Saturday, October 27, 2012

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

This one is about vengeance by the Jews against the Nazis. Nazi occupied France is the center of action and Shosanna Dreyfuss has a personal score to settle against the Nazis and Colonel Hans Landa, for an ambush four years prior to the present.

She is in Paris with a different identity and is the owner of a cinema theater which is chosen to be the venue for the premier of a new Nazi propaganda movie titled 'Nation's Pride' starring war hero Fredrick Zoller and directed by Joesph Goebbels who is a very important member of Hitler's Third Reich.

She plans to burn down her theater with all the important Nazis locked inside during the premier, thanks to the adequate inflammable nitrate film that she has at her disposal. She has a Negro helper with whom she is very close.

On the other hand, we have the eight 'Inglorious Basterds', a violent lot, led by Lieutenant Aldo 'The Apache' Raine, who is always on the lookout for Nazi scalps. This team has eccentric and extremely violent characters like Hugo Stiglitz and 'The Bear Jew' Donny Donowitz. They are a part of 'Operation Kino' which also entails placing explosives at the film premier and ambushing the Nazis. Operation Kino is a British initiative which also involves a popular German actress-agent Bridget von Hammersmark.

What happens to the above two plans which coincide at the same venue, whether they succeed and whether the Nazis are ambushed is the finale of this movie.

The film has lots of suspenseful scenes which slowly buildup to reach a violent crescendo. The introductory scene of Colonel Landa, the scene at the bar when some Germans are celebrating their colleague's new baby, the final theater burning scene are such examples of scenes which are beautifully executed in a patient manner.

Brad Pitt as Aldo Raine scores with his voice modulations, looks, gestures and accent while Christopher Waltz as the silent and mean Landa nicknamed 'The Jew Hunter' is a terror. Both these actors lift the movie considerably. Most of the Basterds make a mark thanks to their unique traits. Diane Kruger and Melanie Laurent are the two beautiful faces with Melanie as Shosanna being a serene woman dying for vengeance against the Nazis. Kruger's fate is sad while Landa's passive 'deal' moves towards the end compromise the way in which his character was built-up till then.

The retro soundtrack at places makes a mark. There is also a lot of talk about German cinema and prominent directors of that time. The violence is again gloriously excess like other Tarantino movies. 'The Bear Jew' bashing Nazi heads with a baseball bat and Aldo carving the Swastika sign on the foreheads of surviving Nazis are classic examples of Tarantino's thinking.

The last dialog by Raine "I think this just might be my masterpiece" suits the movie and Tarantino pretty well too.

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