A Comforting Escape Fantasy for Jewish and non-Jewish Nazi-haters alike

Rating: 9/10 (25 August 2009)

Even before "Inglourious Basterds", it was already well established that Quentin Tarantino is an excellent director, but this film is set apart for me in the great amount of comfort it brought me. As a grandchild of holocaust survivors, WW II has always hung over me as a somewhat vague yet distinctly dark cloud of the past. In this film Tarantino allows a way out of this cloud through some classic Hollywood escapism. He doesn't let truth get in the way of a good story, and nor should he. If only for a moment I, and I'm sure many other Jews as well, would only too happily like to shed the image of having been like sheep taken to slaughter. The rush I felt when I witnessed the Jewish triumph over the Third Reich is enough in my opinion to alter the true story in the film, for we all know too well how all attempts to bring down Hitler's regime really ended. My only quibble with this film is that Hans Landa is the most likable character in the whole movie. It is difficult not to be in awe of the Jew-hunter's ability to be holding all the cards throughout the story -- except for the last scene of course. Otherwise, I must say this is really one hell of a movie.