Inglourious Basterds

4.5 out of 5

Inglourious Basterds was much better than I expected. It started out as one of those 'Well, I suppose there's nothing better to see' occasions and surprised me by making me laugh quite a bit.

I've been a Tarantino fan for over a decade, but I suspected obvious pitfalls in this movie from the trailer. Brad Pitt looked like he was overdoing a campy impression of a funnier George Clooney character and the subject matter seemed like an opportunity for Tarantino to exploit violence. Turns out, it was pretty damned funny in the dark humor department.

Brad Pitt seemed playfully engulfed in his character with an accent and idioms that made me wonder what it would be like to have known my grandparents and great grandparents so long ago. There were also a lot of close ups on his face that showed imperfections and age (I have little tolerance for him as a heartthrob). Turns out, the film didn't even follow the Inglourious Basterds for the majority of the movie. It seemed much more centered around this German henchman (played by a really good German actor, Christoph Waltz) and the Jewish girl that got away from him.

There was much less over the top, graphic bloodshed than I expected; after seeing Kill Bill I wasn't in a big hurry to find out what new and inventive ways Tarantino could squirt blood on a camera lens.

And although I know it's one of his signatures to have long, drawn out, intense conversations that are supposed to build suspense, they can go a bit long for me. Some people feel the drama in them, but lengthy, complicated, quick paced dialog can lose my interest and my mind starts to wander (like in Deathproof); I only felt myself drift once. More than the writing, the physical acting and situations had the theatre silent with anticipation.

One of the most interesting notions was whether the film would follow history or take a fantasy turn most of the world would have preferred. A big part of the attraction in Inglourious Basterds is the sense that anything can happen at any time. The film also had a few trademark stylized moments in it with stark red Nazi flags and cigarette girls that were a nice juxtaposition to the brown hues of typical WWII films.