Written and Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Inglourious Basterds was not what I expected. Walking into the film, I was expecting a film (as advertised) about a group of rag tag Jewish American soldiers, hacking their way through Germany under the leadership of Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt). In truth, they play only a small part in the film. In fact, I would suggest that despite referring to themselves as such, they aren't even really the inglorious bastards of the film. That award belongs to Christophe Waltz's Col. Hans Landa, who rules every scene he is in with a charismatic fist. One could also make the case that the title refers to every central character of the film, who as much as I hate to admit it, is portrayed as both inglorious and bastardly at times.
The Jew who truly attacks the Nazis is Shosanna Dreyfuss (Melanie Laurent), a Jewish survivor of an attack in France, and now owner of a movie theater in Paris under the name Emmanuelle Mimieux. The Nazi war hero and film fan Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Bruhl) is enamored with her and arranges to have the film premiere of Joseph Goebbel's next “masterpiece”at her theater. Shosanna decides that she will destroy the theater and everyone inside or die trying. It's hard to say who the true protagonist of the film is- Raine, Landa or Dreyfuss. But Shosanna certainly takes center stage for conceiving of the plot that the Allied forces then involve themselves (and specifically the Basterds) in that they dub “Project Kino”. The problem here is that we never see any indication of Shosanna getting the word out about her plan to the Allied forces, so either they conveniently come up with the exact same plan on their own or it's a plot hole.
Like most Quentin Tarantino films, this is sectional. Each chapter is essentially one long scene with brief intercutting. When each play out in a similar way there is a certain monotony to it, but never lethargy. What this accomplishes is probably the film's greatest feat- a dramatic tension that continually builds, usually ending in quick moments of tragedy. This is a direct nod to one of Tarantino's idols, the great Italian director Sergio (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Once Upon A Time in America) Leone. The opening scene, where Col. Landa visits a dairy farm in the French countryside, plays out (and is shot like) a combination of the second scene of TGTB&TU (Lee Van Cleef's the intimidating villain, visits a man's home), the scene from Orson Welles' Citizen Kane where a young Charles Foster Kane is essentially sold by his parents to a rich man, and a bit of the John Ford classic The Searchers thrown in for good measure. This is a tremendous feat, combining such masterstrokes of cinema and creating a new one in the process.
The serialized aspect of the film gives us many opportunities to see different aspects of the action from different characters points of view. Unfortunately, I was also left wondering where in the hell the other four Basterds (the most notably being Samm Levine) disappear off to while we follow the story of everyone else. Why have these missing men around in the first place? They serve little to no purpose and their assignment to collect the scalps of 100 Nazi soldiers given to them by Lt. Raine never really comes to fruition. One can assume that they were quite successful off-screen in this regard, but in a film that draws heavily on “ragtag soldiers with a mission” films, you would think that they could at least off handedly mention the whereabouts of the missing Basterds. I guess since every other character is given such a key role that is never wasted, why even include those that are in the first place?
(THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPHS CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS)
Once Landa's presence and renown as a “Jew-Killer” is established, any time he reappears the tension follows. His story is odd though, because we never truly understand his motivation for making a deal to end the war and let his superiors be killed. The first indication we get of a weakness is that after he kills the Jewish family hiding in the farmer's house, he allows the daughter, Shosanna Dreyfuss, to run off into the hills making a conscious decision to not shoot her. Previously in this scene Landa explains his appreciation for the nickname he has been given, but then we never see him personally kill any Jews at any point in the film. In fact, holding himself from shooting Shosanna implies he isn't what he makes himself out to be. Later, he and Shosanna, as Emmanuelle meet again at Goebbel's table. Landa orders milk with the strudel for Shosanna, a nod to his knowledge of her secret dairy farm past. And yet, again allows her to go. He allows the plan to kill all the high ranking officials of the Third Reich to go through, apparently with his full knowledge. But still, he murders Bridget von Hammersmark with his bare hands for being a double agent and for trying to do exactly what he allows to happen. Why murder von Hammersmark only to soon after become a double-crosser himself? And why would he trust himself to the hands of Aldo Raine, whom he knows to be a savage? The “twist” of Landa betraying his fatherland seems to come from nowhere. He does admit a different feeling toward being referred to as the “Jew-Killer” when speaking with Raine at the climax of the film, shrugging it off as a nickname he never asked for. But this doesn't explain why he would simply give up on the life he built for himself in Germany, a life he seems otherwise quite proud to live.
Much has been said about the film being a “Jewish fantasy” film, reclaiming the notion that Jews can in fact fight back (an absurd notion in some ways), and in this case, indulge in wish fulfillment like personally killing Hitler and his ilk. I don’t really think the film actually is successful at this for several reasons. One, only one Jew in the whole film survives the ordeal. Two, the film dances with dangerously iffy political notions in having so much Jewish self sacrifice going on. Sgt. Donny Donnowitz (Eli Roth) A.K.A. “The Bear Jew” (and also the weakest actor in the whole film, who because of his terrible accent ends up as more of a cartoon than Hitler is portrayed as) and Pfc. Omar Ullmer (Omar Doom) end up firing round after round of ammunition into a screaming crowd that will die in a fire anyway with a look of haunting look of glee on their faces. But that’s not the worst part- the fact that they decide to remain there, blowing themselves up with dynamite instead of setting the bombs and leaving- can’t help but draw a connection to the ongoing suicide/homicide bombings of horror that continue to plague the state of Israel. Whether the filmmaker intended it or not, he is paralleling Jews attacking Nazis and Palestinian attacks on Israel, something that takes the notion of a Jewish revenge fantasy that Tarantino talked up in interviews into a dangerous opposite direction.
Also heartbreaking is the death of Shosanna, who is taking the most direct revenge of all. She is the true hero of the film and to see her taken down in such a way is painful. If it wasn’t for the glee shown in the violence throughout the film, I would say that the film was trying to show the futility of getting back at those who wronged you. Yet again we are left with the feeling of what did it all add up to in the end? Sure the war is over, but why does this revisionist take on history have to show us the continued death of Jews, especially ones we have become attached to for their vigilance in standing up against those that wronged them and their families.
(END SPOILERS)
Tarantino’s formula for filmmaking is out in full force here. References to an endless array of world cinema (love the nods to Bavarian mountain films, an oft forgotten era of German cinema), long speeches that take on different dramas the longer they continue, Mexican standoffs, close-ups of women's feet, it's all at play here. This may be his best film to date, because it mixes the stage play-like drawn out scenes of Reservoir Dogs with the serialization of Pulp Fiction with the complex combination of his influences into a cohesive animal that is Kill Bill, without resorting to cartoonishness. When he does break the carefully woven universe the film occupies, it stands out negatively. There is no reason to stamp the screen with a grindhouse-eque name plate for Hugo Stiglitz (Til Schweiger) and the narration by Samuel L. Jackson, whose voice is jarringly out of place in this film. Yet he holds to the period more often than not, and seems to be having fun in the process.
**** Four Stars – Definitely see this film
Inglourious Basterds is available now on DVD and Blu-ray disc.
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