Film Review: Inglourious Basterds

Review – Inglourious Basterds (18) – Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Melanie Laurent, Eli Roth

Monday 24th August 2009

“... we're gonna be doing one thing, and one thing only... killing Nazis”.

Straight to the point and the one line that drew me to the cinema for this film. Once you see the whole of this first Aldo Raine (Pitt) speech, you're instantly motivated to jump on the bandwagon with them. I think Hitler would even be proud of this. A motivational speech touching on what the Nazis have done across Europe and what he wants to happen so that the Nazis get a taste of their own medicine.

Inglourious Basterds sees a group of Jewish-American soldiers on a mission to do one thing – 'bring the scalps' of as many Nazis as they can get their hands on. Their leader, Lieutenant Aldo Raine, wants nothing less than pain and suffering to be delivered against the murderers of the Jewish masses. In a way, lowering themselves to the Nazis level, but also to show them that there is another force to be reckoned with and that the Nazis have something to fear, too.

There are other stories going on in this picture too. The film starts in Nazi-occupied France, where a SS Colonel, Hans Landa arrives at a French farm in search of Jews. Landa is a ruthless man, known as the 'Jew Hunter', who with his own unique way, gets the information he seeks. His first scene is maybe a warning of his powers. It seems as though he knows the answers to the questions before he's even asked them. He is clever in that he 'thinks like a Jew' in order to catch them out. This adds to his dangerousness. Landa is played by Christoph Waltz, who is by far the standout performance.

The other critical story in this film is that of a female cinema owner, who after unwillingly befriending the star of a Nazi propaganda film, gets the 'honour' of hosting the showing of this film to the Nazi high command and guests.

The film comes to a conclusion when all parties involved; the Nazis high order, Raine and his Basterds, and the cinema owner, with her own agenda, descend on the small cinema in Nazi-occupied France, where all hell breaks loose...

Pitt is likable in his role as Raine. I felt that he came across as a simple American officer, who has one thing on his mind. But the real star of this film is Christoph Waltz - you would probably refer to him as the biggest 'basterd' in this film. If you were in any doubt about seeing this film – go for Waltz' performance alone.

Jimmo's rating: 3 (out of 5) – a really enjoyable 3, a must see for Waltz' performance.