never gets boring. The entire scene is played like everyone knows some serious shit is about to go down, they just do not know when. and then when it does pop off, wow, awesome. There are about 4 or 5 scenes that just play as perfection, but this one is the one right in the middle that just makes the movie.

When you watch a QT movies you also know to expect perfectly chosen music. I do not know what 95% of the music is, or where it comes from, but it is all perfectly placed. I love if you close your eyes there are many times that feel like a western from the music and the feel of the picture. I love how QT throws in modern sounding music, in a WWII film. The music always helps capture a specific mood and it can set a scene apart and make the scene work. The climatic music is so wonderful that it elevates the scene from a regular climax to something beyond a climax. it becomes this blend of fire, bullets, music, mayhem and beauty.

In fact, QT's ability to turn mayhem into beauty is what sets him apart. Yes, he is a polarizing figure and yes, he is an indulgent director, but when his indulgence leads to something that has grace mixed with seriously brutal violence, I cannot complain. I.B. does not have the pop culture rat-rat-rat dialogue, but the dialogue still pops. Yes, the biggest star in a QT movie is QT. The individuals are never as important in how the movie looks, sounds to feels. Everything about it is a movie and QT is never going to apologize for making a movie that looks like a movie. He even ends this movie in a movie theater. His love of cinema melts off the screen in a hail of fire and gunsmoke and he will never be sorry for that. It turns people off, but it also captures the imaginations of people like me. He understands how to set up a shot. He knows how to make the movie look effortlessly cool and he does not underestimate the value of "cool." He is a visionary who has changed violent, post modern pop culture the way Steven Speilberg changed the blockbuster or Martin Scorsese changed the gangster genre, or Hitchcock changed how horror movies were made. I do not speak in hyperbole, I really believe this. QT believes in the statement "Go big of go home." He goes big every time and I.B. is his masterpiece. It is the most QT movie ever, which is saying something because it takes place during WWII.

I.B. will undoubtedly turn people off because of its length, or violence, or lack of truth, but it is all of those things that make it. A QT WWII movie needs to be 150 minutes long. It needs to be violent in brutal bursts of blood, scalps and bullets. It has to be fictional. I.B. owns its faults, its flaws and it owns the QT fetishes, but most of all it owns this amazing performance from Christopher Waltz and this wonderful Brad Pitt performance. QT will always be a guy who does things on his terms on his timeline and when Brad Pitt's last line is, and I am paraphrasing, "You know, I think this might just be my masterpiece" I was not sure if that was Aldo Raine talking, or QT talking, but either way, yes, yes it is.

Final Grade: A+