Outstanding

Rating: 10/10 (15 December 2009)

During WWII, a U.S.Army Unit called the Basterds led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Pitt) go on a Nazi killing spree and attempt to end the war by getting Hitler and his chief officers in one fell swoop. Not a true story.
I almost didn't take this movie out because the promos made it seem like a unit of American soldiers went to Germany in the 1940s and acted like a band of wild Indians on a killing spree shooting and scalping Nazis. So the promos didn't do a good job of promotion for me. But, I took a chance hoping I wouldn't see what I saw in the promos: silliness, recklessness, ugly American behavior, and unfunny wise-cracks.
However, I did see and hear all of that, but not in the quantity the promos seemed to indicate. This was a very well done movie and things were spaced out quite nicely. The DVD box said this was a revenge movie (hey, you finally read one). In other words, the story was all fiction. Things didn't happen this way.
I got annoyed (here we go) with 2-things. Some scenes really took their time to develop, but looking back I see the sense of dragging them out (still didn't like it though, did you?). And, the other thing was the over-use of Sub Titles. Some sentences were too long and you had to focus on the words and not on the actors. Someone ought to make a law that declares over–use of Sub Titles are against the law. Hey, they didn't need them in Valkyrie, did they? Go back and take a look at the 13th Warrior and see how Sub Titles were handled there. Both are great movies btw.
What I didn't expect to experience in here was tension and there was that, and I suppose the dragging out of some scenes contributed to it. It worked.
There is some gore in here. Some scenes will show someone being scalped (like the Indians did it?) and that is not a pleasant sight (turned away, did you?).
The acting, dialogue and action scenes (no CGI?) were all terrific, outstanding in fact. Brad Pitt is always good, but special attention needs to be paid to Christoph Waltz who played German Colonel Lande. He played the always suspicious SS Officer to the hilt and was outstanding (using that word a lot, aren't you?)
Unless I missed it, the word "basterds" origin was never explained. I guess it just seemed like part of a nice title.
The promos could have given this movie more credibility. You just have to see for yourself.
Violence: Yes. Sex:Yes. Nudity: No. Gore: Yes, you see scalpings. Language: Yes, some only in the beginning