Inglourious Basterds -- TheQuietStorm's Review

Since hitting the scene with "Pulp Fiction," Quentin Tarantino had his share of hits and failures. "Death Proof" had its moments but did little to engage audiences with the discombobulated storyline and lack of redemptive qualities. The "Kill Bill" series was both a critical and commercial success but didn't come close to the greatness of Tarantino's Oscar winning film. His latest release, "Inglourious Basterds," on the other hand, is not only one of the best films of 2009 but it actually comes close to the standards in quality set by "Fiction."

The film opens in World War II, where Col. Hans Landa, a Nazi nicknamed "The Jew Hunter", arrives at a small village in France to interrogate a French farmer in his home, wanting to find out if he is harboring Jews. This scene plays out five minutes too long but the exchanges between Landa and the farmer, supported by subtle great performances, tension and witty dialogue, actually engages you right away. The exchanges within this scene lead to a whole Jewish family being executed at the whim of Landa's command, with him allowing one of the family members to escape.

From there, we meet Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Raine, the southern, gentile leader of "the Basterds" whose mission is to hunt and kill Nazis behind enemy lines. The Germans nicknamed him "Aldo the Apache" due to his scalping methods used by the Native American Apache tribe. We follow Lt. Raine and "the Basterds" as they capture Nazis, killing them mercilessly with machine guns, interrogating others or clubbing them with a baseball bat, used by Sgt. Donowitz (Eli Roth) aka "The Bear Jew." If the Nazi is fortunate to escape death at the hands of the Basterds, Raine sees to it that his identification as a Nazi isn't limited to a uniform, prompting him to carve the swastika into their foreheads with a knife, leaving a scar that would brand them for life.

Of course there isn't proof of such things happening in Nazi occupied Europe but that is the point of Tarantino's romanticized opus. There is more.

Four years later, a woman named Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent), the family member who escaped the massacre committed against her family by Col. Landa in the French farmer's house, becomes a gentile cinema owner in Paris. She unwittingly grabs the attention of Pvt. Frederick Zoller (Daniel Brühl), a decorated Nazi war hero who killed hundreds of enemy soldiers as a sniper and re-created his exploits by playing himself in new film produced by Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propagandist. Pvt. Zoller convinces Goebbels to move the premiere of their film, which will be attended by top Nazi officials, to Shosanna's small venue, inspiring her to conceive of a plan where she will lock the doors on them in her theater and set the place on fire.

Meanwhile, the high British command (played by Mike Myers in a cameo) is plotting to blow up the cinema during the premiere and they get the Basterds in on this one. To execute the plan, the Basterds use Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger), a stunningly beautiful German actress who works with the Allies, to get them into the premiere screening.

If you're looking for a history lesson on covert missions conjured by the Allies to exterminate Nazis or any historical accuracy regarding Nazi occupied France, then this film isn't for you. Tarantino brilliantly idealizes a revenge plot in the midst of the German war and gave the film his special touch with fully developed characters and smart, often times amusing dialogue. Most of the film's dialogue is spoken in German, French (with subtitles) and English, with some Italian courtesy of Col. Landa, which reminds me.

Austrian born actor Christoph Waltz steals the show as Col. Hans Landa, a seemingly impossible thing to do considering the collective greatness of this film's ensemble cast. His Col. Landa is sadistic, calculating, funny and malicious. I predict an Oscar nomination for Waltz.

Tarantino's trademark lengthy exchanges of smart dialogue may frustrate some, probably contributing to the film's 153 minute playing time, but it never feels unwarranted or carelessly thrown in as a gimmick. You're actually learning about these characters with each word being said, without exposition.

The film was entertaining, a welcome relief from the mostly worthless fluff released this year so far and a testimony to Tarantino's talent as a filmmaker. The lush cinematography by the great Robert Richardson might also get an Oscar nod. And the writing infuses a punitive plot that pays off wonderfully in the end, making up for the soullessness of Tarantino's previous release.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I give this film 8 out of 10.