Inglourious Basterds

You've never seen any WWII film, until you've seen "Inglourious Basterds." Quentin Tarantino returns as he displays his newest film, about a group of Jewish soldiers, known only as the Inglourious Basterds, sent into Nazi occupied France, during WWII. Their sole mission is to annihilate and torture the Nazi's by any means necessary. Like all of Tarantino's films, "Inglourious Basterds" has a sense of violence and mayhem in a spaghetti western style format, that allows for the movie to come off as not only violent and dramatic at times, but comical as well. The story shifts from various points of view at times, ala "Pulp Fiction" and "Reservoir Dogs", but this one displays the scenes in chronological order. Quentin Tarantino's style of story telling and direction make this film very intriguing to watch, as it shows the cruelty of the Nazis at the beginning of the film, when they kill Shosanna Dreyfuss' (Melanie Laurent) family . Yet around the end, it shows how the Inglourious Basterds have become just as cruel and sinister in the process of punishing the Nazis. Although, the film does tend to suffer from being obsessively violent at times, and being historically inaccurate. Plus, some of the characters that are portrayed to have large roles in the trailers and cast interviews, like Diane Kruger (Bridget von Hammersmark) and Til Schweiger (Hugo Stiglitz), have surprisingly small roles in the movie. Which is a tad disappointing, considering the hype surrounding those two. However, it doesn't ruin the movie by any means, as I felt the acting and the intriguing storyline kept the film worth watching. "Inglourious Basterds" is perhaps one of most provocative and entertaining WWII movies, I have ever seen.

Quentin Tarantino does it again with his new film, as he presents a movie that has just the right amount of dark humor and drama to keep audiences entertained. Although the film does come across as being overly violent at times, it's still a pretty amusing film. Like in one scene, when Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) interrogates a bunch of captured Nazis, only to end up calling out Sgt. Donny Donowitz a.k.a. "The Bear Jew" (Eli Roth), beat one of their heads in with a baseball bat, will leave audience horrified yet laughing at how the scene is portrayed. This along with many other scenes make the film pretty enjoyable to watch.

Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz (Col. Hans Landa), and Melanie Laurent were simply brilliant in their perspective roles. Brad Pitt displayed a keen ego stereo type, reminiscent of "Jon Wayne", that allowed for his character to not only have a strong sense of conviction at times, but to come off rather comical as well. In one scene, Aldo Raine had to pretend to be Italian, at a Nazi premiere movie showing, in order to infiltrate and blow up the place. Unfortunately, his accent is just awful to say the least, as it's obliviously fake, that the audience can't help but laugh.

Melanie Laurent does a great job portraying a young girl, whom tries to live a normal life in France, after the death of her parents by the hands of the Nazis. However, she finds herself in the unique position of drawing the attention of one, romantically. As she cunningly uses this position to her advantage for revenge against the Nazis. Throughout the film, Melanie Laurent gives her character not only a somewhat innocent presence, she also adds a sense of viciousness and vengeful attitude to the part as well.

As for Christoph Waltz, I thought he did a excellent job playing the antogonist to the Basterds, in the Nazi regime. Displaying a strong sense of cunning and calculation behind his devious deeds and wicked actions. As it seems like every thing he does throughout the movie, is to try to somehow gain an edge by any means necessary. Even if it means going against Hitler himself.

Like I've said before, you've never seen any WWII film, until you've seen it through the eyes of Quentin Tarantino.  Featuring solid performances and direction, "Inglourious Basterds" is a must see film for anyone that enjoys movies.  As this film, is perhaps one of the most provocative and entertaining war movie, I have ever seen.