A nation's pride

Rating: 10/10 (28 May 2012)

I consider this is more of an analysis of the film rather than a review, as my aim is not to summarize this film for those who might wish to see it, but give those who have already seen it something to think about.
Made up of five chapters, watching it I am reminded of Kill Bill because separating these films into several chapters makes perfect sense. Each Chapter tries to accomplish something very different from the last, which is why many people will not appreciate every chapter.
The opening feels very much like the opening of a Sergio Leone film, which is far from coincidence, but Tarantino's ability to use that style is nothing less than masterful. The First chapter is more of a character study than a scene of suspense. It moves at a pace that is lifelike, because as we should know, movies normally move at unnatural speeds. Hans Landa, played by Christoph Waltz, is the most fascinating person in this film. He is very prideful of his position, enjoys showing off his detective skills that rival Sherlock Holmes, and is a little on the flamboyant side. He takes pleasure in appearing to be great and using his skills to find Jews more than he enjoys killing them.
Quentin Tarantino is obviously fascinated by how violent people can be, much like Takeshi Kitano. Both of their greatest films revolve around violence as a subject of the movie, which brings us to the next chapter. Chapter two is all about the extremely violent Jewish group of Nazi hunters. They are no less disturbing than any of the Nazis in the film, they hunger for violence, but they have a clear and honest motive that serves as an excuse for the horrible things that they want to do. It is normal for good men to want evil men to be punished and be made unable to continue to perform evil deeds. But is it normal for good men to want to scalp, shoot, and bludgeon evil men and enjoy every second of it?
Chapter three is just as much about Fredrick as it is about Shosanna. He is so confident in who he is as a war hero, it makes you wonder what he was like before the war. Shosanna is most desirable to him because she wants nothing to do with him and he doesn't seem to believe she will be able to resist him forever. His limitless confidence is fascinating to watch. Consider the scene where she meets the director of the film Nations Pride. All of the men speak to her as if they know the pleasure of the meeting is all of hers as she is someone of no importance in the midst of pure greatness. All the while, she is doing everything she can to hide her disgust.
Contained in chapter four is a masterful scene of pure suspense. The bar scene has a feeling quite like that of the opening scene, it moves at a lifelike pace and never loses its realism. In both of these scenes, lesser directors would focus more on the killings and less on conversations which precede them.
And finally comes Chapter five. We have now met all of the main characters in the film and character development seemed to be of the highest priority at the beginning and the focus has slowly been shifting more and more to the plot throughout the film, or so it would appear. As Landa tries to make a deal with the Basterds we see that he is two-faced and he doesn't care about the Nazi cause as much as he pretends to. Fredrick also seems troubled by his victorious killing of 250 enemy soldiers. Perhaps he doesn't have sincere pride for the Third Reich and he is just overwhelmed by the pure adoration that he is faced with and maybe being prideful is the only way to justify his actions. I believe Nation's Pride would have worked just as well as a title for this film. Certainly having pride for being a part of the Third Reich was the popular way of the time. All throughout history a nation's pride has had devastating consequences.