Inglorious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino reigns himself in after “Grindhouse” and the “Kill Bill” movies to make a more ordered and even more entertaining World War II picture that audaciously rewrites history as it sees fit.

Brad Pitt is effective as Lt. Aldo Raine, leader of the Inglorious Basterds, an army outfit whose military connection seems fishy at best. The Jewish troupe is an entity of their own, the best of the best at killing Nazis. Pitt is quite matter-of-fact about each Basterd collecting 100 Nazi scalps.

This is a film lover’s film. From flammable nitrate film to the appearance of Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, Tarantino tucks away delightful nuggets of film history for cineastes. A central plot point even revolves around a gorgeous cinema owned by a lovely Jewish girl, Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent).

Tarantino once again divides his film into scene/character-centric chapters, this time in a near linear fashion. For carrying the film’s namesake, the Basterds don’t own the screen time. Chapters also revolve around Shosanna’s struggle with a Nazi courter and the assimilation of her cinema, and the deliciously evil, self-centered Nazi Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). The Academy had better take note Waltz’s pompous, highly watchable performance.

Light on action, the film is almost entirely dialog driven. There’s a lot of talking going on. Tarantino has always been good with interesting yet meaningless dialog and he’s gotten a lot better. Not more than half of the film is spoken in English; the German and French exchanges have a flair of exoticism that are perhaps the most intriguing.

The film clocks in at 153 minutes and definitely feels it, though it’s the film’s only major caveat. Tarantino chocked this film full of scenes that crackle with his usual tension and humor, a great story and superb acting. As one of the characters says near the end of the film, Tarantino would be justified in saying “I think this might just be my masterpiece.”

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