Let me say this first and foremost:
If you hate movies with violence, guts and gore, stay away from this movie by at least 100 yards.
This is, without a doubt, the most gory movie I have ever seen. There are scalps being, well, scalped, beatings with baseball bats, guns, Nazis getting the Swastika carved into their foreheads; all in all, it's a pretty violent, gritty, blood-red drive. But did I enjoy every minute of it?
Oh, yeah.You must know that I am a total guys-movie girl. I mean, I have the most testosterone in the family when it comes to movies, as I always say. So of course I would love a movie like this. I mean, not only is it Quentin Tarantino, but it has more blood than
Sweeney Todd and
Dracula put together! It's practically movie heaven! Fortunately for me though, it's also not mindless, stupid action, which more and more movies nowadays seem to follow. This movie has a plot. It has
substance. And damn goot plot substance, might I add.
Leuitenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) is the leader of a Jewish Nazi-killin' squad on a blood-fest, revenge spree, called 'The Basterds.' For the first half of the movie, all the really do is go around hunting for Nazis, killing and then scalping whoever they find. Eventually though (and with the help of Bridget von Hammersmark, a famous German actress played by a famous German actress, Diane Kruger), they get the fine idea of blowing up a special propaganda film movie premiere, which will host all the most prominent figures of the Third Reicht. Too bad for them, somebody else already came up with that idea. Enter Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent), the Jewish owner of the cinema where the film will be premiering. Unknown to the Nazis whom she is surrounded by (and trust me, she's surrounded by
a lot of them), many years ago she was in fact hiding underneath the floorboards of a friends' house to escape from the Germans wrath when they pulled out their machine guns on her and her hiding family. She got away and ran, the rest of her family perished. Needless to say, she's never quite forgiven the Nazis for doing that to her. There is especially one Nazi in particular, who seems to be getting in everyone's way: Colonel Hans Landa (Christopher Waltz), a detective known teasingly as 'The Jew Hunter.' Yes, he is the man behind the death of Shosanna's family, and yes, he is the main antagonist, and finally yes, he is perhaps the most polite Nazi you will ever meet. Going back to Shosanna now (stay with me here), in order to get revenge for her poor family's doom, she too decides to blow up her cinema. Except instead of using bombs and guns like The Basterds will, she decides to use nitrate film. Oh, for those of you who don't know, nitrate film burns fast. Real fast. You set fire to that, you set fire to the whole building.
Now, I've provided the most basic plotline I could for this movie. Seeing as it's a Tarantino movie, it's no surprise it's still complicated even at its simplest. But trust me, while you're watching this movie everything clicks together and makes sense. And even if you don't, you get the help of nifty little name titles in big, bold font on the middle of the screen that name people and events.
Let's move onto the acting then, shall we? Brad Pitt: uh, WOW. I always knew I loved him, but now I really love him even more. I remember a friend said to me once, "Brad Pitt is a character actor inside a leading man's body." This movie just proves that even more. He is a mean and gritty character who only wants to make those Nazis (or, as he says, "Gna-zee") feel the pain that his fellow Jewish friends did. Equally as good is his enemy, Col. Landa played by the exceptional Christopher Waltz. This is not your typical enemy. This enemy is very
nice. Well, that is unless he finds you guilty. But if not, he will very kindly order you strudel and make nice conversation with you. There is no other actor I think who could've portrayed the part better. Waltz makes his bad guy so nice and polite, it's
creepy. I was always just waiting for him to crack and lose it. And when he does, he's even
better.
Diane Kruger is finally able to show off her skills in acting (since she wasn't able to do it very much in
National Treasure), and it's not bad. I bet many people were distracted too much by her pretty face, but she's not bad. She is a little outshone by the rest of the galavanting cast, but she does her best and her best is quite fine. Melanie Laurent was wonderful, capturing the essence of someone always reminded of her painful past. Her face remains grim and constantly vexed the entire film, it's only at the films hot (literally) climax does she let out a laugh -- a maniacal one at that, too. The Basterds themselves look like they're just having a blast. Honestly, who wouldn't? You get to tromp around, bashing brains in, inspiring fear into everyone crosses your path.
But my favorite part of the movie would have to be Tarantino's direction. Yes, there are many elements that you could find in his other movies, like the 'Chapter' segments, or the cheesy titles to introduce characters, or the retro soundtrack with many spaghetti western songs (which I have no problem with, since I grew up listening to those). At first, I thought Tarantino was just being
very reminiscent to
Kill Bill or
Pulp Fiction. But then, I realized: all these itty bitty factors that contribute to the overall look of this movie? It's just part of his
style. You can't take it away. That'd be like taking darkness away from Tim Burton or animation away from Andrew Stanton. It just wouldn't be
right. So now, I welcome these little elements, from the beautiful homage close-ups of faces (of which there are many) to his little fetish for feet shots. And these elements combined with the acting, creative plot, and violence festival?
One kick-ass movie.
