Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009): USA

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.  Viewed at Camino Real Cinema in Goleta.

What if Adolf Hitler and three of his top men in the SS, such as Goebbels, Goring and Bormann could be terminated all at once by the handiwork of Jewish-American soldiers?  Such is the premise of Inglourious Basterds; a highly-charged, exciting war film.

Admittedly not a huge fan of Brad Pitt, I’ve determined he’s a great character actor.  Pitt plays Lt. Aldo Raine from Tennessee, who is the leader of a group of rogue Jewish-American soldiers.  These soldiers are fearless and have been instructed that they have a debt to collect 100 German scalps.   Feared by the Germans, Raine’s men execute every German soldier and officer they go after, save for one who is then sent back to warn the others, but marked for life first with the carving of a swastika in his forehead – CLASSIC!

Intercepting the news that top SS officers will attend a Nazi propaganda film premiering in Paris, the British Allies come up with a plan to assassinate these officers at the theater using Raine’s men as backup. 

Meanwhile the owner of the theater in Paris has hatched plans of her own, to blow-up the theater using reels of old nitrate film and carry out revenge on the Nazi party responsible for exterminating her entire family.

Enormous homage is paid to Sergio Leone as well as a bit of John Ford and others in this film – but it works.  It’s great fun to hear the Ennio Morricone-sques soundtrack and to observe Tarantino’s stylized camera angles – it’s what going to the movies is all about.  The lines are witty, well written and the humor perfectly timed.  Keep your eye out for Melanie Laurent, an exceptional actress who plays Shosanna Dreyfus the theater owner.


About this entry