JIM reviews film "INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS" --

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Inglourious Basterds

MY Rating:

9 of 10 stars (based on viewing the DVD version of the 153 minute film).

Revisionist RETRIBUTION “sets you FREE”

Tarantino has a reputation for self-indulgence in his films. He was comparatively SELF-RESTRAINED in this latest production of his… The basic story is REVISIONIST history wherein Jews go actively hunting & killing NAZIS during World War II…

… Tarantino’s divided the overall story into 5 separate chapters: Chapter 1 is “Once Upon a Time In Nazi Occupied France (1941)”. Here, we meet very charming but ruthlessly vicious SS Colonel Hans Landa (excellently played by Christoph Waltz). He speaks fluent French & English, & interrogates a French farmer (Denis Menochet). After bragging “I can think like a Jew”, Waltz tries to get the farmer to give up Jews who had been concealed from his hunters… He tries to kill many in hiding, but one girl named Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent) escapes…

… Chapter 2 = “Inglourious Basterds”. This introduces us to the military group headed by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) from the deep South. He describes himself as supposedly a descendant of Mountain Man Jim Bridger, &, at one point, comments, “We aren’t in the prisoner-taking business.”… Supposedly because he’s part American INDIAN, he wants all the guys in his specially-put-together group of Jewish soldiers to be not only KILLERS of Nazis, but to bring him SCALPS of those killed…

… His band of revengists consists of guys such as Sergeant Donny “Bear Jew” Donowitz (Eli Roth), PFC Omar Ulmer (Omar Doom), PFC Smithson Utivich (B.J. Novak), Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz who had to be rescued from Nazi clutches (Til Schweiger), PFC Andy Kagan (Paul Rust), PFC Michael Zimmerman (Michael Bacall), & PFC Simon Sakowitz (Carlos Fidel)…

… Spearheaded by the attitude of Brad, his guys are purposely ruthless, wanting the Germans to know about their exploits and to FEAR them, which they do. In fact, Hitler (Martin Wuttke) rails against his subordinates for not capturing & stopping the Basterds…

… Flashbacks show Brad threatening German soldiers with death by baseball bat-wielder Bear (Eli), in a story partially told by Private Butz (Sönke Möhring) to Hitler… He relates some details of an infamous “carving” done by Brad…

… Chapter 3 is called “German Nights in Paris”… Here, we meet a young female French Parisian cinema-owner named Emmanuelle Mimieux — who is actually the runaway Shosanna living under an assumed name. She chances to meet an outgoing German soldier named Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Brühl), who describes himself as “a fellow cinema lover”. She soon discovers he’s famous to the Germans, for having mowed down loads of American soldiers from the birdsnest atop a bell tower…

… Daniel fancies himself as “the German Sgt. York”, & is so popular, Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels (Sylvester Groth) wants to show a MOVIE he’s produced about Daniel’s exploit called “A Nation’s Pride” (starring Daniel in a recreation of his famous feat)…

… Daniel works to convince racist Goebbels to premiere the film at Mélanie’s theater— which gives her an idea for a plan to get VENGEANCE against the Nazi leadership (scheduled to attend the screening) for what they’ve done to her family & friends…

… Life starts getting very tense, when slimy Christoph starts to QUESTION Mélanie, seemingly having “caught-on” to the fact that she was the Jewish ESCAPEE from the farmhouse… He seems to not trust having her black assistant Marcel (Jacky Ido) around (although he’s not aware of just how close he is to Mélanie)… Things are very cleverly set-up, in the way Christoph works to extract information from her, without letting on exactly what he really “knows”…

… That brings us to Chapter 4, “Operation Kino”, wherein the British learn of Shosanna’s plan, & want to be part of it along with the Basterds. The Brits send one of their soldiers — Lt. Archie Hicox (Michael Fassbender) — to the Paris area to try to help with things…

… Brad is upset when he learns the meeting place is to be in a difficult-to-control basement bar, where the British agent is to meet a double agent in the form of famous German actress Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger), who he’s never met before… In the bar, she chances to get involved in a celebration by a bunch of drunken German soldiers for the birth of a baby boy to Master Sergeant Wilhelm (Alexander Fehling)…

… English agent Fassbender is very uncomfortable having the unexpected German celebrants around as he tries to plan things with actress Diane… When he tries to get rid of Wilhelm & his friends, he’s confronted by a German Gestapo Major Hellstrom (August Diehl), who starts to “question” his unusual-sounding German “accent”…

… After a game of “Who am I?” played with cards, the confrontation becomes unusually intense and VIOLENT when “mistakes” are made by agent Fassbender…

… Concluding Chapter 5 is called “Revenge of the Giant Face”… Wouldn’t you “know” it, ever-troublesome Christoph finds some damning evidence against one of the participants in the afore-mentioned fierce conflict in the tavern— someone who’s closely involved in the plans against the Nazi hierarchy at the cinema…

… Some of Brad’s men are set-up to be at the cinema for use in attacking the high-ranking Nazis… But, once again, CHRISTOPH is there, & he plays “cat & mouse” games with various conspirators… Sacre bleu! — There’s a sudden “TWIST” that comes up concerning Brad & Christoph and others!… Is there a “TURNCOAT” somewhere in the mix?!…

… Is the “Twist” going to AFFECT the players in the drama?… WILL the grand Plans succeed towards the Nazis?… Who will “SURVIVE” the Plans, & what kind of “shape” will they be in?…

… There’s a bunch of CLEVER work done in setting up this swirling drama, with Oscar-caliber acting done by Christoph Waltz… Overall, an effectively multi-layered film highly WORTH seeing…