An ambitious film that falls short of its potential.

Rating: 6/10 (18 January 2013)

Four years ago, when I first saw "Inglourious Basterds", I felt that it was one of the best films based on World War II. However, after repeated viewings, I could not shake off the feeling that it could've been something extraordinary, given director Quentin Tarantino's penchant of a bunch of complex characters populating an exquisitely structured plot. Yet "Inglourious Basterds" is a painfully strident portrayal, and a fictional one too, of the events that transpired to bring down Hitler in 1945. What could be more frustrating than to watch a film cripple slowly because the many ideas it chased for over two hours limp towards the end? Tarantino tries too hard to give it a nice finishing touch but instead turns the plot bland.
Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent), a Jewish girl, watches her whole family being massacred by SD Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), a Jew-hater, but escapes death and runs away into hiding. Four years later, Shosanna, now owner of a cinema in Paris, is offered to host the premiere of a Nazi propaganda film based of the exploits of Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Bruhl), who has taken a liking to her. In the quest for vengeance against the Germans, Shosanna secretly decides to burn down the cinema during the premiere. Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) recruits eight Jewish-American soldiers to take revenge against the Nazis and teach them a lesson in humanity. His ambition is to kill as many Nazi leaders as he possibly can. When Raine learns of the premiere which many members of the German Third Reich will most certainly attend, he cannot resist the temptation to strike the Nazis at the premiere. The film follows the intertwined stories of two parties simultaneously trying to carry out vengeful plans and bring down the Nazi rule.
Though the premise of the film is admirably ambitious and wonderfully detailed, it is brought down by the staggering weight of its ambitions. A peek into the world which Tarantino devises with much cleverness sets the ball rolling, for the opening sequence of the film is nothing short of magnificent. The sequence, mostly relying on dialog between two men, is Tarantino at the top of his game, with its disarming wit and love for language. Tarantino sneaks some suspense in it too, and we delightfully succumb to its marvelous execution. "Inglourious Basterds" has got plenty of sequences like this, most notably the bar sequence, which is grisly violent and funny at the same time. Tarantino, a writer of great repute, plies the viewer with a generous dose of witty dialog and keeps the humor consistent throughout the film. Cinematographer Robert Richardson effectively captures the lush greens of Germany in his lens and costume designer Anna B. Sheppard follows it up admirably, thus providing the right atmosphere to the film. I quite enjoyed the film's stylized look, though I'm used to war movies being somewhat rugged. "Inglourious Basterds" is a well-executed film, and although it has its share of criticism, Tarantino knows his craft well, because the film is thoroughly entertaining.
Though some drawbacks can be overlooked, some of them are too derogatory to be done so. For one, I found the film way too shrill for my taste. Tarantino heavily indulges into irony and his reluctance to embrace some of the facts tends to get infuriating at times. Apart from a few actors, many of them hand in over-the-top performances. It's not hard to guess that they're having the time of their lives trying to dissect some of the characters from the pages of history and adequately trying to portray their interpretation of them but failing, some miserably. The deft script is dealt with a hint of arrogance which, in my view, is the film's weakest point.
Of the performances, Christoph Waltz is absolutely sublime, easily overpowering his fellow actors by stealing every scene he's in. Pitt's performance is shockingly over-the-top, with his raspy voice trying to give Lt. Aldo Raine an identity which doesn't quite connect. Melanie Laurent is the saving grace of a strangely mixed bag of performances.
"Inglourious Basterds" has the skill which films seldom boast of but the over-the-top performances and the amusingly ambitious plot weaken an otherwise fine film. It is not Tarantino's best film, but if you prefer fiction over facts, it's one film you've got to get hold of.