Inglorious Basterds Short Review

Rating: 8/10 (23 April 2012)

Quentin Tarantino's release of Inglorious Basterds has been hailed as his best movie since Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. The fantasy WWII film is one in which Tarantino spent nearly 10 years writing, in between producing, screen writing and acting. The theme of the movie is to eliminate the German High command. The setting of the movie takes place in Nazis occupied France during WWII. Chapter 1 The story begins with Perrier Lapadite (Denis Menochet), a French dairy farmer chopping wood, when his daughter spots the Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS) approaching. He is suspected of harboring Jews in his home. When the car stops there are four Germans, one being Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) also known as the "Jew Hunter". After integrating Perrier for about 10 minutes, Landa knowing that he is hiding Jews in his floorboard give him an ultimatum: point out where the Jews are hidden and no harm will ever come to his family. Perrier points out were they are hiding and Landa signals for his men to come in and they begin shooting the floor, killing all but one, Shosanna (Melanie Laurent), who manages to escape. Landa has her in his gun site as she runs across the open range, but for some reason elects to put his pistol back in his holster. Chapter 2 Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) leads a squad of eight Jewish-American G.I.s, into occupied France with on simple mission: find Nazi soldiers, kill Nazi soldiers, and then scalp Nazi soldiers, an exploit that spreads terror throughout the ranks of the Nazi army each time the brutalized, mutilated bodies of their comrades are discovered. However the Basterds are not just guerrillas, but more of terrorist. Part of their mission is to help an allied group wipe out the higher command of the Nazi army. Many would believe this movie is about the Basterds, but it is much more than that. In fact the bastards play a limited role in the movie. Lt. Aldo Raine is cast in only a little more than half of the scenes. Further in the movie, we pick up Shosanna as a Cinema theater owner in Paris, who is befriended by a Nazi officer, Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Bruhl) who has an interest in Cinema productions and in Shosanna. Zoller, a Nazi hero and a movie star in the movie "Nation Pride", a movie about his heroics in battle, arranges for the premier of the movie to be shown in Shosannas' cinema. Shosanna, seeking justice and revenge on the Germans who killed her family, plots to burn down the theater, killing all of the high command officers that attend. Lt. Raines finds out that Adolph Hitler will be attending the premier and a plot is developed to kill Hitler and his high command, thus ending the war. The climax of the movie is the death of all the German in the theater and the death of Shosanna seeking her revenge.