Inglorious Bastards

When war movies come to the screen, they have a statement to make such films like The Deer Hunter, Saving Private Ryan, and The Bridge over the River Kwai. Then you have controversial war movies such as Apocalypse Now, Platoon, and Schindler’s List, great films, with a power punch. Then were does Quinton Tarantino fit into the mix with his first war film? The answer is easy…in its own category, the Spaghetti Westerns of all War movies, pure genius.

Quinton Tarantino has written and directed such films: Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill Volume 1 & 2, Grind house, and now Inglorious Bastards. Tarantino is one director who isn’t afraid to go over the top, or make sure his story is told his way. It definitely holds true in his new war film.
His new film Inglorious Bastards is set during WWII, in France. There are two stories that run parallel to each other. The first story is about a girl who loses her family during a Nazi raid were they were hiding, and then takes over a movie theatre in France of her aunts and uncles. A rising star of a new Nazi film falls for her, and is determine to have film premiere at her theatre than anywhere else. The second story is about a US troop Unit called the Bastards. The unit is run by Lieutenant Aldo Raines “Apache” played by Brad Pitt, Sergeant Donny Donowitz who is known as the “Bear Brawler” played by Eli Roth and many more great actors. It is a unit of 8 US troops who are all Jewish, with a Southern half blood Native American at their side. They have one goal only…Killen Nazis.
It is the first time you see a war film, were you are not worried for the lives of the Americans, rather you see only the fear of the Nazi’s as the rumors of a unit who are haunting and slaughtering the Nazi’s.
The Nazi’s have a fierce Colonial Hans Landa played by Christoph Waltz, who is known as the “Jew Killer,” who has a big role in this film. Waltz definitely deserves an academy award for his role in this film. He could be pleasant, eating, speaking in whatever language, and you feel the intensity of his presence.
Even though I am a big fan of Tarantino’s film, there is something that didn’t work for me. The film was about 30 minutes to long. There were too many scenes with so much dialogue that was unnecessary. If he had cut down those scenes, it could be a tighter film. The other thing that didn’t work for me is that you really didn’t see the Bastards in action as much as you would want. The wish there was more to do with the Bastards than what we got. I felt too much be on the Germans and the other storyline, that wasn’t as appealing to me as the Bastards plot.
What did work are the characters. I really enjoyed watching all the characters that are in this film. I have heard much criticism on Brad Pitt’s role, but I thought he was a strong point, and played rather a supporting role to enhance the other actors in the film. His character definitely kept to his code…
The other thing that worked for me is the language used in the film. What I mean is that if they are German, they spoke German. Even if you didn’t know French, you knew when they transitioned to another language. It wasn’t like the movie Valkyrie, that had Tom Cruise speaking in English with no accent. It was more realistic that I have ever seen in a film.
It has been a long time since I have gone to a film, and at the end the whole audience applauds. It is definitely one of those films that you have to see twice to grasp everything this film wants you to embrace. It is the Spaghetti Westerns of all War films, and you can tell that Tarantino had fun making it.

If you enjoyed Inglorious Bastards, I recommend:
Apocalypse Now
Any of the Four Rambo films
Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2