Spaghetti Western Set in WW2 France

Rating: 8/10 (23 December 2009)

As with any Quentin Tarantino film, it is either you like it or you don't. This guy really goes to extremes with his films, so audience reactions are also in extremes. When I first saw the trailer, with its references to "100 Nazi scalps," I didn't think I would watch it. However, with all of these accolades coming in from various critics groups in the past weeks, I felt I had to watch this looming awards front-runner.
The very first scene in the dairy farm of Perrier LaPadite (Denis was so tense. We get a first glimpse of the brilliant and much lauded performance of Christoph Waltz as SS Col. Hans Landa. His presence in subsequent scenes would then always strike a fearful chord. Waltz seems to be a lock for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar as early as now.
The scene in the tavern with German actress Brigid von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger), Lt. Archie Hicox (Michael Fassbender) and SS Maj. Dieter Hellstrom (August Diehl) was another highlight of tension and mayhem.
And of course that last slam-bang scene set in La Gamaar, the movie house of Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent). I concede that it was too impossible (like, how could there be no security in the theater lobby???) but the indulgent wish-fulfillment is too irresistible to deny.
Every scene Lt. Aldo Raine was in was darkly hilarious, even in the most gory ones. Brad Pitt plays the character tongue-in-cheek, seemingly always sticking out, out of place in the gravity of the wartime situation. But I was thoroughly entertained by this guy, as his presence lightens and loosens things up a bit, and that is good in a film like this.
QT's love for movies is obvious here. As I wrote earlier, the climactic scene happens in a movie house. There are bits and pieces of movie discussions in various scenes involving Pvt. Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Bruhl) who was a German soldier who became a war hero, and later starred in a film about his military exploits made by no less than Joseph Goebbels. There are typical QT trademarks like gaudy character intros and rough annotations. Your guess is as good as mine why his title is spelled that way, another QT quirk and conceit, most probably.
So, as with all QT films, watch "Inglourious Basterds" at your own risk. Ignoring all the ultra-violence (what QT film doesn't have these scenes?), I think it is a pretty good film. But this is definitely not for all tastes, but it is one hell of a ride -- a shoot-em-up spaghetti western set in World War 2.