“Each and every man under my command owes me one hundred Nazi scalps… and I want my scalps!”
To those of you who thought that was merely an expression akin to “I want his head on a platter”, you were dead wrong. Damn this movie is gory!
Inglorious Basterds, Tarantino’s latest bloodbath, is quite an original and interesting movie. Obviously based in fact, the movie takes place in Nazi-occupied France around the end of WWII. In true Quentin style, there are many awkwardly comedic moments that help break odd tension and rather frankly just screw with the flow of the film.
That being said, the pace of Basterds pretty messed up anyway. If you do one thing, please don’t judge this movie on its first twenty minutes. The painstakingly slow introduction shows a single conversation between two people that could easily have taken up less than three minutes, but for some reason, it was extended to what seemed like an indefinite amount of time. Ouch. However, by the end of that scene, the vigorous slaughter that occurs (sorry, slight spoiler there!) almost brought me to tears. The inhumanity of the acts that were committed were absolutely disgusting, and it really shed light on what Jewish people went through during this time.
The movie was interestingly written, and probably more than half in French and German, with subtitles of course. This brought a unique twist to the film and certainly lended authenticity to the entire situation. The pace was wretchedly awkward, with about ten minutes of action for every half hour segment of narration and dialog. However, the acting was quite remarkable, although out of place in some situations.
You might be able to tell that I am not quite sure what to think about this film. It was interesting, sure. It made me appreciate and feel for what people went through over the course of WWII, even if I will never understand it completely. But it had its awkward moments and, it may be simply because I haven’t seen enough Tarantino films (nor do I really want to), but it took me out of the experience a bit. My verdict? If you like Tarantino, history films, or want to see something with action and laughs (and lots of gore to boot), definitely check this one out. At two and a half hours, it’ll take up a full night, but I think it is certainly worth it if it’s what you’re into.