Movie Review: Inglourious Basterds (2009) directed by Quentin Tarantino
In 1941 France, SS officer Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), already known as “The Jew-Hunter”, ferrets out a hidden family, killing most of them, but decides to let Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent) the almost-adult daughter to outrun him to, perhaps, have the pleasure of hunting her down again later.
About four years later, a small unit led by Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) is parachuted into France some months before the D-Day landings. Their mission? “Kill Nat-zees.” As a guerilla unit, the plan is for them to spread terror among the German troops by killing them in especially brutal ways, scalping corpses and permanently scarring one survivor per battle to spread the word.
Meanwhile in Paris, Shosanna is going by the name “Emanuelle” and running a movie theater with the aid of black projectionist Marcel (Jacky Ido). One of the patrons is Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Brühl), a photogenic German sniper who’d become a war hero by holding off an American division in Italy. Needing every propaganda victory he can get, Joseph Goebbels (Sylvester Groth) cast Zoller as himself in the movie Nation’s Pride which is to premiere in Paris. Smitten with Emanuelle, Zoller insists on having the premiere at her cinema. Shosanna is less than thrilled with Zoller’s attentions, but there’s not much she can do to protest without attracting dangerous attention.
A double agent within the German film industry alerts the Allies of the upcoming film premiere, which will have many high-ranking German government officials and military officers in attendance. This is a tempting target, and the British have the perfect agent, Lieutenant Charlie Hicox (Michael Fassbender)–fluent in German and an expert on German cinema so he can pass as the sort of person a popular actress, Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) would have on her arm at a red-carpet event. The Bastards are chosen as the muscle to back him up.
Problem! The chief of security for the premiere is now-Major Hans Landa, who is something of a master detective. Plus, the commandos don’t know that another plan is simultaneously taking place that might conflict with their own. But if this mission can be pulled off, it could change the course of the war!
This movie has an odd title, perhaps so as not to step too close to one of its inspirations, 1973 movie Inglorious Bastards. It’s oddly structured, too. I understand it was cut to two and a half hours from a six-hour miniseries by stripping out anything that wasn’t necessary for the main plot.
There is, of course, some lovely violence, but Mr. Waltz delivers some tense quiet scenes as well, first talking with the farmer that’s hiding Shosanna’s family, and later with the disguised Shosanna herself. Is he on to her, or is he just suspicious as part of his security job? And then there’s the reveal of his master plan.
The cinematography is good, and I liked all the references to classic war movies. I just hope you weren’t expecting the Bastards to be the focus characters, because they spend a lot of time offscreen. Also, this is a war movie, so don’t get too attached to any one character.
Content note: Lots of gory violence, often fatal. Torture and mutilation. Racism and anti-Semitism. Zoller does not take “no” for an answer from women. A bit of onscreen sex. Some rough language.
Overall: I can see why this is some folks’ favorite Tarantino film. It’s got a lot of good bits. But it didn’t quite hold together for me. Recommended to fans of violent war movies.
