The Unpopular Basterds

Rating: 9/10 (17 November 2009)

so when saw this movie on the big screen i was in for a big surprise (i didn't read much about the movie beforehand only that it adopted its title from an old war classic, but not necessarily its story, and was starring Brad Pitt and Til Schweiger..) both the cast, which features many famous or infamous(and largely unknown in the US) German/Austrian/french actors and the social criticism depicted, which i think is unprecedented in Tarantino's works.
Reading through the reviews you can already guess there's been great controversy about this movie, which also compelled me to write my first review. I partly blame this on the lengthiness of some parts .. you need to pay close attention to certain scenes or they won't be entertaining; this movie is not for the impatient.... and on the fact that Tarantino chose a grossly distorted way of revealing his plot and his setting. While i agree that some of the scenes are unnecessarily cruel and others appear outright illogical i can still relate to Tarantino's special way of telling this story as has always been the way he's been writing and directing movies. If you go into a Tarantino movie you expect to see lots of black humor and cruelty and quite a few scenes which don't appear to serve any function at first sight.
This movie particularly shows that both sides during the Second World War (and in any other war) were susceptible to evil deeds. And while the Basterds are the only US Americans to be seen in the movie (unless i'm omitting someone here) Tarantino is careful to point out this unit is not directly bound by orders and is a single case arrangement working on its own, which i think is Tarantino's way of trying not to further upset his fellow countrymen by not leaving the decision making in the hands of the higher ups of the US military but rather the hands of a low ranking but nonetheless dangerous US officer; probably equally as dangerous as the worst Nazi war criminals.
Of course we could have had a watered down version of "The Unpopular Basterds" but honestly.. who would want that?
Therefore a score of 9/10
9 out of 10 because of some minor flaws, the biggest of which was putting Volker Michalowski onto the cast list.. Til Schweiger wasn't the best move either but since he doesn't have many lines his appearance didn't really derange the movie