Only Tarantino can pull of a movie like Inglourious Basterds, and does he do it with some panache or what. Inglourious Basterds is a movie high on steroids with a jolts of white lightning profusely mixed into it. Tarantino has the magical ability of creating an utlra tense situation and adding a dash of subtle humour, which by no means reduces the tension per se, but keeps you rivetted all the more. You can actually laugh at the sheer grim and horrific situations that the characters find themselves in.
Take for example the opening sequence which introduces us to the cunning, conniving, scheming, adjectives are less to describe the sinister nature of Hans Landa, who slowly but surely gets all the information from the poor french farmer LaPadite, while cooly sipping away at milk. Christoph Waltz has given a performance of a lifetime and would definitely deserve a shot at the Oscars for this. You would definitely need a subbed version of the DVD to enjoy the conversations better. You can watch him get evil by the minute, as he starts comparing the Jews to rats, and that they are the cause for the bubonic plague. Just as you think that their conversation has become less tense where Landa starts comparing squirrels to rats, saying that both are rodents the scene takes an amazing reversal and Landa's men discover the Jews hiding in the basement a-la rats.
Tarantino breathes life into some amazing characters like Hugo Stiglitz- the gestapo killer, the baseball wielding Bear Jew, little man-Smithson, and the heavily accented Aldo Raine played by Bradd Pitt. As, in the case of some of his earlier movies Tarantino has arranged the movie by chapters and some of these amazing characters come to life in the second chapter titled Inglourios Basterds. The Basterds led by Lt. Aldo raine are a bunch of Nazi german killers put together to instill fear across the third reich. One of the scenes that will remain etched in the viewers memory is that of the Bear Jew mercilessly beating a gestapo with a baseball bat when he does not divulge the german hideouts.Tarantino has the notoriety to use extreme violence and gore, and this movie is no different, with the uncut version having multiple head scalping and extreme bloody scenes. Aldo also has his own unique way of marking the German officers who can be identified later as Nazi jew hunters.
The movie unfolds further in the third and forth chapters where we are introduced to the beautiful Emmanuelle who owns a theatre in Paris, and a completely smitten war hero Fredric Zoller. So smitten is zoller by the beautiful Emmanuelle that he changes the venue of a war movie 'Nations Pride' starring himself for which the the Fuhrer Hitler himself is going to be present. Enter the beautiful Diane Kruger as Bridget Von Hammersmark who is a German actress but actually helping out the Basterds in their plans. One of the scenes in a bar is utterly hilarious but which ends up in a messy gun fight, since Hicox -An english officer is not able to maintain his german accent.On being found out Hicox has this to say "Now, about this pickle we find ourselves in..." and then ensues a Bar brawl like no other. Soon we find out that Emmanuelle is no bimbo and she has some plans of her own, as she is the lone survivor of the assualt that Landa had carried out earlier. Watch out for the scene where she does a Rambo, getting ready for the D-day of Operation Kino, complete with lipstick doubling up as Facepaint and all. In between all this commotion Bridget tries to slip Aldo and his team as Italians inside the theatre. One of my most favorite scenes from the movies is that of Landa asking Aldo and his henchmen to repeat their names again and again- Gorlomi, Margherita and Deccocco. Little does Bridget know that Landa knows everything about her and is quite fluent in Italian as well.
You do feel sorry for Emmanuelle/Shosanna since both her and zoller die in the shootout in the projector room but her friend Marcel keeps his promise and the theatre turns into a fireball. And just as you think that Landa has managed to strike a deal with the Basterds and would go scott free, there is another twist in the tale. You kind of feel the pleasure when Aldo creates his masterpiece marking Landa on the forehead.
Inglourious Basterds is Tarantino at his best, pure and pristine film making with a complete assault to your senses. Go get attacked and feel the pleasure in the pain.
