Inglourious Basterds

Release Year: 2009

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Review: Quentin Tarantino has nitched out his own special brand of movies, creating a style that is all his own.  With a signature style that is ultra-violent, highly stylized and full of monologues, Tarantino films build a fantasy atmosphere where everything, no matter how over the top, never feels like its going too far.  He sucks you into his own world and you are just there for the ride.  And what a fantastic ride Inglrious Basterds is.  The trailers for the film were decieving.  They would have you believe that the entire film is going to be about the Basterds killing everything in sight.  While this is of coure a part of the film, it was a surprising small part.   There is an entirely different main story line that isn't shown in the trailer that takes the majority of the time, which is every bit as entertaining as the Basterd storyline.  I did want to see more of the Basterds, explore their origins, and see some creative death scenes, but in the end that movie would have been too thin.  Adding the primary storyline adds weight and makes this a more fulfilling film.

This is a revenge film through and through, and the Tarentino captures the powerful emotion perfectly utilizing every bit of his creative freedom to pull the strings of the viewers own emotions and reveal anger and lust for revenge over the Holocaust.  More than just a revenge film though, this is a film about films.  Tarentino is one of the biggest film fans around and he borrows and pays homage to countless films that influenced him.  It's more than just meaningless movie trivia however.  Tarentino works these references seamlessly into his work enhancing it.  Above all, this is a beautiful film.  There are only a handful of scenes, and each is very long, carefully crafted and brilliantly acted.  Christoph Waltz was amazing in the film as Hans Landa, creating one of the most compelling movie villains in film history.  Hans Landa is charming, intelligent and someone that you love to hate.  He and the rest of the cast allowed Tarentino to craft impacting scenes.  Scenes where eye candy, wonderful dialog and meaningful symbolism all mesh together to create high quality cinema.  Inglorious Basterds is a powerful, funny, insightful and just plain fun movie which goes down as one of the better revenge fantasy of all time.
Rating: 5/5