Like a Jewish daydream...

Rating: 9/10 (10 October 2009)

In some ways this seems a movie written by committee, hence the ending. As the Irish might say: "To be sure, to be sure to be sure". Even though Adolf Hitler died at his own hands over 60 years ago, Tarantino's movie is a testament to the feelings that he invokes, decades later. Yes, this movie is entertaining, but is it cathartic for Jews, this kind of fantasy? Or is the emptiness of the daydream something that might just make them more impotently angry and uncomfortable in their skin? For non-Jews, I think that Hitler may just be a fairytale like villain...interchangeable and have the appropriate, vague pop-cultural cache of a dark icon. Perhaps he no longer has the hold on the rest of the world as he will always have for Jews. Still, a movie with Hitler and a target on his back? Yeah, why not? Sounds like fun!
Brad Pitt plays Lt. Aldo Raine, a man who, like Indianna Jones might say, "hates Nazis". He leads a team of Jewish commando types who make it their mission to drop into Nazi occupied France and start huntin' Nazis, and instilling fear into them by how they kill them. So, you should be warned, there are a few scenes where Nazis meet their doom in brutal ways, and others have their skin violated in horrific ways. It's just a few scenes, and they don't dwell on the horror, but you should know that the camera doesn't blink when these horrors are perpetrated on the Nazis.
Raine, as played by Pitt, is a caricature, amusingly done. He's at his embarrassing and awkward best in a scene inside a cinema where he draws on his knowledge of the Italian language. Good stuff, that. Pitt was embarrassing in a bad way in the movie "Troy", specifically the scene where he meets Hector's father after a battle. It was meant to be drama but Pitt played that scene wrong, in my opinion. In a Tarantino movie, it's hard to imagine anybody being capable of playing a character or a scene "wrong". It's all good.
This movie is also quite postmodern...it's playful, with some scenes having something analagous to a hyperlink....so, if 'realism' is your thing, these intrusions into 'reality' may grate. But if you like realism, there are plenty of other aspects that will annoy you even more.
Another 'fun' character is Col. Hans Landa, played by Christoph Waltz. In a realistic drama he would come across the buffoon at times, but in Tarantino's world he is astute, menacing and...a lot of fun too. Landa is Raine's main nemesis. He is a senior Nazi who has the job of finding French Jewish citizens who are unaccounted for/missing. His performance has intensity, quiet menace and the odd comical touch.
There are other welcome spotlights on characters...like a Jewish girl who we seem running from Landa earl on in the movie.
Some scenes have a lot of dialogue and psychological hues to them. They create tension and fear underneath a veneer of civility.
I'm not sure that this is the type of movie that will reward repeated views in quick succession, but it's a good movie first time around and will be a good candidate for future views years between drinks, so to speak.