Tarrantino shoots himself in the foot as 'Basterds' devolves into puerile wish fulfillment fantasy

Rating: 5/10 (31 August 2009)

Inglourious Basterds is Quentin Tarrantino's homage to the entertaining World War II action films of the 60s and 70s. Of all such films, 'Basterds' mostly resembles the highly entertaining "The Dirty Dozen". In 'Chapter 1' (unquestionably the best scene in the movie), Tarrantino raises his 'Dirty Dozen' to a higher plane. In his World War II epic, the Nazis' hatred of the Jews is not ignored (unlike these earlier action films). At the outset, Tarrantino's SS man, Landa, is wholly believable as the charming sadist who ends up murdering a Jewish family hidden under the floorboards of a French dairy farmer's home. Like many of the scenes in the film, the opening scene is dialogue heavy but the tension is so palpable that one sits engrossed until the scene's brutal and harrowing outcome.
The reason why 'The Dirty Dozen' was so entertaining was that each convict 'misfit' had a distinct and extremely interesting personality. Tarrantino doesn't bother to develop any of his basterds as fleshed out people. Instead, all they can do is scalp Nazis or as one of them does (the so-called 'Bear Jew') beats Nazi brains out with a baseball bat. What's more, Tarrantino doesn't bother showing how they develop as a team and how they overcome obstacles leading to their reputation as professional killers. Instead, they're plopped down in occupied France and meet no real resistance. The whole charm of 'The Dirty Dozen' was that that they had to overcome not only the external obstacles of fighting the Nazis but deal with their own internal strife. In short, they were fairly plausible, believable characters. Not so with Tarrantino's group who are not only unbelievable but unsympathetic (they're as sadistic as their Nazi opponents).
The problem with Tarrantino's narrative is that it gradually becomes more and more implausible and incoherent. I was willing to suspend my disbelief when Shoshanna, the Jewish girl, escapes while Landa murders her family (did his gun jam?) but how does she become the owner of a movie theater a few years later? Wouldn't the Nazis have uncovered her Jewish heritage? Tarrantino's portrait of Goebbals as a dilettante in the world of German cinema rang true but I question the assertion that he was the #2 man (next to Hitler) in the Nazi hierarchy (certainly Bormann, Heydrich and Goring had a lot more power).
Visually, it was a nice touch in showing Hitler with an unflattering complexion as well as making fun of his out of control temper; but to reduce Hitler to a complete buffoon while other Nazi characters are quite believably scary, makes no sense whatsoever. Hitler, after all, was the brains behind the operation.
Tarrantino does serve up some juicy characters which were highly entertaining. I liked Pvt. Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Bruhl) as he first appears to be a harmless, lovesick puppy dog, enamored with our Jewish cinema owner and actually exudes modesty despite having become a war hero and accidental movie star. And it makes perfect sense for him to morph into a sadistic stalker on the verge of rape when he shows his 'true colors' after confronting Shoshanna in the projection booth. In some ways, Zoller is more sinister than Landa.
Kudos also to Diane Kruger as Bridget Hammersmark, the movie actress who's also a double agent. Despite its unpleasantness, the scene of Kruger's demise at the hands of the sadistic Landa pulls you in. Perhaps the best character in the movie is Major Dieter Hellstrom, played by the brilliant August Diehl, who ends up exposing Michael Fassbender's film critic turned spy in the basement tavern face-off. The way Tarrantino has the diabolical Major deduce it's 'King Kong' during the card game is utterly brilliant. Through Hellstrom's 'deduction', Tarrantino demonstrates that he has a profound understanding of the sinister nature of Nazi politics and ideology.
Tarrantino, however, shoots himself in the foot in the final third of the movie. The Basterds are supposed to be a crackerjack professional outfit but allow themselves to be easily apprehended at the film premiere because no one speaks any languages except English. And despite Hitler showing up at the premiere, there's absolutely no security (Shoshanna's black lover who plans to set fire to the building has free rein to walk around without being stopped once). In Tarrantino's warped universe, he somehow feels some kind of perverse satisfaction in having Shoshanna laugh at the Nazis as they are being burned to a crisp in an on screen rant.
Finally, what really killed the film for me was the denouement where the sinister and charming Landa suddenly becomes a blithering idiot by offering to surrender to the Allies after allowing the Basterds' bomb plot to proceed. How could the "Hangman" of Occupied France suddenly deceive himself into believing that Lt. Aldo Raine, the notorious Nazi killer, would agree to his ludicrous demands and then keep his word?
Inglorious Basterds contains a plethora of clever references to the history of cinema. Many of the scenes are overlong and talky but the dialogue is always crisp and never boring. Tarrantino's characters are a mixed bag—he's much more successful with his Nazi antagonists than his American protagonists. Particularly disappointing is Brad Pitt who has little to do except practice a Southern accent. With the exception of Hitler and SS Landa's final scenes, Tarrantino does a credible job of humanizing his Nazis. That doesn't mean he approves of them but it shows he knows what makes them tick.
Tarrantino should have consulted with Daniel Mendelsohn before making his mad revenge fantasy. Mendelsohn, writing in Newsweek, gets it right: "An alternative, and morally superior, form of "revenge" for Jews would be to do precisely what Jews have been doing since World War II ended: that is, to preserve and perpetuate the memory of the destruction that was visited upon them, precisely in order to help prevent the recurrence of such mass horrors in the future."