Inglourious Basterds (2009) - Quentin Tarantino

By Lara Culcu.

Warning: Contains Major Spoilers. 

Inglourious Basterds is a tour de force. 

It might have been the masterpiece of a lesser director's filmography. However, it stands out as yet another one of Quentin Tarantino's gems, who rarely misses. In this film, he is both director and screenwriter, and fulfills both roles magnificently.

It follows a large cast of characters - from SS General 'The Jew Hunter' Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) to the victim of one of Landa's raids, Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent) to the eponymous Basterds. 

There are a number of entwining plotlines. The Nazis are attempting to defeat the allies, but more importantly, they are planning a night out at the cinema to show a movie made in honor of sniper Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Brühl). This cinema happens to be Shosanna's, who is planning on burning it down. The Basterds are trying to get into this cinema to kill the Nazis. 

Every character has its place - remove one, and the plot would collapse. 

There is no moment where I thought this film would be better if we were watching a different character. Whether Shosanna is on screen and we are rooting for her success in killing the Nazis who killed her family, or we are watching Lieutenant Archie Hicox's (Michael Fassbender) attempts to delude Major Dieter Hellstrom (August Diehl) into believing that he is German, we are always entertained. 

Somehow, Tarantino squeezes an endless supply of character development into 2 hours and 33 minutes. The lengthy runtime feels much shorter than it is, and we walk away with the feeling that we have spent months with these characters rather than a few hours.

The cinematography is wonderful. We are greeted with bright colors as soon as the film starts, with a landscape shot of the countryside accompanied by Ennio Morricone's fantastic, mood-setting score. 

The opening scene itself is one of the best twenty minutes of modern cinema. 

When Hans Landa arrives at the LaPadites' farm, we immediately know that he is a force to be reckoned with. Despite his friendly exterior, it is clear that he's expertly manipulating the father of the family, Perrier LaPadite. Extending an introduction in perfect French, he asks if they can switch to English, having "Exhausted the supply of [his] French."

Why? We wonder. He has been speaking French perfectly. But there is a major reveal at the end of the scene that tells you exactly why. 

Christoph Waltz won a Best Supporting Actor academy award for this role, and it's well deserved. He plays this cruel, sadistic character with the duality that made Tarantino call him the best character he has ever written. 

Colonel Landa is friendly. He's polite, and charming. He almost forces the viewer to root for him, until you are reminded exactly what his job is and feel ashamed that you ever thought of it. That is the complexity Waltz brings to this character, who speaks 4 languages in the film. 

In fact, almost every character is bilingual. The choice to actually have the actors speak the different languages rather than assume that the character is speaking the language within the narrative is one that elevates the film even further. 

We are provided with ample subtitles, and it didn't break the immersion for me at all. In fact, it only made it better. It is a pet peeve of mine when characters who are stated to be in a certain country do not speak that language, and this film avoids that trope entirely. 

The film would be incomplete without a cast of actors who can keep up with the constant switching between different languages, and Tarantino provides exactly that. 

Polyglot actors such as Christoph Waltz, Daniel Brühl, and Diane Kruger feature heavily in the film, and it's only the better for it. 

Kruger, playing German Allied spy, famous actress Bridget von Hammersmark, evokes the air of the actresses of her time - namely, the early 1940s. Her mannerisms, down to her laugh, are obviously contrived, far too showy, but this is what suits the character. 

She is playing a role; in a scene that takes place in a bar, she is playing the role of a German loyal to her country, while she is secretly spying for the Allies. When she rendezvous with the Basterds after the plan ends in disaster, she drops the fake niceties. She isn't an actress anymore, but a woman in pain. Kruger portrays this switch with ease. 

Meanwhile, Brühl is a German sniper who killed over 200 men in three days, but seems to be the most good-natured character in the film. Outwardly, at least. When he doesn't get what he wants, he reveals his true character, destroying any sympathy we might have felt for him. 

The Basterds aren't much better. They are our heroes, but they constantly raise the question of whether the ends justify the means. Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) tortures von Hammersmark under the assumption that she betrayed them, sticking his finger into her wound. 'The Bear Jew' Donny Donowitz (Eli Roth) beats a German soldier to death with a baseball bat in a scene that I confess I had to close my eyes for. 

A lot of Nazis are scalped. A lot.

Good and evil are clear concepts in this film. The Basterds are good, the Nazis are evil. But the behavior that each side exhibits pushes the characters into areas of grey. 

In the aforementioned bar scene, there is a young German soldier whose wife has just given birth. Despite a prior agreement not to shoot him, von Hammersmark kills him. 

Although she has already been established as a hero, a spy for the Allies, we can't help but feel disgusted. The soldier hadn't shown any support for the Nazis - as viewers, we automatically begin to wonder what he had done to deserve this. Was he truly a deplorable human, or was he someone who was just following orders? Had he even killed anyone? 

The film drums in this point. We are given constant mentions of how excited he was to see his son, how proud he was to tell his friends the name they had chosen for him - Tarantino makes it clear that we are supposed to feel sympathetic for this character. 

Similarly, in an earlier scene, Lieutenant Aldo Raine orders the German Sergeant Rachtman to tell him the locations of German patrol groups. He refuses, despite Raine's reminders that he will be beaten to death with a baseball bat if he doesn't comply, stating that he won't put German lives at risk.

Raine asks him if he got his Iron Cross medal for "killin' Jews." Rachtman's answer is simple: "Bravery." Baseball-Bat-Killing ensues.

Through this, we are reminded that everyone is the hero in their own story. Rather than falling into the trap of writing characters who are aware of their own evilness yet do the actions anyway, we are shown that S.S. officers truly did believe they were fighting on the right side. 

Obviously, this doesn't mean we are rooting for them. But we are shown that they are people, too.

It is dangerous to reduce historical figures to pure evilness. If we view characters like S.S. soldiers as nothing more than the physical embodiment of evil, then we risk being unable to see repeating patterns in the modern world. 

They are human. That doesn't excuse their actions; in fact, it's obvious that almost everyone deserved what they got. It is a simply a fact. And this is what Tarantino is telling us while showing Nazi officers who are civilized, charismatic - even fans of cinema. 

The love of cinema is the thread that ties the entire film together. The climax takes place at a cinema, and numerous characters are shown to be very knowledgeable about films. 

On the surface, this film is a revenge fantasy, an alternate universe where Hitler got what he deserved and the Nazis were punished for their atrocious acts. 

On a deeper level, this film is a celebration of cinema. From Lieutenant Archie Hicox, who was a film critic before the war, to Fredrick Zoller, who seems to be genuinely interested in both German and American cinema, we are constantly reminded what a major role cinema played in the war. 

It is propaganda. Films have the power to influence people's thoughts, their mindset, and this effect would have been even more pronounced in wartime Germany, where the media was heavily controlled.

Take the example of Hans Landa. A character who by all accounts should be detested due to the gleeful manner with which he sends hundreds of Jewish families to their deaths is one of the most popular characters in the Tarantino-Verse.

Why? Simple. Viewers like interesting characters. We like characters who offer some sort of conflict. Characters who intrigue us, who are intelligent and capable rather than dumb caricatures. 

Tarantino himself put it perfectly: “When he shows up towards the end of the movie, kinda figuring out what the Basterds are doing, the audience wants him to. They’re not rooting for him, but it’s a movie, and if he figures it out, it’s going to be a more exciting movie." 

Movies are entertainment. We want to be entertained, and we naturally gravitate towards characters who are more compelling. 

Aside from moments of drama, there are plenty of comedic moments. 

A good example of this is the scene where Hans Landa finally meets the Basterds at the night of the premiere of the propaganda film Stolz der Nation, starring Fredrick Zoller as himself, who is more interested in pursuing an uninterested Shoshanna than watching his own film.

The Basterds concoct a plan to masquerade as Italians under the assumption that Landa doesn't speak Italian. However, he turns out to speak it fluently, and toys with the Basterds, asking them to repeat their terribly-accented phrases. Ironically, the man who states that he spoke the least Italian turns out to have the best Italian pronunciation. Von Hammersmark, allegedly Germany's best actress, plays her role unconvincingly. 

There is a grand, climactic finale, and a fantastic twist near the end. But I'll leave you to find that out for yourself.

Even in scenes taking place indoors or in an underground bar, there is always a sense of movement and vividness on screen. It gives the impression that rather than trying to force the viewer to feel dejected with bleak colors, this film is trying to invigorate the viewer. 

Inglourious Basterds is not a tragedy. 

It is a celebration of cinema, and triumph over evil. Realism not required.