Quentin Tarantino is Quentin Tarantino

Rating: 8/10 (19 June 2017)

Quentin Tarantino is Quentin Tarantino. Inglorious Basterds is a blend of film genres from war to western, drama to comedy, and tragedy to satire, producing a film enshrined in poetic justice between the hunter and the hunted.
Tarantino seems like a kid in a candy shop, too excited to pick just one thing so he picks them all. Thus, this movie ends up as a genre mosh pit. Maybe he's confused or maybe he has a piercing and stylistic direction to his recent films. For sure, he has his own stylistic twists reminiscent of classical films and spaghetti westerns. From the opening credits, the viewer is transported back fifty or more years to Sergio Leone films, most notably The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966). Yet, this simple stylistic twist sets the stage for the rest of the film as a movie set during World War II in the style of a western.
Each scene separated from the rest of the piece is a masterpiece itself. From the perfectly timed editing that leaves out just enough to the harrowing musical composition and its blend of modern and Ennio Morricone. The acting is mostly average (with the exception of Brad Pitt, who stands out as a mediocrity) except for Christoph Waltz, who chills from the opening scene. He sets the tone when he steps on the screen. And his negotiations scene is so riveting that the antsiest dog would be fixated on his performance. Something about his mannerisms, his confidence, his facial expressions, his tone of voice, makes his performance worthy of each award he received, should mark him as an exemplary actor, and earn his place in the best performances in cinematic history. The filming of individual scenes is perfect, but put together, they have problems.
While Tarantino frames the story as a western, he fails to emphasize the structure as clearly as Leone. He fails to pronounce the poetic justice that makes up a great portion of the film. He fails to accentuate the irony of the hunter and hunted that makes up the majority of his thematic development. He leaves his characters as static statues with only personality in order to develop everything else, but the film remains non-cohesive. Possibly, the structure of the film into chapters may have thrown off the fluidity of the piece. Tarantino attempts the delicate structure of Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916), but instead achieves the loose structure of Memento (2000).
Additionally, the plot is fragile and poorly thought out. But he deserves a pass for artistic license.