Inglourious Basterds : Movie Review

IB is no exception to Tarantino's exquisite work

Director : Quentin Tarantino

Cast : Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Til Schweiger, Daniel Bruhl, Diane Kruger, Melanie Laurent & August Diehl.

Brad Pitt

   Quentin Tarantino is acclaimed for bringing the stories on paper, alive at the silver screen. Inglourious Basterds is simply no exception to his exquisite work. This period drama mentions the story of a bunch of Jewish-American soldiers, referred to as 'Basterds' who intend to kill as many Adolf Hitler's Nazi enlisted men as possible. The Bastards under the command of Lt. Aldo Raine enacted by Brad Pitt are dropped in France with a motive to finish the German soldiers during the Second World War, making sure they leave behind the dismantled and disfigured dead bodies of the Nazis so as to spread the word of fear within the Germans, and they quite make it possible by smashing the brains of German soldiers with baseball bat and leaving their dead bodies scalp-less. Incidents like these are presented to the audience in a very raw manner, appearing extremely violent and painful. But then this can be easily expected out of a Tarantino's picture.



Christoph Waltz

       Tarantino displays great talent by showing two plots running simultaneously in the story, and excels in blending them together. The film begins with the introduction of Col.Hans Landa played by Christoph Waltz who is nicknamed as 'the Jew-Hunter' due to his specialty of killing Jews in Nazi occupied France. He assassinates the Drefuses, a Jewish family, however a girl named Shoshanna  played by Melanie Laurent manages to escape.

     The Bastards indulge in killing Nazi soldiers with cruelty, bringing fear within the German Army. Meanwhile Shoshanna changes her identity to Emanuele, a cinema owner who works with a negro employee named Marcel. One night she meets Frederick Zoller played by Daniel Bruhl, a German sniper, who fells for Emanuele and in order to develop a sense of friendship with her, convinces Dr.Goebbels, a German director played by Sylvester Groth,  to change the venue of the premiere of a German film based on the exploits of Zoller during war time, to Emanuele's cinema. Emanuele realises this as an opportunity to avenge hereslf of her family's massacre by the Nazi soldiers, as she plans to burn all the German soldiers at the premiere.



Melanie Laurent

      On the other side the Bastards, unaware of Emanuele and her revenge, devise  Operation Kino, which involves killing of German soldiers during the same film screening with the help of a German actress Bridget Von Hammersmark played by Diane Kruger who has a secret identity of a British spy and this action being her Brain child. The development of the plan requires a secret rendezvous between Von Hammersmark and Lt. Archie Hicox played by Michael Fassbender along with two German born Bastards. However things go wrong when Major Dieter Hellstorm played by August Diehl notices the odd accent of Hicox, resulting into a fire fight, leaving everyone dead except Von Hammersmark.

           However after learning from Von Hammersmark about the presence of Hitler at the premiere Raine formulates a plan to explode the theatre. Meanwhile Landa obtains an evidence against Von Hammersmark and kills her at the premiere night and takes Raine into custody. On the other side Emanuele gears up for her ultimate revenge but before she could do anything, Zoller comes to see her in projection room where they both exchange fire and die. Landa while interrogating Raine proposes a deal wherein he would let the Operation Kino a success and let Hitler and all Nazi soldiers die only if the American High-command gives him a sign off on his unusual terms including American citizenship for himself post the war. Landa is given the word of agreement by the American General. 

Diane Kruger, Michael Fassbender & August Diehl

       In the meantime Marcel, Emanuele's lover burns the theatre which is followed by an explosion by the Bastards killing the Germans attending the premiere including Hitler. Landa takes Raine to American borders as per the deal. To his surprise Raine with his knife engraves a Swastika on Landa's forehead so that he cannot conceal being a Nazi even after attaining American citizenship.



Til Schweiger & Eli Roth

      Brad Pitt delivers another stunning performance as Raine, but the actor who steals the show is unquestionably Christoph Waltz as Col. Hans Landa. In better words the movie belongs to Waltz as he makes almost his every scene memorable. Be it his introduction scene where he persuades a French Nationale in the most cunning way, or be it a scene where he starts talking in Italian after the Bastards are introduced to him as Italians. His witty lines and spontaneous body language are just flawless. Melaine Laurent plays her part of Shoshanna/ Emanuele brilliantly. Watch her dissolve in tears after she meets Landa the officer who brutally killed her family. August Diehl as Major Dieter Hellstorm is impressive. Eli Roth as Donny Donowitz aka "The Bear Jew" and Til Schweiger as Hugo Stiglitz shines.



Inglourios Basterds



    The visuals displaying the no mercy characters surprise you to a great extent. What adds to the flavour is the riveting sound design which supports the story extremely. The variety in the background score ranging from a smooth mouth organ music to a bugle sound to a rock number, gives enough strength to the story. The movie also involves a lot of cameo appearances by several American and German actors. The scenes of the film are relatively less in number but involve lengthy conversations, mostly in foreign languages displaying subtitles almost all the time and this tests viewer's patience. IB is a combination of historical and fictional characters, since Hitler was not killed in a cinema tragedy. The Original Screenplay by Tarantino himself is another strength of the movie. Full marks to the writers for the clever one liners used in the film. My rating for IB is a handsome 4/5. For cinema lovers its a delight and for Tarantino fans its a must watch.



Official Poster



Posted in: