Cracking - but more than just a guns blazing shoot 'em up

Rating: 9/10 (8 February 2010)

First of all this really is a cracking action film. It operates brilliantly on the superficial level of just being a war romp and a heist movie. In invokes all the great stuff we enjoy in classics like 'The Dirty Dozen' and 'The Guns of Navarone'. You can enjoy it like that, but, like most of the great Tarantino films, it also runs on a deeper level, and it can provoke you to think a bit more too.
I particularly enjoyed the way that it gloried in the horror of war, but also managed to be horrified and disgusted with it at the same time. This is a really fine line, but it is genuinely played out in a subtle and at times very amusing way.
The 'Goodies' and the 'Baddies' theme is subverted beautifully - the Jew hunting Nazis, and the Nazi hunting Jews being a perfectly balanced equation - each as spiteful, vicious and psychopathic as each other. More importantly - they are presented as being equally deranged, and evil. The morality in the film is just passive - it's just an amoral experience that you bear witness to. The scene in the German beer cellar is fantastic - with the Basterds dressed in Nazi uniform the lines are watered down even more. The only 'goodies' in that cellar are the poor unfortunate German foot soldiers celebrating the birth of a new life. So ironic - but brilliantly crafted.
The film within a film motif is also excellently done. Within the film is the premier of the Nazi propaganda movie, which is a parody of the genre 'Inglourious Basterds' is operating within. It provokes you to think about what you're watching. As the Nazi's watch and cheer their propaganda - the most evil audience conceivable - we sit and cheer our own film... where is the good and evil in this movie?
Honestly - this is superb. I genuinely think it asks questions of the genre and moves in forward in a slightly satirical and highly enjoyable way.
A must see film.