The inglorious glory of Tarantino reigns!

Rating: 10/10 (13 September 2009)

Ingloury, Ingloury alleluyah, Tarantino has laid it down! The Q is back in Director monarchy status with his rocking orchestration of "Inglourious Basterds". The I.B.'s (see film title) are a renegade squad of Jewish-Americans with a German Nazi killer who go on a mission in Nazi occupied France to hunt down and dismember the Nazialites during World War II. The Basterds are led by redneck Lt. Aldo Raine, a scowl-gestured feisty leader who is one damn funny basterd, and has a zero-tolerance sympathy for the germy Nazi Germans. Brad Pitt's brilliant performance as Raine was a shower of comic delight. The rest of the Basterds include: Sgt. Donny Donowitz, a baseball bat basher who hits Nazi brains out of the war park; Pfc. Omar Ulmer, a Nazi brain dismembering specialist who definitely makes the Basterd cut right; Private Smithson Utivich, the quiet Basterd who Nazis nickname "The Little Man" without him knowing; Lt. Archie Hicox, the undercover Basterd who needed to take some foreign accentuation classes before his spy gigs; and last but not least, the German beast Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz, a bulky German who is famed for brutally murdering Nazis and therefore ends up a Basterd. The beastly basterd supporting thespian work of Eli Roth as Donowitz, Omar Doom as Ulmer, B.J. Novak as Utivich, Michael Fassbender as Hicox, and Til Schweiger as Stiglitz was Basterd grunt euphoria! Not since the "Saving Private Ryan" grunts have I witnessed some fine acting in a movie war squad! OK Meeza, at ease! Now let's move to the dark side, the Nazis. Christoph Waltz plays the verbally manipulative Nazi Colonel Hans Landa, his specialty is to find hiding Jews in all of France at all costs. Hans is the premier villain of the film, yes even above Der Fuehrer himself. I have not witnessed such a despicable, but yet quite charming, villain in a film since I witnessed another Hans twenty years ago that being Hans Gruber in "Die Hard". Waltz' virtuoso performance will waltz him into the Oscar dance with a Best Supporting Actor nomination, and even a win. Some commanding Nazi supporting acting turns were also executed by Daniel Bruhl as Private Fredrick Zoller, a Nazi war hero who stars in a movie based on his sniper work in killing thousands of Jews; and August Diehl who plays Dieter Hellstrom, a supercilious German Major who grows suspicious of Hicox's fake German accent and partakes with some of the Basterd undercovers in a drunken game at a basement tavern. Hell, even Martin Wuttke was not bad playing Hitler himself; that is the only time you will see "not bad" and "Hitler" in the same sentence. And what about the chicks? Shosanna Dreyfus might be just considered the central character of the film. Dreyfus is a France theatre owner who lost her entire family during one of Landa's Jew seeking expeditions a few years ago. With inglorious intervention a few years later, she is confronted with devilish Hans again when he is self-assigned the role of Security Head for the premiere of Zoller's sniper film at Dreyfus' theatre. Consequently, Shosanna comes up with a fiery plan to eradicate all Nazi officers attending the premiere in her theatre. Melanie Laurent's work as Dreyfus was of Best Saint Laurent scent. Another delightful fem performance was delivered by Diane Kruger playing famed German actress Bridget Von Hammersmark, who is also set her mark in rightfully betraying her country by hammering some Nazis, and even congregates with the heroic I.B.'s to eradicate the Nazis at the film premiere in Shosanna's theatre. Yes, there is a myriad of plot developments within the movie, but Quentin would not have it any other way. Tarantino's screenplay was masterful as the dialogue itself within the characters symbolized the red flags of bloody red violence lurking thereafter. No one develops this form of verbal antecedent better than Tarantino, as he has also formulated it proficiently in his past films. It has become the Q's original writer-director niche. Quentin most certainly deserves Best Director & Best Screenplay Oscar nominations for his stellar film-making of "Inglourious Basterds". The Academy would be the new Inglorious Bastards if they fire him with snubs. Tarantino's glorious film-making team also made their mark! Robert Richardson's cinematography & Sebastian Krawinkel's art direction were cine veritas on the authenticity of Nazi-occupied France. As in most of Quentin's films, the music & the score played integral parts in "Inglourious Basterds" developments, and the hip glorious tunes tuned us all attentively. OK, I know I have been a critical basterd by elongating this film review! But I just wanted to provide you a cut-by-cut analysis on the masterpiece entitled "Inglourious Basterds". ***** Excellent