Film Review: Inglorious Basterds

If you read the last post, this one really should be a continuation of me proposing where my future may or may not lie. However, I haven't been arsed doing that for a bit and I might get back to it. Job hunting, getting fucked and going to the gym have been a slightly higher priority (although not necessarily in that order). I've also had a bit of criticism about the blog, which I'm quite happy to take on the chin. I'm not 16 any more, the stuff I write on an online soap box isn't going to get me laughed at on a day-to-day basis although pointless overthinking of my own psychology is going to have to end.

Anyway, saw Inglorious Basterds last night and I'm about to give you a wee bit of a review on it. If you haven't heard anything about it recently then I'm surprised you've got the internet connection to access this blog. Here's a clip showing a bit of a few scenes:



The primary plot is Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) leads the "Basterds", a bunch of Jewish G.I.s into occupied France to kill off as many Nazis as possible with their primary objective being the destruction of a German film that almost all of the Nazi administration are intent on seeing. Meanwhile the female French-Jewish cinema owner Shosanna (Mélanie) is planning the same thing. Both Shosanna and the Basterds are also trying to avoid German detection and the villanous "Jew-hunter" Col. Hans Landa (Cristoph Waltz).

Being a history graduate, I sometimes get irritated whenever films have an attempt at portraying historic events and doing them badly. I sat and laughed through Sean "ya bleedin' French twat!" Bean's Sharpe series for the fact that it's not only badly choreographed, ridiculously scriped but it's full of mistakes. With Basterds, I knew not to expect accuracy. Not only is it a Tarrintino film, but it's inspired by another fictional but war-time film Inglorious BastArds. Other influences that pop up through the film are Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns, with an Ennio Moricone style riff playing in one of the early scenes. It put me in the mood for watching 'The Good the Bad and the Ugly' again.

Whilst most audience members will go without any hangups about the history shown, it could understandably be a sore point for some. The opening scene where French farmer LaPadite (brilliantly acted by Denis Menochet) is interrogated, culminates in the machine gun execution of a Jewish family. Due to the emotional nature of this scene and the fact it draws upon the audience's understanding of the atrocities committed during the war, it makes the rest of the film seems almost farcical in comparison. Especially as Tarrintino's tongue-in-cheek style of direction rarely has you develop an emotional commitment to any of the main characters, the nameless silent innocents who we only catch a few glimpses of are more important than those that actually play a speaking role.

In true Tarrintino style the film is written as a number of different character's stories that come together in the end, all with their own witty dialogue. Whilst I had naively hoped for an action-packed, high octane, fun driven movie where Nazis get splattered right across the French countryside, the film relied more on tense build ups and exchange of words between characters kind of similar to the "Kahuna burger" scene of Pulp Fiction. Of course there is the odd moment of gratuitous violence where we can draw a sadistic sense of glee from (two words; baseball bat) but sadly some of these dialogues end in non-sensical flashes of gunfire more akin to Guy Ritchie's work than Tarrintino's which end up proving anti-climactic and rather disappointing than the smirk raising that we hoped for.

As a result, the film drags in places. The unusual camera angles and interesting shots that we expect from the big T are there. We can appreciate them at the time but occasionally it interrupts the pace of the movie when all we want is the pay off of Nazis getting shot. As expected we do get a laugh here and there from the jovial use of language - especially since French, English and German are interwoven within the script. Without a doubt some of the acting in this film is marvellous. Although I found Brad Pitt's performance to be a slight let down on the grounds that his line delivery was often flat and uninspiring and at times seemed to focus far too much on getting his awkward Southern state accent right, Waltz's SS commander is brilliantly loathsome and the whole way through the film we're craving the opportunity to shoot him ourselves. Along with this we almost get to like Daniel Bruhl's shining example of the third Reich and German actor Til Schweiger's vicious ex-Nazi, delivering that cheeky spot of knife violence we were hoping to see. Lastly an honourable has to go out to Diane Kruger who not only was incredibly attractive whenever she was covered in her own blood, but really enjoyable to watch as a glamarous movie starlet/spy.

Despite the drag, the ending was perhaps exactly what we wanted, without saying too much it was a little do-over of history that must have seemed almost pornographic to Jewish actor Eli Roth*.

Overall: ***

Here's a little almost related treat:



*To steal a line off the Nev