Once Upon A Time In Nazi Occupied France...

Rating: 9/10 (4 March 2016)

Following the exploits of a squad of Jewish-American GIs in Europe at the height of the Second World War as well as the revenge story of a young French Jewish woman, Inglourious Basterds(note the deliberate misspelling)is an extremely impressive effort. A gritty homage to the war movie(to be fair it's much closer to Italy's Macaroni Combat sub-genre), Tarantino's epic has all the correct ingredients to make it succeed.
Firstly, I thought that the episodic structure of the movie as well as it's nonlinear format were both excellent touches. Inglourious has five "chapters" each with their own title and the film itself is two stories in one; a behind-enemy-lines adventure and a revenge story. The way these two stories synchronise at the climax was also cleverly done. The movie is also incredibly stylish and some parts have a distinct documentary feel which I also thought was pretty amazing. The segment in which a voice-over(from none other than Samuel L. Jackson)informs the audience of the flammability of nitrate film really took me by surprise, it was refreshing to learn something in a movie otherwise populated by wanton brutality that shouldn't be taken seriously(in no way am I being harsh!). As with much of Tarantino's other work, Inglourious is as much a black comedy as it is, in this case, a war movie(satirical war movie to be precise). The bloody violence is wonderfully tongue-in-cheek and the explosive climax inside the cinema will require complete suspension of disbelief as Tarantino indulges himself with a number of amusingly deliberate anachronisms. The film does drag a little in places, although each sequence is peppered with superb dialogue. It is also interesting to note that around sixty percent of the movie is in German, French and Italian and subtitled accordingly, which is absolutely fine by me.
Inglourious features terrific performances, especially form Brad Pitt and the beautiful Melanie Laurent. Eli Roth also brilliant as the bloodthirsty Sergeant Donowitz-The Bear Jew as was Diane Kruger as starlet Briget Von Hammersmark. Irish-German actor Michael Fassbender was also brilliant and Sylvester Groth was on magnetic form as Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels. Although who could forget Christoph Waltz' magnificent turn as the ruthless Colonel Hans Landa. As usual the soundtrack was amazing, I loved hearing all those familiar scores sampled to great effect. It was a pleasure to hear part of the sublime Morricone piece L'Arena(from Sergio Corbucci's The Mercenary)as well as The Surrender from Sergio Sollima's The Big Gundown. One piece that did strike me as a peculiar sample was a rendition of Dimitri Tiomkin's "Green Leaves of Summer"(from John Wayne's The Alamo)which played over the opening credits, although I was pleased that this composition featured. The film's action scenes were sparse but awesome nonetheless as the blood flows and the body count rockets. Bodies spasm ferociously as innumerable bullets tear their flesh apart in a vicious shootout(bloodbath would be a better word)in a tavern. The climatic destruction of the cinema and slaughter of the leading Nazis was even crazier, more brutal and spectacularly chaotic!. Most viewers will spot an obvious reference to The Dirty Dozen. The ending was fantastic too and it's one which true Spaghetti Western fans will appreciate.
Tarantino's uber-violent war saga definitely gets a thumbs up from me, in fact it's right up there with the older greats. 9/10