Tarantino remains a force to be reckoned with

Rating: 9/10 (15 October 2009)

Inglourious Basterds still features that unique Tarantino voice that rings out from the dialogue, the non-linear storyline (in this case division into chapters, much like Kill Bill), the virtuoso camera work and, of course, the prominent soundtrack. And yet, it is a film that also incorporates a lot of firsts for the director. First and most prominently, it is Tarantino's first period-set film. Which is surprising, considering how his movies all feature throwbacks to genres and styles associated with past decades. Despite this, Tarantino's scripts are always very heavy on pop culture references, and so it was definitely interesting to see him take his exceedingly modern and contemporary writing style and apply it to a period film. The results are a fantastic and fascinating mix of old and new; there are no direct anachronisms per se, but the characters in the film do speak in a very "hip" and modern style that nobody in the 40's would possibly speak in. In fact, the dialogue is great and unique because nobody would speak it today either – it carries that certain Tarantino quality to it that's hard to put a finger on but that provides his greatest and most unique stamp. And yet, despite its utter disconnection from anything remotely realistic, Tarantino does make one conscious decision that lends the film more realism than most others in its genre: he chooses to have foreign characters speak their dialogue in their native language, which results in a vast majority of it spoken in French or German with subtitles. It's actually quite reassuring to see a mostly-subtitled film such as this one still be very successful at the box office, since many pundits (and Hollywood producers for that matter) seem to think that subtitled films don't sell.
It's not just the dialogues that are succulent and well-written in the film, but it's the scenes themselves. The film is actually very uniquely structured, featuring very few scenes overall, but long ones that take their time building up. The scene in the basement pub stands out in particular as a simply brilliantly constructed scene lasting over 20 minutes, starting out slow and establishing the dialogue and characters, and slowly building up to a brilliant climax which I will not go into detail about here, but suffice it to say that it ends in a set-up that Tarantino has used before. Without going into too much detail, the set-up is tied in with the style of the film in general. Despite it being a WWII-set war film, the film is constructed and stylized much more like a Western, from the parallel plot lines building up to a single climax to the soundtrack composed almost entirely by Ennio Morricone arrangements (another potential first for Tarantino – Morricone was originally supposed to provide Tarantino with his first original score, but eventually he ended up using old cues from past scores by the legendary composer). This all serves to create a fascinating, genre-bending script that straddles Nazisploitation, Spaghetti Western and Tarantino's own unique style.
Ultimately, the most fascinating aspect about this film is just how audacious it turns out to be. Without going into too much detail, by the end of the film Tarantino completely changes and disregards history as we know it, to a point that the film itself becomes this big, epic fantasy. Its reception in Israeli was consequently uneven. Many critics derided it for taking an insensitive attitude towards what is probably the most serious and atrocious event in modern history, the Holocaust, and for reducing it to a schlocky Jewish revenge fantasy. Despite the critics, the film has gone on to become one of the most popular and successful films currently playing in Israeli cinemas, and the public reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. I think that stylistically and story-wise, the film isn't quite up there with Pulp Fiction and perhaps not even with Kill Bill, but in terms of Tarantino's ambition and where he ends up taking it, the film becomes one of his most fascinating ventures. It's thrilling, well-made, impeccably shot (by Robert Richardson, a Tarantino veteran and one of the best cinematographers working today), fantastically acted, irresistibly entertaining, absolutely hilarious, and in all it's just a big, epic, audacious and unique piece of entertainment that reminds us, in case we have forgotten, that Tarantino is a force to be reckoned with.