Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, To Kill the Nazis We'll Go. . .

Rating: 10/10 (24 August 2009)

Who would have the audacity to create a film about a group US Army soldiers, composed of Jews, that are commissioned to either capture, kill, scalp and swastika-brand any Nazi they come across in World War II? Quentin Tarantino, that's who! And he had a more than interesting time with the film, under the name, "Inglorious Basterds". Slightly sharing the name of a 1978 grindhouse take of "The Dirty Dozen" (the second "a" is purposely replaced with an "e"), "Basterds" isn't a remake but another mark of art-house action by a mad cine-fanboy. Both are shameless and brave.
A character actor in an A-lister's body, Oscar nominee Brad Pitt ("12 Monkeys", "Snatch", "Burn After Reading") is half-Indian Southern boy Lt. Aldo Raine (a homage to the World War II hero-cum-actor, who played Lt. Muldoon in the awkwardly pro-Vietnam War film, "The Green Berets" with John Wayne), an ambitious sort with a lynching rope burn scar around his neck, who leads the band into Nazi-occupied France, striking fear into the fear-mongers.
But there's a second narrative involving Shosanna Dreyfus (a fetching Melanie Laurent), a movie house owner/manager who's the sole survivor of her family's slaughter by the Nazis, conducted by the panther-like Col. Hans "The Jew Hunter" Landa (brilliant Christoph Waltz, who won the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival, slightly echoes Richard Harris's role in "Major Dundee" and could be a possible Oscar nominee). Under an alias, Dreyfus learns her theater has been chosen to showcase a propaganda film, featuring the Nazi hero, Frederic Zoller (Daniel Bruhl), who has a "love jones" for her. Adolf Hitler and his Third Reich cronies are slated to attend, making this a trap for Dreyfus to execute. The Basterds, using the intel of double agent/actress Bridget von Hammersmark (the equally lovely Diane Kruger of the National Treasure films), get into the act, and the effect is a cinematic hellstorm.
If you expect "Saving Private Ryan" by Tarantino (Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction and the "Death Proof" vignette of the underrated "Grindhouse"), get the **** lost and stay the **** lost. This is pure exploitation fare, bowing at the feet of exploitation classics like "Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS", "SS Hell Camp" and the original "Bastards"(its'director Enzo G. Castellini has a cameo here) while using a five-part narrative that alternatives between the vengeful Jewess and the slap-happy "Nazi-busters" at 152 minutes. Sure, there's a lot of dialogue, but it's Tarantino dialogue; movie-referential, playful, intricate, campy and subtitled (the French and German languages are spoken).
Pitt and Waltz are sly dogs, and the ladies are too exquisite for words. The Basterds are polluted by violent and loyal oddballs. My favorites are baseball-bat swinging Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz (director Eli Roth of the Hostel films); knife-wielding Hugo Stiglitz (Til Schweiger) and the dutiful Smithson Utivch (B.J. Novak of "The Office, US version"). Comic Mike Myers is notable suitable as British c.o. Ed Fenech where there's a wish for more from Rod Taylor ("The Birds" and the original "Time Machine") as infamous Britain P.M. Winston Churchill. Tarantino stock actor Samuel L. Jackson has a nice part, narrating on how a certain prop in the film is flammable.
The other Tarantino trademarks are here too: brutal violence, nods to older cinema (a movie trivia game is played among German soldiers, Ennio Morricone's spaghetti Western tracks, Dreyfus's escape echoes the "doorway shots" from John Ford's "The Searchers") and foot-fetishism.
"Basterds" is the only summer 2009 film I've seen ("Watchmen" spoiled me, being an art-house cake with blockbuster frosting, and I think its' villain, Adrian Veidt, is probably Landa's nephew) and it's damn good one, being a throwback to dirty tough action films. Vive Tarantino!