Inglourious Basterds (Tarantino, 2009)

[sandeep]

Legends of the fall comes to mind for sure, as a good performance... so does Meet Joe Black and of course The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

[ayaa1977]

Legends of the fall comes to mind for sure, as a good performance... so does Meet Joe Black and of course The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

To me the ultimate Brad Pitt peformances are in 12 Monkyes, Fightclub, and Snatch, and also I liked his turns in Legends of The Fall, Interview with a Vampire, Thelma and Luise, Burn After Reading.  and of course Benjamin Button. So to call him a non-talent is simply outrageous.

[X.]

Kaykay, great piece of writing. Your opinion of the film may be contentious, but there is no denying the excellence in your prose.

That said, like Fizz, I too would encourage you to pay a bit more attention to punctuation and formatting, so that your reviews are easier and more enjoyable to read on the screen.

[kaytee]

So did any of you Basterds, catch the pre screening for this? Heard it was uncensored.

[shariqq]

There WAS a pre-screening? I didn't hear about it...

[ayaa1977]

The blogsphere is going banana over this film, so much buzz about Best Picture nomination and even best actor for Christoph Waltz who plays the Nazi. Anyways, any project for Tarntiono is interesting.

[kaytee]

There WAS a pre-screening? I didn't hear about it...

Yup a friend watched it yesterday and is going gaga about it. People are actually loving it.

[X.]

People also love wasting money and making war. I don't trust people.

[Temujin]

When I see a tarantino movie and there`s an emotional scene I never believe it or feel it.
It`s as if he`s just adding teardrops and tells them to make a sad face.

Perhaps he wants to add the cool element and make emotional scenes different but I think it`s a mistake and it takes you away from the movie.

I think he needs help on think aspect from other directors because he is very technically skilled but lacks skill in this aspect and it`s a shame.

Sorry Tarantino I love your movies but in kill bill and inglorious basterds your emotional scenes don`t connect with me at all.

[ozzylogic]

People don't go to Terrence Mallick movies to expect car chases either...or sense in M. Night Hackamalan's movies. Get it?

[kaytee]

I assume this is in relation to Inglourious Basterds, so this will be moved to its appropriate thread.

[kaytee]

Poster being used for its India release.

[kaytee]

Will be watching Basterds tomorrow, skipping What's your Rashee don't have 210 mins to waste.

Will be watching the India vs Pakistan cricket game today, promises to be a cracker.

[X.]

Basterds is amusing, and definitely a sort of return to form by QT. There are still problems with the overall structure of the film, but it is still an interesting watch.

Let's discuss when more of you guys have seen it.

[fizz]

Inglourious Basterds opens with a scene that builds absolute dread in its audience. This dread is both created and countered in parts by an amusing and engrossing performance by Christoph Waltz as a German SS officer, Colonel Hans Landa, in France during 1941, who is tasked with searching the homes of those who have sheltered Jewish families. Landa employs elaborate, anecdotal, almost lyrical dialogues to make his point, using animal instincts to justify human hatred. This is the hand of director Quentin Tarantino at work and he delivers to us a film, fractured as it is in parts, that is an inventively novel epic.

Basterds is European in style, but American (and utterly “Tarantino-esque”) in its impudence. The staged, deliberately indulgent scenes of wall to wall dialogues are playfully inventive with words and sentence structure. In the hands of someone else, moments such as the brilliant opening, where Colonel Landa (think a passive aggressive Dennis Hopper crossed with Christopher Walken) asks permission of his host (and in some ways gets audience consent) to switch dialogue from French to English, would seem odd and showy, but Tarantino’s deft handling of the situation and his mastery of the cinematic medium (scripting, editing, brilliant mise en scene) benefit him endlessly. This film continues to show the filmmakers great maturity, thematically, but also with the precision of its storytelling (it’s no easy task to set flashbacks within flashbacks that don’t confuse us) and the films ambitiously sprawling milieu (composed over 5 chapters) can be compared to that of either Pulp Fiction or Jackie Brown, two of Tarantino’s previous bests.

Audiences should be wary of what to expect (or not expect) from the film. Brad Pitt headlining the cast just gets enough screen time to label his inclusion an extended cameo, in what is mostly an ensemble piece (though his natural charisma provides some of the most ingenious cinematic guffaws this year).  The film is neither a World War two actioner ala The Dirty Dozen, nor an art house talky (though there is a lot of talking). It is perhaps closest in tone to Tarantino’s own Kill Bill – being a whimsical revenge daydream that systematically tries to rewrite the history of World War Two.

Basterds is certainly fresh, audacious and bold and the fantasy ending, set in a Parisian cinema to both enrage and excite the cinephile in us, only cements this judgment. One of the years best.

Rating: 4.5/5