Matthew Knott

I've just seen Inglourious Basterds, and for those of you who hate reading poorly written movie reviews let me summarise what you get in this film. The intensity of Reservoir dogs, the black humour of Kill Bill, and the lashings of cool found in Pulp Fiction.

For those of you not familiar with the plot, it follows a young Hitler struggling with his sexuality agianst the backdrop of the 1940's german disco scene, a concept summed up by the play-on-words titled song, Anal Vice (Eidelweiss). No wait, that didn't happen. Damn fantasies.

For me this movie reaffirmed two things, firstly, Tarantino is the reigning champion of set-piece dialogue. Secondly, Brad Pitt is one of the finest character actors of his generation.

 

The Dialogue

Cool, witty and not as edgy as to upset Spike Lee but still with that cutting edge that defines all his films. The set piece dailogue exchanges were like listening to Nina Simone, smooth and effortless. 

The film felt, to me anyway, more relaxed than some of his efforts, but that's not a bad thing. By taking the pace out of it one is left to enjoy the characters more. The story telling for the most part is completely linear, with the odd flashback thrown in here and there. He maintains the chapter format seen in Kill Bill, which is neither here nor there in terms of it's contribution to the movie, it's just something to note.

 

The Cinematography

Tarantino is renowned for his use of music to compliment the visuals, Basterds is no exception. From simple bass lines beefing up intensity to David Bowie's Cat People, there's a typically varied and obscure soundtrack that you expect from a Tarantino movie.

Camera work is typical of a director confident in what they do, irregular pans and camera angles all add to the experience. In the Tarantino signature single take following someone, the camera pans over cut away walls with seams included.

Talking of Tarantino signature pieces there is the essential mexican stand off moment, in a parisian cellar, and probably just second to Reservoir Dogs in terms of intensity, the slight comedic element went some way to reducing the tension.

This is definitely one of his more gory films, with graphic scalping and stabbing. Not sickeningly gratuitous but some may find it overly violent. There was something deeply satisfying about seeing an SS officer stabbed through the head.

 

Final thoughts

All I can really say against Basterds is that I though there were moments where subtlety would've been better, the smokey image of soshanna at the end of the movie being one such part, and there were times when I thought it was slightly under done, such as the development of the british Lieutenant character, and maybe the Basterds as a whole. Some more romping and scalping would have been good.

I read that he was forced to rush the edit, so perhaps a directors cut may come at a later date, which I'd be interested to see. That said I will watch it again, maybe in the cinema, probably on blu-ray. I'll certainly buy it as a piece of cinema I really enjoy and appreciated for what it was, although some of the experince was such that you couldn't enjoy it as much the second time, such as Pitt's Italian accent, one of my favourite comedy parts in the movie.