Tarantino being Tarantino

Rating: 9/10 (5 September 2009)

The first part of this review is a critique of other reviewers. If you don't like the film, that's fine, not everyone's cup of tea, I get it. But what I cannot fathom are those who criticize QT as having lost his touch and not being up to his prior films or that he is living off his past accomplishments. Tarantino is self-indulgent? Well duh, of course he is, he's Tarantino. His movies are his art, and by that I mean he considers movie-making like making art. He revels in the process, he pays homage to other movies that have influenced him. In every movie he makes, a good portion of the movie is about the form itself. Long dialogue scenes are a pretty common occurrence in most of his films. To those who say they were overly long and added nothing to the movie, really don't know what you were watching.
Also, I take issue with the other reviewers moral equivalence that equates the hatred of the Jews/Basterds towards the Nazis to the Nazi hatred of Jews simply for being Jews. Why did they brutalize the Nazis? Did you miss Aldo's (Pitt's) speech to the Basterds about why scalps would be taken and Nazis would be mutilated.
Now, as for the movie, a beautiful mix of revenge fantasy, spaghetti western sensibility, and that classic Tarantino mix of brutal violence and sardonic blacker than black humor. An interweaving of 3 different story lines that all resolve together in a climactic, beautiful, gory, red, fiery, and fulfilling blood stained finish. Though some may have yearned for more screen time for the basterds and there grisly punishments of the Nazi troops and less of the extended dialogue scenes, these scenes each contained a palpable tension and a rising sense of dread as to where they were headed and were entertaining in their own right. I will not retell the story as I think you the reader should see for yourself if you agree with what Aldo Raine says "might be his greatest masterpiece".