Inglourious Basterds

"Inglourious Basterds" is written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, the great film maker behind 1994's "Pulp Fiction." "Inglourious Basterds" is no "Pulp Fiction," but few films are. Brad Pitt leads the cast of "Inglourious Basterds." Also starring in the movie are: Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger, and Melanie Laurent. Mike Meyers also has a brief scene and Samuel L. Jackson provides brief narration.

First of all, this movie is not historically accurate in any way, shape, or form. Only a couple things are actually true...like there was indeed a Second World War. Beyond that, things get a bit sketchy. Like most Tarantino movies, "Inglourious Basterds" includes several separate stories that come together to form a common plot. The movie is split up into 5 chapters. Each chapter is introduced before it begins. The chapters include Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) coming to a French man's house in search of Jews, Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) talking to his group of Nazi-scalping Jews, and a plan to kill hundreds of Nazis in a theater during a propaganda film showing at a theater. This all leads to lot of bloody violence, including several Nazi scalpings and plenty of gunfire, both of which also result in blood. But this is a Quentin Tarantino movie so it's to be expected.

The movie is well-cast and well-acted throughout. All of the actors seem to have a handle on their characters. Brad Pitt is great as the lead and gets to show off his Southern accent and Italian accent throughout the movie, which is actually really funny. Christoph Waltz also gives another great performance as "Jew Hunter," Hans Landa. His inhumanity and determination to find and get rid of Jews is believable. Other good performances include Melanie Laurent, as the owner of the movie theater that she plans on burning down, after Samuel L. Jackson helpfully explains how well nitrate film burns. I personally would have liked more narration by Samuel L. Jackson. He just has a really good voice for that sort of thing.

Cinematography is a definite strong point in the film. Quentin Tarantino does this very well in his films. There are several low-angle shots that give good perspectives of different characters. Also there are a lot of close-ups of peoples' faces so we we can better get a feel for the emotion they have at a given time. He also uses slow motion effectively and the intense gunfire in various scenes is also well-shot. The camera moves fluidly throughout the scenes, sometimes going from a long shot of a wide area to a very close shot. However, circling rapidly around people talking is never a good idea. It was dizzying when Ron Howard did it in "Angels and Demons" and its just as dizzying when Tarantino does it.

The movie takes place during World War II, however it definitely does not feel like a typical war movie, which is what Tarantino was trying for. Throughout the film there are several freeze frames and then brief text on the screen describing who a character is. There are also random arrows pointing out who people are in a couple scenes. This may be annoying to some people, but I was pretty amused by it and thought it is a pretty funny aspect of the movie, that doesn't involve Brad Pitt's accent experimenting. Also the music in the film definitely does not feel like it should be in a movie that takes place during the 1940s. It sounds extremely modern, but once again a reminder that this is far from a serious war movie. So they the movie has an overall slightly cheesy feel to it, in addition to some pretty disgusting Nazi scalpings and carving Swastikas in peoples' foreheads with knives.

The movie was 2-and-a-half hours long. Yes, that is very long for a movie and each chapter probably could have been edited slightly (then we would have had room for Cloris Leachman's unfortunately cut scene, which I assume would have been wonderful to see and made the movie better). Editing also would have helped the pacing a little and eliminated some of the scenes that dragged out slightly, like one bar scene. But Quentin Tarantino can fill 2.5 hours way better than Michael Bay can. (Michael Bay made a little movie called "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." He was trying to make a movie I guess, but the end result was not really a movie, just a pile of something really painful and unpleasant.)

Quentin Tarantino writing and directing "Inglourious Basterds" made it so the result is basically what he envisioned years ago. I think movies are always better when the same person does both jobs. It just feels more unified.

So if you hate Quentin Tarantino, then feel free to never watch this movie. The same goes for those who hate Brad Pitt, who was good in this, just not "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"-good. If Nazi-scalping or blood makes you sickly, then this movie would not be a fun experience for you. Overall, not a bad movie, not an amazing movie to watch again and again (like "Pulp Fiction," which is amazing and everyone who has not seen it should rent it), but not bad. Brad Pitt and the rest of the cast, some good dialogue, some of it darkly funny, great camera work, strange music and random cheesy things, and some good ol' Nazi-scalping makes this a good movie to see at least once. I don't think it would be a complete waste of time. We just need to accept the fact that the greatest movie Quentin Tarantino ever made occurred 15 years ago and featured amazing performances by John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson. 3 out of 4 stars...much better than most of the movies that came out this summer.

-Joseph Sbrilli