A film lacking substance and research.

Rating: 3/10 (26 December 2014)

Inglourious Basterds is an incredibly overrated and dismal film. The movie is an absolute joke, as the protagonists are depicted as war criminals while the supposed antagonists are displayed as heroes.
The film starts off with SS colonel Hans Landa (Christopher Waltz) interrogating a French dairy farmer. This scene was great, as it conveys how effective the main antagonist is with his eventual undoing of the farmer. To the audience, Landa lived up to his name of "Jew Hunter".
Despite that, this is the only scene that I actually enjoyed from this film
1. The capture of the "Nazis" by the eight Jewish-American paratroopers was the first mistake on Tarantino's behalf. I place "Nazis" in quotation marks as these were not Nazis, but Wehrmacht soldiers. They are just common soldiers, not part of the S.S. Aldo Raine allows for a soldier to be brutally beaten by a Basterd, and then tortures another soldier by carving a swastika on his head. Remind me why I should side with the "protagonists" again?
2. The tavern standoff was another disastrous scene. Wilhelm and Aldo negotiate, and come to a compromise in the end. After explaining that Wilhelm wants to go back to his family, he courageously agrees to Aldo's compromise. This scene is excellent, until Hammersmark just gets up and shoots him dead. Absolutely disgusting. These are the people I should be rooting for? I wished the German soldier had shot Hammersmark dead after that dreadful turn of events.
3. The end is also just a cesspool of bullshit. Things blow up and thousands of people get either shot or burned alive. I understand the Tarantino style, and I appreciate it, but this is just the stupidest scene ever. The whole scene looks comical and idiotic, a neat little tie up to this awful film. If this were role reversal, and the Germans trapped the higher Allied authority in a theatre and massacred them, the audience would have been horrified.
There were also other inconsistencies that Tarantino failed to address, such as; Why is there a black person helping in a theatre? They do address this in the film, but it was a wonder he wasn't immediately sent to a concentration camp, or at least barred from working with Dreyfus.
But I digress. The acting was on par, but the story was horrendous and an insult to the World War II legacy. It must be understood that if your allegiance stood with Germany throughout the War, it does not mean that you are instantly classified as a Nazi. The Wehrmacht were merely soldiers that fought for Germany, the same as the Allied forces. It is unbelievably inaccurate to suggest that most of the soldiers were war criminals or "Nazi Sympathisers".
Ultimately Inglourious Basterds displayed its true colours through the lack of research on Tarantino's behalf, and failure to identify the protagonists from antagonists. The Germans were depicted as heroes who fought for their country, while the Allies conveyed as ruthless murderers.
3/10