This film takes place during World War II, in France while it is occupied by Nazi's (IMBD, 2009).

Rating: 8/10 (11 December 2013)

This film takes place during World War II, in France while it is occupied by Nazi's (IMBD, 2009). The allies, primarily the U.S. and England, put a plan in motion to assassinate the German high command, including Hitler, and Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of Nazi propaganda (IMDB, 2009). While they attend a movie premier gala for a movie called, Nations Pride. The allied assassination plan, calls for using a squad that specializes in guerilla warfare, led by a notorious sergeant and made up of Jewish-Americans, called the Inglorious Basterds (IMDB, 2009). By happenstance, the allied mission is set to occur at the same time as another plot conceived by the theater owner, Shoshanna, who is Hebrew and the lone survivor of the massacre of her family (IMDB, 2009). This plot is about revenge for her.
The movie stars Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Raines, and Eli Roth as Sgt. Donny Donowitz. The primary supporting cast is Mélanie Laurent as Shosanna, Diane Kruger as Bridget von Hammersmark, Christoph Waltz as Colonel Hans Landa, a detective of the Waffen-SS, also known as the "Jew Hunter", and finally, Daniel Brühl as Fredrick Zoller (IMDB, 2009). There are lots of action and violence scenes in the plot, mixed in with more sophisticated types of acting (Boggs, Petrie, 2008). One central theme in this movie is the struggle for human dignity, which is emphasized primarily through the plot of the movie, and particularly in Shosanna (Boggs, Petrie, 2008). Through the character of Shosanna the theme of the struggle for human dignity is vividly demonstrated because of the lengths she has to go through to survive, and because she was willing to lay down her life to end German conquest of Europe (IMDB, 2009). Many of Shosanna's scenes interacting with Fredrick Zoller, the star of Nations Pride, are examples of the sophisticated acting mentioned above (Boggs, Petrie, 2008). Because she is Jewish and has assumed an alias of "Emmanuelle Mimieux", she cannot reveal just how much she hates Zoller and Nazi's (IMDB, 2009). It is through her body language, facial expressions, and how she handles a cigarette in one scene, which reveals just how contemptuous she is of Zoller and any that, hate Jewish people (Boggs, Petrie, 2008). In the café scenes with Colonel Hans Landa, the man that slaughtered her family, her eyes giveaway just how terrified and loathsome she is of Nazi's and him in particular.
The use of camera angles, which were primarily subjective in this movie, empathized, not only the intensity of the action, but also the emotional mood, and inner thinking of many of the characters (Boggs, Petrie, 2008). For instance, in Chapter One, Colonel Landa visits a French dairy farmer, named Perrier LaPadite (IMBD, 2009). While having a tension loaded conversation in French with LaPadite, the camera angle starts out as objective, keeping them in frame (Boggs, Petrie, 2009). As the tension builds, however, the camera angle slowly becomes powerfully subjective, first showing the perspective of Colonel Landa's, from behind and over his shoulder, looking at the humble and terrified LaPadite (Boggs, Petrie, 2008). Then slowly, painstakingly so, which intensifies the tension, the camera angle rotates to the perspective of LaPadite, giving the audience the perspective of being LaPadite and facing the menacing Colonel Landa (Boggs, Petrie, 2009). This kind of subjective use of camera angles and perspective is used very effectively throughout the movie.
Other effective techniques used in this film are the settings and costume and makeup (Boggs, Petrie, 2008). The production of the settings and costume and makeup lend this movie a degree of creditability that should thoroughly suspend disbelief in all but the harshest of critiques (Boggs, Petrie, 2008). Given that this film is a period piece the staging and costumes and makeup had to be impeccable and come across as believable, which both did (Boggs, Petrie, 2008). In particular, the military uniforms of both the U.S. and German personnel were excellent.
Another film that may come to mind while watching this movie is Defiance. Both movies highlight the Jewish struggle for human dignity against Nazi Germany (Boggs, Petrie, 2008). And both of these films are excellent examples of this genre and each conveys just how terrifying this struggle was for the Jewish people. Defiance, seemed more historically accurate than Inglorious Basterds, but both are well worth watching!