An absolute thrill presented by Quentin Tarantino

Rating: 8/10 (24 January 2020)

Explosive. Daring. Violent. Thrilling. These are all things that can be used to describe the work of art that is Inglourious Basterds. From the gut-wrenching action scenes to the intense dialogue between the undercover Americans and real Nazi soldiers, the film keeps you at the edge of your seat the entire time. While it might not be Tarantino's masterpiece, it sure does come close, being outshined only by Pulp Fiction.
Inglourious Basterds follows the path of an American Army Unit comprised of Jewish soldiers tasked with eliminating Nazis in both occupied France and Germany during World War II. The men of the unit, comprised of 8 Jewish soldiers, are tasked by their commander Brad Pitt, acting as Lt. Aldo "The Apache" Raine, "Each and every man under my command owes me one hundred Nazi scalps." The "Basterds" are truly a killing force that anyone else around dare to take on.
The antihero to this film comes in the form of Col. Hans Landa, played masterfully by Christoph Waltz. Col. Landa is the so-called "Jew hunter", tasked with rounding up all of the Jews still hiding in Nazi-occupied France. The second hero of the movie, apart from the Basterds, is introduced early when Col. Landa murders all of the other Jews in hiding in a small French house, except for Shosanna Dreyfus, played by Melanie Lauren, who solely escapes. She gets her revenge on Col. Landa at the finale of the film, where she is a part of a plan to kill all of the Nazi high command.
One of the most stellar elements of this film comes to light in moments of extreme stress on the heroes: the cinematography. The way that Robert Richardson (lead cinematographer) so eloquently exposes the various emotions that the actors are "feeling" is demonstrated in his phenomenal camera work. Even in scenes that are dialogue-driven and not at all action scenes, Richardson focuses on minute details that one might not even notice at first glance but quickly becomes apparent as to why a single detail is of absolute necessity for a scene. For example, in the infamous bar scene, the cover of one of the Basterd's operatives is blown when he uses a slightly different way of signaling "three" to the bartender. This minute detail might be unnoticeable if it were in another film, however, Richardson focuses the view of the camera on the real Nazi officer, and his facial emotions are telling enough that he knows the operative has made a mistake and blown his cover. These small details are plentiful throughout the length of the film and absolutely add to the audience's experience of the story.
Now for the less than perfect: the action. While the action is indeed thrilling, for some audience members it may be too much. In a similar war film, also starring Brad Pitt, Fury takes a much less violent approach to the action scenes. The audience still has the same level of adrenaline when there are action scenes in this movie but at the same time, there also is not the ultra-violence that is prevalent in most Tarantino movies. If you are are a Tarantino fan, however, this aspect will be no issue for you, as it bears a similar amount of gore to that of The Hateful Eight, another extremely well-executed Tarantino film.
In finality, Inglourious Basterds is an excellent film that keeps your eyes glued to the screen for the entire runtime. Whether it be in moments of intense dialogue or sharp jumps in an action scene, there is something for all mature movie aficionados in this film. While it does have some downsides, overall, Inglourious Basterds overwhelmingly keeps the audience entertained and is well worth two and a half hours.