Inglorious Basterds April 25th, 2010
Originally Written 08/25/09
I went down to CT to visit Shawn and then Lonnie this past weekend. On Saturday night Shawn and I saw Inglorious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino’s new WW2 action flick. The trailer made it look like a romping good time with black comedy and stylish violence. It certainly delivered that, but there was a lot more to it as well; the movie had a surprising amount of drama to it as well.
It was effectively two films in one, with parallel story lines. One plot line followed the eponymous bastards, a group of Jewish-American soldiers who were recruited to fight guerrilla warfare against the Nazi’s in occupied France. Tarantio used his typical flare with style and comedic elements, to good and enjoyable effect. The characters were lovable comedic archetypes and it was a lot of fun.
The other half of the movie was a taut emotional drama which added a lot of depth to the film. Tarantino used pacing to wonderful effect here. There were several scenes where the dialog plays out over a long stretch, but unlike in the mental masturbation of Death Proof, it works superbly well here. Several times it draws you in and lulls you into a false sense of security, before pulling the rug out from under you, or conversely it sets up a tense scene and leaves the viewer on edge wondering what’s going to happen.
The film worked so well on both levels, as both the drama and the fun darkly-comic action film. It was very good to see Tarantino at the top of his game again.
One Response
Rafindra Says:
Very nice review. I, too, was abloeutlsy bowled over by Samuel L. Jackson, who has really not been featured heavily in the discussion of this film. Jackson lives for Tarantino’s dialogue.The part of the film I’m still mulling over is everything after the handshake. The movie pretty much ended twice. Both were good, and I appreciate doing something different, but I still don’t know how it sits with me.