“Watching Donny beat Nazis to death is the closest we ever get to going to the movies”

Brad Pitt (right) as Lt. Aldo Raine in Inglourious Basterds

Inglourious Basterds
Rated R (for strong graphic violence, language and brief sexuality.)
Directed by: Quentin Tarantino
Screenplay by: Quentin Tarantino
Running Time: 149 min

Cast:

The Allies:

-The Americans-
Brad Pitt as 1st Lieutenant Aldo Raine aka “Aldo the Apache”
Eli Roth as Staff Sergeant Donny Donowitz aka “The Bear Jew”
Til Schweiger as Hugo Stiglitz
Gedeon Burkhard as Wilhelm Wicki
B. J. Novak as Smithson Utivich aka “The Little Man”
Omar Doom as Omar Ulmer
Samm Levine as Gerold Hirschberg
Paul Rust as Andy Kagan
Michael Bacall as Michael Zimmerman
Carlos Fidel as Simon Sakowitz

-The British-
Michael Fassbender as Lt. Archie Hicox
Mike Myers as Gen. Ed Fenech
Rod Taylor as Winston Churchill

-The Jews-
Mélanie Laurent as Shosanna Dreyfus
Cloris Leachman as Mrs. Himmelstein

The Axis Powers:

-The Nazis-
Christoph Waltz as Standartenführer Hans Landa aka “The Jew Hunter”
Daniel Brühl as Gefreiter Fredrick Zoller
August Diehl as Sturmbannführer Dieter Hellstrom
Sönke Möhring as Gefreiter Butz
Richard Sammel as Feldwebel Werner Rachtman
Sylvester Groth as Joseph Goebbels
Martin Wuttke as Adolf Hitler

Other Roles:

Samuel L. Jackson as The Raconteur (Narrator)
Diane Kruger as Bridget von Hammersmark
Ludger Pistor as Wolfgang
Christian Berkel as Eric
Denis Menochet as Perrier LaPadite
Jacky Ido as Marcel
Enzo G. Castellari as Obergruppenführer (though credited as himself in the film)
Bo Svenson as an American colonel (cameo)

Inglourious Basterds Trailer

Rating: A+

Quentin Tarantino is a filmmaking icon, and he has crafted a gritty, violent, entertaining spaghetti-western/WWII film that closely rivals his masterpiece; Pulp Fiction. There is nothing I can say about Inglourious Basterds (yes, the misspelling is intentional) that will do it justice, but I will try.

Basterds is a testament to Tarantino’s ability to right brilliant-fucking-dialogue. An easy 80% of the flick is in subtitles, and each line is just as uniquely-Tarantino as the last. The opening scene is a long conversation between a dairy-farm owner and Hans Landa (“The Jew Hunter”); it alone was worth my $7.75 ticket.

Don’t expect the typical war-flick when you walk in. This is Tarantino’s World-War-II; that means he is re-writing the history books in nearly every scene. This is a good thing. How many WWII films have we seen now? Too many to count; we know what happened, how it happened, and who it happened to. Tarantino’s WWII is a much more entertaining one, complete with an ending that is better than what really happened.

Basterds takes place Nazi-occupied France, near the beginning of the war. After being introduced to “The Jew Hunter”, we meet Lt. Aldo Raine’s (Pitt) motley crew of Jewish-American soldiers, who have been ordered by Raine to kill and scalp as many Nat-sees as they possibly can. The scalping is done close-up, and is grotesque; the another-day-at-the-office way the it is handled by the characters is absolutely hilarious.

Brad Pitt gives, in my estimation, his finest performance. Every line he delivers — what, with his ridiculous accent — is absolutely hilarious (including a scene where he needs to speak Italian). He isn’t an idiot, though. He knows how war works (or at least the way he thinks war should work), and has an ample amount of intelligence (if you can call it that). Many of his one-liners, and ridiculous speeches on Nazis will be repeated for years to come. Unfortunately, that means a lot of bad impressions of Aldo will become a staple of Basterds references (not that that detracts from the film).

Christoph Waltz, however, steals the show as Hans Landa (aka “The Jew Hunter”). He is a menacing, eccentric, brilliant, milk-loving, giant tobacco-pipe owning man who is easily the most unique Nazi ever filmed. What sets Waltz’s performance on another-level is the fact that he remains just as calm and menacing throughout multiple languages. Waltz deserves an Academy Award nomination, and he will no-doubt receive one.

Mélanie Laurent is stellar as Shosanna Dreyfus, a cinema-owning French-Jew who is also planning a mass-Nazi killing. Laurent is delightfully droll and sarcastic (especially as she is harassed by a Nazi-war-hero who has a film about him, starring him, debuting, who constantly flirts with Shosanna). She is quite resemblant (both in appearance and attitude), of iconic noir-damsels. The character is classic Tarantino; a homage to films of old.

The rest of the ensemble cast are a joy to watch as well. Eli Roth is great as the over-the-top baseball-bat wielding “Bear Jew”, Donny Donowitz (a role originally intended for Adam Sandler, who had to drop-out of the project due to his role in Funny People). Diane Kruger is solid as Bridget von Hammersmark, a famous German actress who is a spy for the Allies (who ends up the female character Tarantino uses to further establish his foot-fetish). Samuel L. Jackson is, as always, impeccable as the narrator. I could go on, but you get the point.

Tarantino has always been one of the best when it comes to odd music cues. Here, we get fantastic western-esque scores, referential pieces, and even a David Bowie song. Tarantino makes these work, and is one of the only directors who can. There is a obvious difference between Tarantino’s music-cues and, say, Zack Snyder’s; Tarantino’s don’t sound artificial.

Film-buffs will appreciate this film a helluva lot more than those who aren’t versed in cinema history. Tarantino’s love of film shines in this flick; with an abundance of both subtle and obvious callbacks to film-genres as a whole, as well as specific films from those genres (my favorite being an absolutely genius blaxploitation/mexploitation reference).

Inglourious Basterds is one of the best B-movie homages ever released. Fans of Tarantino, as well as this particular B-movie homage genre will love this flick. Detractors of Tarantino, as well as those who don’t appreciate this genre, probably won’t. Basterds does, however, further cement Tarantino’s legacy as one of the most iconic filmmakers of this generation, and is the best movie so far this year.

-YeOldeJacob