In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers coincides with a theatre owner’s vengeful plans for the same.
Those who know me know I am not a big Tarantino fan. I always felt he was overrated and to this day, I still think his best film was his first, “Reservoir Dogs.” I know a lot of people who think his second feature, “Pulp Fiction,” is the best movie ever made but I digress. While it had some entertaining qualities, “Reservoir Dogs” was a minimalist achievement, especially for a first-time filmmaker. After “Reservoir Dogs,” I would list “The Hateful Eight” as his next best film but hey, that’s just me!
I saw “Inglourious Basterds” upon its initial theatrical release in 2009 and afterward, I left the theater feeling rather listless. Tarantino had done it, yet again, he made another movie that did absolutely nothing for me. That was the only time I saw the movie so when I recently received a 4K review copy, I figured that maybe time might have been good to the film as I have been known to change my tune about a picture upon further viewing, but after watching “Basterds” for the second time, I felt even more detached from it, and that’s the thing with Tarantino, there’s really no middle ground, you either love his movies or hate them and for the most part, I don’t care for the majority of them.
“Inglourious Basterds,” tells the story of Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), a lieutenant in the U.S. Army in 1944 who recruits Jewish-American soldiers to his commando unit known as the Basterds, a group of men who have made a name for themselves working their way across Europe, killing and scalping as many Nazis who are unlucky enough to get in their way. Their name instills fear throughout the German Army and even Hitler (Martin Wuttke) is aware of their exploits. In a small French town just outside of Paris, Emmanuelle Mimieux (Mélanie Laurent) owns and operates a cinema when she is approached by a young German soldier named Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Brühl), who is considered a war hero by the Germans for killing several hundred Allied soldiers in a battle. He informs her that a film was made about him, trying to impress her but his charms have no effect on her. Unaware of her past, three years earlier, Emmanuelle’s rural Jewish French family were murdered by Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), a ruthless SS officer but she managed to escape with her life and changed her name from Shosanna Dreyfus to Emmanuelle Mimieux.
She manages to hide her hatred for the Germans but Fredrick constantly turns up at the cinema or her local restaurant, unannounced, smitten with her, and eventually, he presses Joseph Goebbels (Sylvester Groth), the Nazi Minister of Propaganda who made a film called “Nation’s Pride,” about Fredrick’s killing of the Allied soldiers that also stars him playing himself, about moving the premiere to Emmanuelle’s cinema instead. He reluctantly agrees but believes that Fredrick is going to be a huge movie star and pulls out all the stops to make it happen for him. When Emmanuelle learns that Hitler and the German high command will all be in attendance, she begins to formulate a plan that will secure their demise but unbeknownst to her, Aldo and his Basterds are also planning on attending the premiere, with their own agenda in hand.
Watching “Inglourious Basterds” again for the first time in over twelve years left me feeling the exact same way as when I first saw it; bored, unresponsive, and, basically, infuriated that it was still as bad as I initially remembered it. Tarantino weaves multiple non-linear narratives at once that just go on and on and on, ad nauseam, reminding me that a good editor should have trimmed at least thirty minutes off of this sprawling saga. Brad Pitt can be a terrific actor with the right script and director but here, it seemed like he lost a bet and had to speak with one of the worst Southern accents in movie history. While some dialect coaches over the years stated that Pitt’s accent was the dialect spoken by natives of the Appalachian Region of the U.S., for most people, it sounded overly exaggerated and unnatural. The one saving grace herein was Christoph Waltz’s Col. Hans Landa, who single-handedly saved the film from bottoming out. Hans sees himself as a celebrity within the German Army, thanks to the nickname he has earned, “The Jew Hunter,” which gives him unconditional powers to torture, maim, and kill anybody who opposes the Nazis, should he deem it necessary, which is just about all the time.
His arrogant, pretentious persona can intimidate the highest-ranking men inside his own army with just a glance, and he has no problem squealing like a little giddy schoolgirl when he gets his own way. This is an actor who deservedly won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, it’s just a pity the rest of the cast chewed up the scenery in burlesque fashion, leaving Waltz to wipe them all off the screen. The movie is exquisitely shot by Robert Richardson, who has lensed all of Tarantino’s films since “Kill Bill: Vol. 1” and imbues beautiful bold colors throughout, accompanied by a vast array of luscious, wide palettes, whether in the woods of Territoire de Belfort, France, or during the destruction of the Le Gamaar cinema in the film’s finale, Richardson is a master visual artisan whose work is undeniably impressive, and it elevates “Inglourious Basterds” above the conventional and uninspiring narrative that Tarantino is solely responsible for.
Available on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray™, and Digital October 12th
