'Inglorious Basterds'

'Inglorious Basterds' was a film that immediately presented me with two discernable problems. The first was one that, i imagine, was shared by a legion of cinema lovers and followers of Tarantino's work and that was;

1. Was this going to be Tarantino's return to form? Or was it to be his next step along a short path to ineptitude and unoriginality, the first step of which was taken with his previous directorial effort 'Death Proof', a film that felt over indulgent in it's dialogue and characters that were lacking in depth. This was something that worried me as a lover of Tarantino's previous works and as an admirer in the fact that someone who loves the medium of film so much can make such a huge impact upon the business and isn't just a deluded geek. (Just a geek.)




2. My second problem was one that was probably adopted by the more anxious of the general public and that was, when i get to the ticket booth, how do i pronounce the title of the film? Do i put on a slight German accent and read as pronounced, 'BASTERDS', inducing a nervous chuckle within myself and a filthy look from the underpaid, overworked cashier operator? Or just give it my best British accent, cockneying it up, 'Yeah, one for the bastards one, please. Cheers Mate'.

Thankfully, my worries were quickly put to rest. I adopted for the typical 'BASTARDS' at the box office and upon entering the cinema were plunged into a typical and instantly classic Tarantino lengthy dialogue scene. I was captivated instantly as, not only were Tarantino's auteur trademarks present, his style had advanced, the camera work seeming much more fluid, flowing more regularly than the set camera style that people love about his work, and is presented in it's purest (and arguably, amateurish status) in 'Reservoir'. However, it was not just the camerawork and the fantastic dialogue that impressed me within this opening scene (Or chapter, as the film presents the different sections of the narrative, using a classic white text on black card to differentiate each and bringing in Tarantino's trademark postmodernistic sensibilities) it was also the performances.

The two actors, neither of whom i was aware of prior to this, both being European actors, were incredible in the opening scene adding a powerful emotional punch to the dialogue and layering the scene beyond a simple good versus bad guy scenario. Hans, the nazi commanding officer, affectionatly dubbed the 'Jew hunter', is charming and his intentions aren't entirely clear from the offset as the farmer is a character who we feel we can trust and should be the hero and yet, when he subverts our expectations, my sympathies still lay with him as he was truly empathetic in his actions and still had heroic qualities in his submission to the Nazi. The performances only got better from here on out, making it difficult to pin point a particular actor for their craft, although Brad Pitt as Lieutenant Aldo Raine was, predicatably, entertaining, although due to the ensemble nature of this film, Pitt is as much the main character as newcomer, melanie Laurent, who portrays the Jewish girl with a love for film and a hatred for Nazis, Shosanna Dreyfuss, or Christoph Waltz, who plays the manipulative and sadistic 'Jew hunter'.

The film has tongue firmly in cheek the entire way through, Tarantino not looking to pay homage to and tell a true to life war story, but rather to tell a good war film story. A fun and violent romp through 1940's Nazi occupied France, with an extreme group of soldiers who have a very black and white view of the war and seem to remedy those that they see as the bad guys in a swift and violent fashion;

'All of you men owe me one hundred Nazi scalps. And i want my Nazi scalps.'

But despite this, 'Inglorious Basterds' remains Tarantino's most mature film to date, juggling almost a dozen main characters, a number of different plot threads that eventually intertwine in ways I wasn't expecting and following true harrowing moments that hearken to the horrors of the war with extreme and, often comical, violence. As stated previously, Tarantino's camera work has improved and evolved with this outing, as has his dialogue which is far more mature than his previous films, not finding it necessary to include a 'fuck' or a derogatory racist term in every other sentence, whilst still maintaning its impact and classic Tarantino charm.

The Basterd's black and white view of the war is something else that adds another interesting layer to the film, one which i wonder if Tarantino intended, as i noticed, observing the audience's reaction in my screening, that once Pitt and his group of Nazi killers are introduced the audience are very much sided with them to the point where they were laughing heavily at a scene which saw an infamous member of the group (Infamous to the Nazi soldiers, that is), dubbed 'The bear Jew', smash in the skull of a Nazi officer with a baseball bat, in a horrific fashion. Laughs were also elicited as Pitt's Raine takes his knife to one of the Nazi soldier's foreheads, offering up a quip as he does so. However, the audience was very much against the Nazis from the get go, in particular when the Basterds first appear, often staring in shock at the violence utilised by them, which is really, no worse than that used by the Americans. This thematic point ties into a point brought up in the first scene of the film by Hans, 'The Jew Hunter', as he compares the Jews to rats, offering up the idea that;

'You would greet a rat with hostility. You don't know why you would do this. You simply would.'

(Paraphrased. Apologies. I didn't take a notebook again.)

I feel that this idea can be applied to the film as a whole, as an interesting added layer of subtext, but it could just as easily be said that the reason the Nazis are portrayed as bad guys is that Tarantino is paying homage to the propoganda like war films of the fifties and sixties, where of course the Nazis were the villians. Americans are the heroes, after all.

This film has a feel good factor that cannot be described without seeing this masterful piece of work, having the audience punching their fist in the air throughout, laughing, wincing and crying, carrying you deftly through the emotional spectrum whilst providing you with a great escapist story. This is the sort of film that reminds me what it is I love so much about film as a medium and it's potential and also how much I am inspired by, and adore, the works of Tarantino, so much so, that the moment I got back from the cinema I decided to rewatch his backcatalogue. (Excluding Deathproof.) For that reason alone i am awarding the film an unprecedented FIVE out of FIVE STARS, and urge you to go and see 'Inglorious Basterds' as soon as is humanly possible. Congratulations, Mr Tarantino. It's good to have you back.