His Best since Pulp Fiction? (Yes)

Rating: 9/10 (2 September 2009)

First off this is easily Tarantino's best since Pulp Fiction. I'm not going to say that it rivals Pulp Fiction yet, but I might in about a week after this movie finishes swimming through my brain. The choice to have all the characters speak the languages they actually would be speaking adds a weird sense of realism and also works into the plot, in a way that makes a lot of since. Subtleties of accent and mannerism mean a lot. Also, great performances from the entire cast, especially Christoph Waltz, who won Best Actor at Cannes. In the first scene I missed some of the subtitles because I couldn't take my eyes off him. That good.
Speaking of the first scene, it was excellent, and sets up the motivations of a major character down the road. This and the bar scene are the two standouts in the movie; a slow, inevitable build, followed by a burst of violence. A-game material for all involved.
I'd also like to address the criticisms this film received for "turning the Jews into Nazis". That's simply not true. You see one major Jew character's family mercilessly slaughtered by Nazis early on, and you can imagine similar backgrounds for many of the Basterds, given their willingness to do violence to Nazis. The climax can be twisted to enforce the above statement, but I refuse to believe it. It's irresponsible for those critics to dismiss Tarantino as glorifying violence, but what he's actually doing is much trickier; he forces the viewer to deal with their own morality, and where they draw the line between justice and vengeance. The climax, in particular, teeters on the edge of satisfying and nightmarish, leaning more towards the second as the screams of the Nazis and laughs of the movie screen grow louder. It raises questions, and is aware of this. Tarantino is too masterful a filmmaker to be ignorant of his movie's message.
Yes, I said master filmmaker. And, I loved the way he worked film into the climax. I loved the way he worked film in this movie, period.