Movie review: Inglorious Basterds

Even though he’s only directed a handful of movies Quentin Tarantino is one of the most famous directors out there. So far to date his credits include Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, and his half of the film Grindhouse titled Death Proof. But in this list of films he has established himself as one of the best directors working in Hollywood right now. So when a new Tarantino movie is getting ready to come out of course there is going to be a lot of buzz about it.

Inglorious Basterds is the latest film to be added to Tarantino’s list. This one is a bit different from his other films because first off it is a World War II movie. The movie follows a group of soldiers called The Inglorious Basterds, lead by Brad Pitt, as they do what they do best and that’s kill Nazis.

Now the trailers for this movie are a bit misleading. They lead you to believe that this is a run and gun action movie. That you get to sit for 2 hours watching Brad Pitt and some other guys cut up Nazis the whole time. This is not the case. A good majority of the movie follows the character of Shoshanna who is a Jewish girl who escaped from almost being killed by the Nazis and winds up running her own movie theater. She meets up with a young German private who has become somewhat of a national hero and has even starred in a movie based on his accomplishments.

So a good chunk of the movie follows her and her plot to kill the Nazis that did her wrong. Also at the same time we follow a German Colonel named Hans. This part is played brilliantly by actor Christoph Waltz. I think that he really steals the show with his performance and I would not be surprised to see a Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor thrown his way. He plays the epitome of a smooth, scummy Nazi slimeball.

Another thing the trailers lead you believe is that this movie is filled with violent scenes. Yes there are some pretty violent scenes in the movie and they do get pretty graphic. But given the fact that the movie is 2 and a half hours long there aren’t many to speak of and they are spaced pretty far between.

A good majority of the movie is filled with dialogue. Now since this is a Tarantino movie the dialogue is very well written and keeps you interested. There is a scene in a bar where some characters talk back and forth for what seems like 20 minutes or more. This scene does drag on a bit but you find yourself interested in every word they have to say.

One thing I should say right off the bat with this movie is be prepared to read subtitles. While the scenes with Brad Pitt and his crew are in English most of the other parts of the movie are in German, French and a small bit in Italian. Thankfully the subtitles aren’t too hard to read and as I said before you find yourself really interested in what the characters have to say.

Tarantino has a pretty unique style to his movies. His camera work will consist of things like point of view shots and long tracking shots following a character overhead from one room to another. These aren’t as prevalent in this movie as they are in some of his other movies but when they are there you notice them and they really help to add to that particular scene.

The action scenes that are in the movie are done really well and while the violence isn’t as over the top as it was in something like Kill Bill it’s still a bit more gruesome than some other war movies and you can really feel the kick of the guns as they are shooting.

I should talk about the acting in this movie. I have already talked about the best performance in the movie but there are some other standouts. First off there is Melanie Laurent who played Shoshanna. She did a really good job and you really believed her when she decided to take revenge on the Germans. She also has to get some special consideration given that this is her first English speaking role and she pulled off those scenes very well. Another good performance comes from Eli Roth. Now Roth is more known as a director having done the two Hostel movies and the movie Cabin Fever. But he really pulled off his character well.

Of course you can’t talk about the acting without talking about Brad Pitt. I personally thing that Brad did a good job but he wasn’t great. His southern accent was a bit much and it almost sounds a little too forced. Now that could have been what Tarantino was going for and he wanted it to be over the top but without knowing that it just seems like an only semi-decent accent.

I guess I should say if you are a fan of Tarantino’s movies then you probably already have plans to see this at some point. If you are a fan of World War II movies this might be up your alley but there aren’t any huge battle scenes and this is mostly a dialogue driven movie so you might find yourself wondering where the war is in all this. If you are looking for a run and gun action movie then that is not what you are going to get here. But if you want a movie with some great characters and some great dialogue and an interesting plot then I would say check this out.

My score: 8.0/10