A common way to think of Quentin Tarantino is as a purveyor of shallow and violent films. The claim of violence makes sense. As he himself said, “Sure, Kill Bill's a violent movie. But it's a Tarantino movie. You don't go to see Metallica and ask the fuckers to turn the music down.” Good point.
I should admit that I have not enjoyed all of Tarantino's films. I loved Resovoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, I enjoyed but did not love the Kill Bill movies, True Romance, and Four Rooms, and I was frankly bored by Jackie Brown and Death Proof. So, in which of these three categories do I place Inglourious Basterds? I agree with Roger Ebert, who said about this film that it, “is a big, bold, audacious war movie that will annoy some, startle others and demonstrate once again that he’s the real thing, a director of quixotic delights.” It is a truly great movie. Five reasons:
Tarantino is a master of cinematic narrative. He never tells a story the same way twice. Resovoir Dogs is told in retrospect, Pulp Fiction is out-of-order (making, for example, John Travolta's character invulnerable in the final diner scene, since the viewer already knows how he will die), and Kill Bill is told in independent chapters. For Basterds, Tarantino plays with our expectations of how World War Two movies are supposed to end, and how truth and justice are “supposed” to play out on film.
Christopher Waltz's performance as a Nazi, hunting Jews in occupied France, is reason enough for every adult to see this film. His is a complex character that you love to hate and fear equally.
Tarantino succeeds in his stated goal of making a spaghetti-western set in the Second World War. This movie very much feels like a twisted vision of A Fistful of Dollars.
While most of the previews emphasize the buddy-war movie aspect of this film, a la The Dirty Dozen, the best scenes in the movie are Hitchcock-inspired, dialogue-heavy and subtitled scenes of suspense.
The movie is Hamlet-esque in its self-examination. One of the various plots of the film explores the ethics of propaganda war movies, complete with Nazis laughing at the portrayal of allied soldiers being killed. The viewer is drawn toward hatred for the Nazis for this sub-human reaction, and then equally drawn to cheer when the violence against the Nazis is even more brutal and graphic. This work is, in itself, a self-aware propaganda film.
While some may mistaken believe that Basterds is a cartoonishly violent film, the truth is that this film is the type that will need to be broken down at a coffee shop for at least a couple of hours with friends to truly appreciate. Those looking for cartoonish violence will likley be bored, but those looking for an interesting experience will likely enjoy this film.
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