That's a bingo!

Rating: 8/10 (14 May 2010)

Brad Pitt stars in Quentin Tarantino's big, audacious World War II movie. And Pitt, through no fault of his own, has the movie stolen right out from under him by Christoph Waltz and Mélanie Laurent. Which begs the question, who the heck are Christoph Waltz and Mélanie Laurent? You may not have known who they were before Inglourious Basterds but everyone will know them now. Especially Waltz who, in creating one of the most memorable movie villains of all time, deservedly won pretty much every acting award worth winning. His performance is the best thing in what turns out to be the best film Tarantino has made in quite some time.
Right from the beginning you get the sense Inglourious Basterds is going to be unlike most anything you've seen before. The very first scene is filled with almost unbearable tension. And what does that scene consist of? Essentially it's just two guys sitting at a table talking. And talking, and talking, and talking some more. OK, so maybe this is like some Tarantino movies you've seen before. Played incorrectly this scene could have been interminable. But Waltz is not going to let that happen. He portrays SS Colonel Hans Landa and he owns this scene. Actually he owns pretty much every scene in which he appears. His Hans Landa is absolutely chilling. Beneath the calm veneer you know there lurks so much evil waiting to explode. Not for nothing is Hans Landa nicknamed Jew Hunter. The palpable sense of menace whenever Landa is on the screen is unmistakable. The performance from Waltz is the stuff of legend. This is one of the most memorable acting performances ever seen.
Meanwhile Mélanie Laurent makes quite an impression of her own portraying Shosanna Dreyfus, a young Jewish woman who with a new identity has built a new life for herself after escaping the Jew Hunter's clutches. Now known as Emmanuelle Mimieux she owns a cinema in Paris. Nazi-occupied Paris that is. Surrounded by the enemy Shosanna is a woman who longs for revenge. And an unbelievable opportunity for vengeance will be dropped right into her lap. Cool and detached as Shoshanna may seem to be you never doubt that in the critical moment she will be as strong and determined as she needs to be to get the job done. Playing Shoshanna with that almost impossible coolness in the face of unthinkable circumstance Laurent is pretty much perfect. Full credit to her for creating a tremendous movie heroine.
So we've got a couple of unknowns brilliantly bringing to life a memorable heroine and an all-time movie villain. What then of Pitt, the nominal star of the movie? In his portrayal of Lt. Aldo Raine, leader of the Nazi-killing Basterds of the movie's title, Pitt is fine. His exaggerated Southern drawl does wear a bit thin after a while but that's a minor quibble. The real issue is that the film may be titled Inglourious Basterds but those Basterds are really the least interesting part of the movie. They're good for a few moments of ultra-violence but story-wise this movie really belongs to Hans Landa and Shosanna Dreyfus. But that's OK because we've already established how great those characters are. Eventually all the disparate strands of the story, Basterds included, will come together and then you can see that Tarantino has pulled off something rather special here. Maybe there are a few places where the story lags but that is more than offset by scenes of unbearable tension. Ironically most of those scenes, like the opening one, seem to be nothing more than people sitting around a table talking. That's our Quentin alright. Another unmistakable Tarantino touch is the film's music. Most notable is the use in one critical scene of a David Bowie song, written nearly three decades earlier for another movie, which is so perfect you would swear it had been written just now for this scene in this movie. Tarantino's encyclopedic knowledge of film history pays off again. And while Pitt is the big name and Waltz and Laurent make the big impressions Tarantino makes use of a wide and varied supporting cast, all of whom are absolutely spot-on. Not a casting misstep to be found. This is a great story and one that is performed brilliantly. Nobody else would have ever made this movie, it's a Tarantino movie through and through. And it's one of Quentin's best.