A very special war film

Rating: 7/10 (23 December 2009)

Without doubt, Inglourious Basterds is the most inventive of WWII movies, taking many artistic liberties and subsequent risks. Most of it works quite nicely, but not all of it. Quentin Tarantino, is a director who always puts style over story. In this film there is a bit too much of the former and not enough of the latter. Several scenes are far too long and the ending is somewhat anticlimactic, so I wouldn't call Inglourious Basterds terrific, but it's reasonably close. It is definitely Oscar worthy material.
In five chapters, Tarantino tells two stories about people out to kill Nazis. First, there is Brad Pitt and his goons going around France scalping Germans. Then there is a young girl who runs a theatre, and plans to kill the Nazi party on the night of some propaganda screening. Her family was killed by Colonel Hans Landa, played by Christoph Waltz whose performance just about makes the movie. Waltz in his first English role is so good that I would have liked to see more of him on screen.
Inglorious Bastards may just be the most clever film of the year, even if it is not the best. It is occasionally flawed but overall interesting, thought provoking, creative and equally wacky.