Inglourious Basterds

Rating: 9/10 (12 May 2014)

The watchwords: Killing Nazis
That's a Bingo! This year 2009 we can all yell the same words used by Colonel Hans Landa to talk about Inglourious Basterds, the new blockbuster of Quentin Tarantino. The movie maker applies his genius to sign this umpteenth time World War II film; obviously unusual. Inglourious Basterds is one of the rare movies that will keep you on the edge of your seat the first scene. This film contains numerous things that success! Firstly, unconventional. Tarantino chose to use uchrony, things frowned in the cinema's world, even more when it deals with WWII. Secondly, unethically. That rules the film: the different languages. Most of the time, movie makers let their characters speak Shakespeare's language in all the ways, never mind their nationalities. But it's here that this film draws its strength. The film begins with 10 minutes of French between a French farmer and a SS colonel who discovers that a Jewish family is hiding under their feet. And all along the film the languages "intermix". The aim of the film: to stop the IIIe Reich. Many ways are employed. The most effective one is the "Basterds" one which was also renowned for its committed approach to the game.
Jew American soldiers led by Lt. Aldo Raine, Brad Pitt who IS his character. With his thickest definite southern accent on earth and his large scarf on his neck which makes us think almost of a lynching. This commando plenty of spitefulness is composed of Pitt's acolytes: the actor Eli Roth plays Sergeant Donny Donowitz nicknamed "The Bear Jew" by the Nazis , some of them thought he's a golem, his favorite game consist in finishing one by one all the Nazis he meets with a baseball bat, very patriotic. Til Schweiger is Sergeant Hugo Stiglitz a German guy who rebelled against Hitler and excels in his brutal and sadistic ways of murdering Nazis. Violence scenes that Tarantino rules well, many cinema references, hilarious dialogues that pulse the film. For the German camp there is Colonel Hans Lander, who embodies the character of a detective who IS the real revelation of the film. His "Au revoir, Shosanna" proves that he's not the type to stop. The actor Christoph Waltz handles languages to achieve his goal. Suavity and virtuosity at all points and a disturbing courtesy to the point where it's puzzling. It arrived at its peak during the scene where a glass of milk drank on the opening scene in a seemingly innocuous way becomes terrorizing as hell to a young Jew survivor behind the Nazi who wants to make her realize he has unmasked her. Thanks to his performance Waltz won rave reviews from the critics and enjoyed great success with the public, remarkably in the Cannes Film Festival. Now, flash on women. The two main female characters are remarkable. Mélanie Laurent is just wonderful in her own film where she announces she is going to kill all the Nazis, her laugh resounding in our heads. Diana Kruger unveils her native language and is Bridget Von Hammersmark a German actress working as a spy in favor of Great Britain. Thereupon the British used strategies and are more diplomatic than the Americans. In the scene with Churchill smoking a huge cigar, Michael Fassbender Lt. Archie Hicox is informed of the Operation Kino, orchestrate by Von Hammersmark where the objective is simple. As "we have all our rotten eggs in the one basket" BLOW UP THE BASKET. The scene, no doubt in my mind, which would be the most imposing and thrilling, is undoubtedly the tavern's scene. This scene whole in German contains enough blood pressure to pickle and needles Hitler himself. Between the betrayal of himself with the third English of Hicox and the vicious voice of German accent. "Say Auf Wiedershen to your Nazi balls" will remain in yearbooks
10 years to Tarantino to create this pearl of cinema and for us 153 minutes to enjoy it. Tarantino giggles about the fact that "Cinema wins against III Reich" in his film. Rewrites History, a film can afford it. But as Pitt says "A Basterd's work is never done" and in this way Tarantino suggested he would write a series. The final scene, a low angle shot of Pitt and Roth, with these finals words "I think it's my masterpiece". Tarantino should probably speaks behind this quotation.