A WWII Fairy-Tale

Rating: 10/10 (28 August 2009)

Inglourious Basterds is my favorite movie of 2009 so far. I never imagined I'd praise a Quentin Tarantino again, since I've only enjoyed Jackie Brown. But this extravagant WWII fairy-tale got hold of my attention from the first moment and din't let me go until the final deranged shot.
Marketing promoted this movie as nothing more than American soldiers infiltrating enemy lines to spread terror amongst Nazis. As amusing as that could have been for the first ten minutes, it could never sustain a 150-minute-long movie. Fortunately Tarantino was at his most inspired here and developed a parallel subplot about a Jewish girl seeking revenge against the Nazis. And the fun becomes watching these two stories converge until the explosive finale.
From a technical perspective, I think Tarantino's crew did a great work with the cinematography and editing and with bringing the 1940s to life (Tarantino even had everyone talking their original languages). This movie is a pleasure to watch just for the way each scene is shot.
But it's the actors and the characters they give life to that really stand out. There are so many bigger-than-life characters here I don't know where to start. Perhaps with the one that's making everyone talk: Colonel Hans Landa, a sinister, charming, erudite, silly SS officer played by Christoph Waltz. He steals the show with the range of expressions and behavior his role demands: he can go from polite to homicidal in seconds. He speaks four languages fluently in the movie. His interrogation scenes are unforgettable and so is his coolness. A new villain is born.
Mélanie Laurent portrays Shoshanna, a Jewish girl whose family was killed by Landa. Years later she has a chance to kill him and a theater full of Nazis in one of the most satisfying revenge plans cinema has concocted in a long time. Laurent, who for me is the main character of the movie (no matter what marketing says about Brad Pitt), portrays her character as a reserved but implacable woman in her pursuit of revenge. And if anyone gives Waltz the run of his money in this movie, that's Laurent.
The rest of the roles are small but memorable. My third favorite would be Diane Kruger's. Knowing her only from Troy, one would think she's nothing more than a pretty but lifeless face. But when working with good material, she can lit up a scene. Her short role as Bridget Von Hammersmark, a German actress working for the Allied Forces, allows her to play a seductive, deceptive, restrained and deadly woman.
Brad Pitt and everyone else who plays his Basterds are hilarious, but they hardly ever steal the show as these three actors do. I think Tarantino just put them there to draw unsuspecting American viewers into watching a movie that's not really about American soldiers.
I must write a few lines about the music. Sadly this wasn't yet the time Tarantino and Morricone collaborated on a movie. Still the director almost makes up for it by filling the movie with Morricone tracks. It's great to know that music Morricone made forty, thirty years ago is still more explosive and epic than the music being made nowadays. Aurally speaking, Inglourious Basterds does sound like the Spaghetti Western Tarantino wanted to make.
Inglourious Basterds is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. For me it's a true cinematic experience because it's not something I could get in any other artistic medium. This isn't a bestseller or video game or comic book adaptation; it's not a 'true story' full of distortions; in fact the last minutes will prove it's anything but built on history. Tarantino doesn't give a damn about realism. This is fiction at its most uncompromising best, and arguably a fine piece of film art. Cinema needs more movies like this.