FOKER'S MOVIE REVIEW - INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (From Your Local Guardian)

FOKER'S MOVIE REVIEW - INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

12:55pm Tuesday 18th August 2009 in

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I have to say that this is possibly Quentin Tarantino’s greatest work since Pulp Fiction. What we have here is a World War II movie created in his very unique style. Tarantino pays great attention to detail with imaginative costumes, impressive production locations in France and Germany plus a cast of respected award winning International actors but he also ‘crowbars’ in a storyline that you won’t find in any history books.

You know you’re going to be treated to something completely different when the words “Once Upon A Time… in Nazi Occupied France” flash across the opening scene. This is a Tarantino fairy tale for adults.

The storyline is structured in five chapters and the catalyst throughout is the German Colonel Hans Landa brilliantly played by Austrian actor Christoph Waltz. Although Landa can be cruel and ruthless he is also very charming and funny and will go down as one of the screens great bad guys, despite the fact that he looks like the love child of Rob Brydon and Wayne Sleep!

Set in 1944 the film follows two parallel stories of revenge. We start on a farm in France where a young Jewish girl Shosanna (Melanie Laurent) is the only surviving member of a family that were slaughtered by the Nazis. We also have the ‘Basterds’ - a ruthless band of Jewish American soldiers hand-picked by Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), whose retribution on the enemy is horrifically graphic and intended to put fear into every German soldier. So much so that Raine becomes part of German folklore and is nicknamed ‘Aldo the Apache’. Don’t expect the usual huge explosive battle scenes but what you do get is great dialogue and even laughter with some surprisingly funny scenes. However, we also get the ‘hard to watch’ gory moments. There’s a clue to what lies ahead through Raines opening speech to his men “Every man under my command owes me one hundred Nazi scalps...and I want my scalps!”

The memorable Tarantino trademark scene for me is shot in the downstairs bar of “La Louisiane”. Two of the ‘Basterds’ and a stereotypical British Commando Officer Archie Hicox (Michael Fassbender) are posing as German Officers for a rendezvous with double agent Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) a famous wartime German actress. They are joined by an unwanted SS Officer Major Hellstrom (August Diehl) who befriends the group but questions Hicox’s unusual accent, slightly reminiscent from the classic ‘Where Eagles Dare’ with Darren Nesbitt as the inquisitive black-clad SS officer. This is an incredibly tense claustrophobic scene and you know it could all ‘kick off’ at any moment.

Much of the plot revolves around the impending screening of a Nazi propaganda film to be attended by many infamous high ranking German officials. All you’re eggs in one basket you might say?

In all, a great cinema experience, you’ll be thinking about this film long after you’ve seen it. Enjoy!

Five stars out of five.