← Back to Reviews
in
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Once upon a time in (an alternative version of) Nazi-occupied France, Shosanna (Melanie Laurent), a young Jewish woman who runs a cinema, attracts the attention of a celebrated young Nazi and spots an opportunity for revenge, while a band of Jewish-American soldiers known as the Basterds led by Brad Pitt roam around the continent scalping Nazis. The two plotlines converge in an orgy of violent revenge of Shakespearian proportions (if Shakespeare had had more stuff being blown up) at the premiere of a German propoganda film at Shosanna's cinema.
This film enthralled and irritated me in equal measure.
The music, a lot of it by Ennio Morricone, was excellent, very atmospheric. There were some beautiful shots and some wonderfully tense, well scripted scenes – the opening scene in which Christoph Waltz's amoral Nazi Col. Landa interrogates a French farmer suspected of sheltering a Jewish family is a stand out. I loved that the French characters spoke French and the German characters spoke German – none of your 'Allo Allo' style Germans speaking English to each other in bad German accents. And it had August Diehl (The Counterfeiters). It didn't bother me at all that the film changed history, films always do. Although I think I'd have preferred it if I hadn't known beforehand that it did.
But on the other hand, there were a few things that bothered me. Mike Myers, for one, in his Austin Powers English accent cameo. When the unplaceable German accent of the English spy in another scene is a plot point, it seems ill judged. Although perhaps it was deliberate. The whole film, frankly, could have been done as well (maybe better) without the eponymous basterds; Shosanna's side of the story is much more interesting. I wasn't keen on Brad Pitt in this at all, although I know others have praised him. Adopting a Tennessee drawl and a constipated squint doesn't quite cut it as an acting performance for me. And the style of the film wasn't quite as consistent as it could have been. Some of it was quite restrained by Tarantino standards, but then a burst of voiceover and little cartoon arrows pointing out who everyone is would happen, which was a little jarring – I think it needed either more of that, earlier on, or none at all. It lacked the kinetic style of Pulp Fiction or Kill Bill but failed to quite replace it with anything solid and the odd bursts of grim humour didn't quite gel, for me. There's no subtlety to it. Although perhaps I shouldn't be looking for subtlety in a Tarantino movie.
The whole concept of the film bothered me. It's like fanfiction for history. Inglourious Basterds is not so much a revenge movie as a revenge fantasy. It's not characters taking revenge on characters - the characters of the Basterds are never developed beyond "we're gonna be doin' one thing and one thing only... killin' Nazis."
It's a bit immature. Which is a shame, because parts of it really are brilliant. I think perhaps Tarantino needs to co-write with someone who can rein him in a bit.
(Sections of this review previously posted in the Inglourious Basterds review thread)
Once upon a time in (an alternative version of) Nazi-occupied France, Shosanna (Melanie Laurent), a young Jewish woman who runs a cinema, attracts the attention of a celebrated young Nazi and spots an opportunity for revenge, while a band of Jewish-American soldiers known as the Basterds led by Brad Pitt roam around the continent scalping Nazis. The two plotlines converge in an orgy of violent revenge of Shakespearian proportions (if Shakespeare had had more stuff being blown up) at the premiere of a German propoganda film at Shosanna's cinema.
This film enthralled and irritated me in equal measure.
The music, a lot of it by Ennio Morricone, was excellent, very atmospheric. There were some beautiful shots and some wonderfully tense, well scripted scenes – the opening scene in which Christoph Waltz's amoral Nazi Col. Landa interrogates a French farmer suspected of sheltering a Jewish family is a stand out. I loved that the French characters spoke French and the German characters spoke German – none of your 'Allo Allo' style Germans speaking English to each other in bad German accents. And it had August Diehl (The Counterfeiters). It didn't bother me at all that the film changed history, films always do. Although I think I'd have preferred it if I hadn't known beforehand that it did.
But on the other hand, there were a few things that bothered me. Mike Myers, for one, in his Austin Powers English accent cameo. When the unplaceable German accent of the English spy in another scene is a plot point, it seems ill judged. Although perhaps it was deliberate. The whole film, frankly, could have been done as well (maybe better) without the eponymous basterds; Shosanna's side of the story is much more interesting. I wasn't keen on Brad Pitt in this at all, although I know others have praised him. Adopting a Tennessee drawl and a constipated squint doesn't quite cut it as an acting performance for me. And the style of the film wasn't quite as consistent as it could have been. Some of it was quite restrained by Tarantino standards, but then a burst of voiceover and little cartoon arrows pointing out who everyone is would happen, which was a little jarring – I think it needed either more of that, earlier on, or none at all. It lacked the kinetic style of Pulp Fiction or Kill Bill but failed to quite replace it with anything solid and the odd bursts of grim humour didn't quite gel, for me. There's no subtlety to it. Although perhaps I shouldn't be looking for subtlety in a Tarantino movie.
The whole concept of the film bothered me. It's like fanfiction for history. Inglourious Basterds is not so much a revenge movie as a revenge fantasy. It's not characters taking revenge on characters - the characters of the Basterds are never developed beyond "we're gonna be doin' one thing and one thing only... killin' Nazis."
WARNING: "Inglorious Basterds" spoilers below
It's like a ten year old first hearing about the holocaust and saying 'yeah, well if I'd been there we'd have had this whole secret army of Jews and we'd have gone round scalping Nazis and we'd have trapped Hitler and a bunch of Nazis in a cinema and we'd have pumped them full of bullets and set fire to them and then blown them up.'
(Sections of this review previously posted in the Inglourious Basterds review thread)