These fears were nothing more than paranoid American beliefs that there was nothing worth going to the theaters to see this summer. "Inglourious Basterds" rewards the faithful fans of Tarantino with his most brilliantly directorial effort to date.
And as a David Bowie fan, you have to appreciate Quentin finally putting the theme to "Cat People" (sorry, that movie used the riff pretty well) to good use.
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JOSHUA BUDICH - "INGLORIOUS BASTERDS" |
Once upon a time in Nazi occupied France...In this fantasy, Lt. Aldo "Apache" Raine (Brad Pitt of "True Romance") handpicks a Jewish/American guerrilla unit to commit atrocities so heinous that the Germans will fear what the malice of God's chosen people. On their quest for 800 Nazi scalps, they are joined by a psychotic German officer killer (Til Schweiger of "SLC Punk"), a British film critic (Michael Fassbender of "300"), and a German double agent actress (Diane Kruger). There is also a Jewish/French woman (Mélanie Laurent) with her black boyfriend who have their own vicious plans to bring down the Third Reich. Will their be vengeance by all, or will the evil Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) determine the course of history.
When I left the theater, some were complaining that Pitt didn't act. All he did was put on a Southern accent. Personally, I think this is one of the best uses of the actor. He can be a character actor. When you look at Pitt's most memorable roles ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", "12 Monkeys", "Fight Club"), that is what he does. He just happens to be the best-looking character actor out there, and has been for the past decade (intercourse Heath Hedger).
To work as an actor in a Tarantino film, you have to be a character actor. It is not about what the dialogue is. It is how it is delivered, and all the members of the cast had where they needed to be like in all of his films (why else would other director cast him?). Eli Roth surprised me with his acting ability, but the best performance is delivered by the German Christoph Waltz.
Hans Landa is the perfect villain. Merciless but charismatic. He is aware of his evil and revels in it, and even the audience gets to enjoy and understands his methods. That is because Waltz gave such a great performance. Multiple languages, the ability to capture a Mark Hamill Joker essence, and brutal when he needs to be. This maybe the best villain in a Tarantino film.
If his performance was not grand, the film may fall apart because Tarantino lacks someone who you really want to see get it in the end. Killing faceless Nazis is a lot of fun, but we need to hope the anger will culminate with the punishment of a truly wretched asshole.
We are only given a few scenes of that give us restaurant table humor, and one of them is done completely in German. I'm not complaining about that scene despite many leaving the theater were. The humor is really dependent upon the premise, so it may seem too heavy on the one liners, but all of the dialogue is brilliant. I only wish that Tarantino was able to use all of his characters to their fullest.
This may mean that the film should have been rated NC-17. The films violence is why you created "Doom" .wad files. As Roth said in a press conference, "Inglourious Basterds" is a Jewish sex scene.
You want to see more of Roth with the baseball bat, Schweiger's brutality, famous Nazis acting stupid, and even more graphic violence in the finale. We only get to truly appreciate half of the basterds, and when you have a geek (Samm Levine) from "Freaks and Geeks" as one of them, you want to see some twisted stuff from he can do. I am praying for an unrated blu-ray in time for my birthday.
I don't want the disc just for the violence, but because Tarantino finally shows how great a director he can be. He has always been able to make the audience appreciate the charms of any type of cinema, but this time he captures it in every shot. This student of VHS was able to recreate the styles that pioneered the art of film (the war movie in the film is outstanding) while still maintaining his minimalist style. "Inglourious Basterds" is the culmination of every lesson gained by Tarantino from his entire filmography.
"Inglourious Basterds" is the finest directorial work of Quentin Tarantino. Its script is weaker than his other films, but is strong enough to support the filmmaker's efforts to place this on the same level as Resovoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.
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Awesome Acrylic Paintings by Jason Edmiston |
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