i know it’s unfair to compare everything tarantino does to “pulp fiction” – it’s just never gonna happen again. i know that. but “inglourious basterds” left me disappointed.
the premise of the film is unusual – an alternative end to WWII in which hitler, his henchmen, a large number of german officers and their escorts are mowed down by machine gun fire, burned in a film theater, and finally exploded with dynamite.
this abrupt (and dramatic) end to the war is brought about by two separate forces, acting independently of each other: (1) the basterds – a group of american jews led by brad pitt, a hillbilly from tennessee, who are sent in by the CIA to terrorize the nazis. their rule is to kill every nazi they encounter and then scalp him. (2) shosanna – the sole survivor of a jewish family discovered and killed by hans landa, a nazi colonel nicknamed “the jew hunter.” she becomes the proprietor of a film theater and decides to burn it down at a nazi film premiere.
ok, so here’s what i thought of the film. there is much gratuitous violence, as expected (including frequent scalping shots replete with blood and squelching sound effects) but it isn’t a catalyst for much tension, irony or humor. it’s just gratuitous. the film seems to imply that there is an automatic pleasure to be derived from this mindless savagery. after all, the jews get to stick it to the nazis and it is justifiable payback for the holocaust. but there’s something awful about humanity’s quick race to the bottom of hell. the whole revenge fantasy doesn’t feel right. whether jews are being shot or germans are being scalped and machine gunned in the back while trying to escape a burning building, it’s all part of the same circle of brutality and evil.
in spite of a bevy of characters with immense potential, all abundantly supplied with catchy names, nicknames, histories and quirks, the film doesn’t give most of them the chance to develop into anything concrete or fully realized. they remain juicy tidbits that can never coalesce into a fully formed, captivating plot.
finally, sorry but brad pitt’s curled lip and hillbilly accent didn’t quite work for me. mike myers, as a british officer, is surprisingly calm and convincing. hans landa, played by christoph waltz, is probably the most compelling character in the film. wish he had had a much larger role.
