My, what a bold statement I just made there. But it's true. And this movie is an example of something that Hollywood should take special notice of. This movie is gruesome, but if you clocked the amount of violence and action in the movie, you would probably come short of five minutes tops...and that's being optimistic. The movie builds to its action sequences, which are short bursts of bloody glory, then resumes it what is almost an entirely dialogue driven movie.
The opening scene alone, which takes up about 20 minutes, held this audience in complete captivation. And that scene so effectively establishes the villain, Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) that whenever that character reappears, chills go up and down your spine.
The story of Inglorious Basterds could simply be boiled down to this: Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) leads an army of American Jews and Germans (Krauts who hate the third reich) on a general slaughter of any and all Nazis they come across. To say anymore would be to spoil too much of the fun.
Needless to say, this is history as Tarantino envisions it, so if you hate historically inaccurate movies, then I'd say you should leave the theater immediately and go rent Sergei Bondarchuk's War and Peace. If, however, you are tired of the endless WWII and Holocaust movies, then this is your movie. The Jews take matters into their own hands, and while the film has no semblances of realism in accordance with history, it is glorious to watch.
But I want to touch again on something remarkable about this film. Tarantino uses dialogue in all of his scenes, that special brand where characters don't necessarily talk about plot related matters but about what they are doing, their lives. Everything drives the plot, though you may not realize it at first, and little embellishments help flourish the scenery, for instance strudels, a card game, and milk.
The movie, however, is not without a few very, very minor faults. First, I would have liked to have known a bit more about the Basterds; they are the title but share maybe 1/4 of the screen time that other characters have. This is a small quibble, really. What bothered me a little more was Tarantino's endless references that I caught and didn't catch. The scores used near the beginning are obviously remixed versions of Ennio Morricone's The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly score. The film also randomly mashes styles, giving us a looney backstory on one Basterd, with silly titles and all.
Now I challenge Tarantino with this: make a movie that is wholly original and doesn't contain references to obscure kung fu films or slightly better known westerns. You've mastered the art creating excellent entertainments around things you loved (most notably Kill Bill). Now it's time to stop paying homage. It's time to start doing things that people will pay homage to you for.
I still think this movie is great, and even want to see it again to make sure I take in everything. I recommend those that have been waiting for the movie to see this summer to go see it, and everyone else too. This is a film that does not insult its audiences intelligence.
Rated R for the scalping of Nazis, swearing, and a brief shot of Goebbel's humping his translator.
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