WWII with a Heavy QT Stamp

Rating: 9/10 (24 August 2009)

I love WWII movies - and was anxious to see how Quentin Tarantino would construct such a film. _Inglourious Basterds_ gets high marks for: dialog, cinematography, costumes, and suspense. I really thought the film was only about 2 hours long - even though it runs 32 minutes more. The film is best when the characters are talking - and the suspense is building. Tarantino does a great job in this respect. There is violence, of course, but it is quick and highly stylized - and thus can be more properly described as war opera. I think the film would be just as good - or perhaps even a little better with less on-screen violence - or perhaps, a trade for a bit of implied violence. We also get the usual QT moments where a character blurts out something so absurd or preposterous - it just releases all the tension in the room - and gives the audience a chance to laugh. Kubrick used to do this too. Like Kubrick, QT makes movies for people who like to watch movies. That's why a Kubrick or QT movie can be watched many times - and appreciated on many different levels - without becoming a bore. The Cohen Bros also seem to understand this kind of rich, nuanced approach to film-making.
One other thing I noticed that was not in the trivia section, and this is a possible spoiler: There appears to be a slight nod to _The Great Escape_. In _The Great Escape_ Colonel von Luger, the POW camp Commandant, says, "We have put all the rotten eggs in one basket, and we intend to watch this basket carefully." In Tarantino's film, General Ed Fenech (Mike Myers) says: "We have all our rotten eggs in one basket. The objective of the operation... blow up the basket." Whether intentional or not - the quote stands out as something you'd expect to hear in a WWII movie.