Tarantino's best film to date!

Rating: 10/10 (22 August 2009)

Say what you will about Quentin Tarantino as a filmmaker, you have to admit that he is never less than surprising. After the boring, self-indulgent tedium of "Death Proof", one of the least thrilling thrillers ever made, and the entertaining but woefully uneven "Kill Bill", I had pretty much completely written off Tarantino as a filmmaker whose ego had got the better of him, and who just kept pumping out the same old nonsense. With "Inglourious Basterds", however, Tarantino has totally redeemed himself, and has produced what is possibly his finest film to date.
It has been a long time coming. IB, originally pitched as a "Where Eagles Dare" style boys-own picture, has been predicted more times than the end of the world and looked for some time to be stuck in development hell, so it is surprising that now that film has finally emerged that it is well worth waiting for, and is a much more focused, deeper and more disciplined film than any he has produced since "Pulp Fiction", all the while retaining the same dark wit and postmodern playfulness that has become his trademark.
The film is, however, far from the simple action movie that it was originally pitched as, the different chapters containing a myriad of different themes, tones and even sub-genres, creating in essence a meta-analysis of not only the war, but the war film genre itself. In fact, there are effectively three different parts to the film which come together at the end: 1) the "Dirty Dozen" style story of the Basterds, a group of American GIs tasked with killing Nazis to put fear into them, 2) A "Valkyrie" style resistance story and 3) a story of a Jewish farm girl seeking vengeance for the death of her parents.
Of these it is the last one, the story of Melanie Laurent's Shosanna, that is central to the film, as all 3 plot strands come to a head in her cinema at the premier of a new Nazi propaganda film. This section, and that featuring the resistance, are most similar in terms of style and tone to Verhoevan's excellent "Black Book", bombastic while at the same time gripping and, in parts, moving.
The structure, with separate chapters loosely interlinked is familiar from Tarantino's previous films, yet in this one are arranged chronologically, with a more straightforward sense of narrative. The chapters differ somewhat, each has its own style, from the slow, tense opening in which the Nazi antagonist Col Landa interrogates a farmer, to the wordy Reservoir Dogs style resistance section, before coming together for an action packed finale. Its on the whole a more serious film than his previous work, but is shot through with black comedy and trademark playfulness (look out for Hugo Stiglitz, a character greeted with a burst of electric guitar and a massively OTT flashback).
The performances are all excellent, though the greatest acclaim must go to Christoph Waltz as charming but evil Nazi Landa, surely this years standout villain and a sure-thing for an Oscar. Also fantastic are Laurent, who is utterly mesmerising as Shosanna, and Michael Fassbender as the British spy caught out in the middle section.
The same stylistic flourishes found in all Tarantino films, such as eccentric characters and idiosyncratic music, are still present, though seem far more appropriate here than ever before. His use of David Bowie in one of the later scenes is truly stunning.
Now, a brief word of warning. This isn't a piece of history, it is a work of absolute fiction, a fairy tale with a wartime setting, and as such should be regarded with a degree of open mindedness. Those wanting to see the next "Saving Pt Ryan" shall be disappointed. However, those wanting to be entertained and willing to approach this as a work of fiction, will find a film that is gripping, funny and thrilling in equal measure. Tarantino has made a war movie that practically blows the genre apart at the seams. And it is utterly fantastic.