"With Tarantino and great actors at work, "Basterds" is tour de force in writing and acting."

Rating: 10/10 (18 August 2014)

I would rarely allow my tongue to spit out the word 'perfection' on a movie, but I did that for "Inglourious Basterds". "Basterds" is a movie that has the ability to bliss out every movie fans. As close as it gets to some of my favorite films, "Basterds" is not much a take on a story, but delivers for the sake of experience, and if you truly love cinema, you will adore this basterdized version of Tarantino movie-making, trust me.
Once upon a time in Nazi-occupied France, charismatic SS colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) arrives in a French dairy farm only to play his slow-burn but charming interrogation game. Upon discovering that a Jewish family is hiding underneath a floorboard, he orders his men to annihilate the family, leaving only a girl named Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent) to escape.
Meanwhile in America, the film introduces Lieutenant Aldo Raine, a leader of a militant group that consists of Jewish-American soldiers. They call themselves 'The Basterds'. Their goal? To destroy any SS soldiers they encounter. The story takes on two paths: Shosanna's and Aldo's, only which they would intercept with each other during the final chapter, and Hans Landa only partly visits the two. Hence it's fair to agree that Aldo, Shosanna and Landa are the primary characters.
"Basterds" is entirely comical, so do not expect absolute historical accuracy of the events of WWII. The film is a take by Tarantino on the World War as to entertain, but not to educate. "Basterds" is WWII is in his very own imagination, and his WWII fantasy is his very own history, not the story that we will see in the history books. An argument which mentions that historical inaccuracies do live as a major flaw of the movie is inarguably invalid.
In "Basterds", I sensed that there is a lack of purity in the moral behavior of the characters. It is true that Aldo Raine is a hero-like character, but he is a man who is likely lacks great sympathy for anyone. Shosanna's act too made it evident to support my point. Is she is truly seeking for justice; she would just aim to only murder Landa, not the entire Nazi regime. Cruelty lives in all the major characters, and I guess its final affect would be to boost an idea that in war, goodness rarely thrives, but only a 'bad vs bad' would mostly run the show. I mean, in a war, most of the 'pawns' are murderers, right? Duh.
Tarantino is once again responsible for making a movie that delivers impeccable performances. If Tarantino is in the throne of a film project, you would witness strong acting performances. Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Mélanie Laurent, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl and Sylvester Groth are unquestionably terrific. When Brad Pitt plays music through his acted unintentionally hilarious accent, Christoph Waltz charms us with his charisma. When Mélanie Laurent the Shosanna turns to beast from beauty, Diane Kruger turns away for an unusual angelic beauty. Great acting is great acting, but it is Tarantino's bravura screenplay that helps to secure the performances. With Tarantino and great actors at work, "Basterds" is tour de force in writing and acting.
Its cinematography is a knockout, and too its production sets. I am confident that "Basterds" is a masterful act by Tarantino. Great dialogues, great build-up of scenes, great acting, and great plot – "Basterds" is very close to be his best picture since "Pulp Fiction", and indeed it is the most definite approach of his personal tarantinoesque movie-genre. "Inglourious Basterds" is a masterpiece, and one of the great films of decade. Period.
Score: 4/4
(Cinematicmadness.blogspot.com)