Imaginative stories boost "Basterds"

By: John Gregg

Posted: 11/9/09

Writer/director Quentin Tarantino, the mind behind cult classics "Pulp Fiction" and "Kill Bill," returns with "Inglourious Basterds," an imaginative fable that offers an alternate ending for World War II.

The story opens with a classic "Once upon a time…" line, and it is even divided into chapters. But what follows is not exactly a G-rated fairytale. The title characters (Basterds) are an elite team of Jewish-American soldiers who are sent into Nazi-occupied France for one specific reason.

Their bloodthirsty commander, Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), has instructed each of them to kill as many "Nat-sees" as possible. Working with a beautiful actress, Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger), the soldiers soon embark on a daring plot to kill Adolf Hitler (Martin Wuttke).

Previews for the movie are slightly misleading. This is not a centrally focused, bloody revenge saga like "Kill Bill." "Inglourious Basterds" is instead a tightly packed anthology of stories, featuring many different characters.

The atmosphere of the picture feels a great deal more like "Pulp Fiction," and this is certainly welcome. The Basterds themselves only appear sporadically throughout.

The major focus is on a Jewish woman named Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) who owns a movie theatre in Paris. Her family was murdered by the calculating Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) when she was a child.

Shosanna plots her own revenge against the Third Reich when Hitler himself attends the cinema for a screening of Goebbels's latest propaganda film.

Tarantino proves himself as a master storyteller. He seamlessly weaves together Shosanna's story with the secret mission of the Basterds. All plotlines intersect beautifully with the dark theatre as a backdrop.

Everything up to this climactic night at the movies is relatively historically accurate. However, Tarantino's ending to the Nazi regime is no less than an idealistic fantasy. This is probably how World War II should have ended.

A description of "Inglourious Basterds" could be boiled down to historical fiction. The film is set in a Nazi-occupied country. There is a heavy climate of tension and brutality one comes to expect from World War II dramas.

Of course, Tarantino is at the helm this time, which means the genre is now soaked through with his usual quirks. Many of his director trademarks can be noticed throughout. There is gratuitous violence, dark humor and an artistic edge.

Brad Pitt's Aldo Raine is certainly a memorable, if not disturbing, character. He has tons of fun collecting Nazi scalps and happily cuts swastikas into the foreheads of those fortunate enough to avoid his wrath. Unfortunately, we see very little of him, but his comical attempt at an Italian accent proves good things come in small packages.

Waltz steals the show as the shrewd personification of SS cruelty. Hans Landa has an arctic-cold stare, able to pierce through any deception like a knife. He gains a victim's confidence by engaging in casual conversation over food and drink.

The moment he asks for milk or cream, his prey would be wise to flee. Never before have dairy products carried with them such sinister connotations.

As Shosanna, Laurent is a tragic victim of Nazi aggression. She perhaps represents the strength and courage of those who defied Hitler, and therefore is the perfect soul to exact vengence upon him. The great pity is that her story must be told in a somber tone.

"Inglourious Basterds" is not without its shortcomings. Excessive use of subtitles becomes distracting in some scenes when watching the action is more important, and the aforementioned ending comes off as slightly awkward. Neither of these issues interferes with enjoyment of the movie as a whole.