Starring: Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Mélanie Laurent
Rated: R
I'll never forget my first Quentin Tarantino experience. I saw "Reservoir Dogs" at the MSU (then SMSU) film series in 1993. It was clear at the time that this debut was from a director with a very personal vision of how films should/could be made.
The premise was a standard "heist" movie, but the devil is in the details they say, and Tarantino's details were refreshing at the time. The film was not edited linearly but in a fractured fashion. It jumped back and forth in time, before and after the event that was the crux of the story. There was plenty of violence but for some reason some of it made the audience laugh. The characters were well defined.
And the dialogue! The dialogue had a cadence to it that captured the ear; some of the subject matter casually discussed among the gangsters was entirely un-movielike. It seemed real. Even jewelry store stickup men, one must assume, aren't all business all the time.
The scene containing that exchange is at the beginning of the film, over breakfast while the job is being planned. It ends with one of the characters squabbling over throwing in a dollar for his share of the tip. In addition to having seen "Reservoir Dogs" around two dozen times, I've queued up the breakfast scene and the "giving of the names" scene more times than I can remember. The dialogue never gets old.
Tarantino, as we all know, went on to make "Pulp Fiction," "Kill Bill," et cetera, and inspired a generation of directors.
His latest effort, "Inglourious Basterds," is a masterwork in which Tarantino keeps most of his trusty trademarks - including his impeccable ear for dialogue - while amplifying and expanding them.
The director is not only a filmmaker but also a film fanatic. From the title on, "Inglourious Basterds," is loaded with film references (including one scene that gives a nod to "Reservoir Dogs" itself) that will bring knowing smiles to other cinema devotees.
"Inglourious Basterds," unlike many of Tarantino's movies, is told in a linear fashion. The twist here is it is presented in five titled chapters and, as the story progresses, the individual tales become more and more tightly interwoven.
The film is set in occupied France during World War II. Chapter one plays like a John Ford meets Sergio Leone western, with a French farmer being confronted by one of the most chilling film Nazis ever conceived. Played by Christoph Waltz, Col. Hans Landa is a cold-blooded member of the SS and is in France to keep tabs on nearly everything. And he manages to do so.
Chapter two introduces us to the "Basterds," a squad of clandestine assassins - mostly Jewish - led by one Lt. Aldo Raine. Raine is a native of Tennessee hill country and has some Native American blood in his veins. With that in mind, scalping becomes a big part of the squad's modus operandi. Played by Brad Pitt with a nod and a wink, Lt. Raine could be the granddad of the character Pitt played in "Burn After Reading" last year. It's a great role, and Pitt has never been better.
Chapter three features Shosanna Dreyfus - who escaped the slaughter of her family in chapter one and is now running a cinema in Paris under an assumed identity. French actress Mélanie Laurent conveys a pain in her eyes that suits Shosanna and the horrible memories she carries with her.
In chapter four we are made privy to a plot being hatched by the British OSS to send a man (a film critic/enlisted man) into France to hook up with the Basterds and execute a plot to wipe out the German high command, including Hitler himself. The deed will be done at the premiere of the latest Nazi propaganda film - which is, of course, debuting at Shosanna's cinema.
In chapter five all of the elements come together. It's tense and funny - Pitt playing a Tennessean posing as an Italian is hilarious. It's here that Tarantino rewrites history. The grand finale has no basis in fact whatsoever, but it's a magnificent - or "glourious," if you will - climax.
There are too many characters to go into, too many pertinent scenes to describe, for one short review.
The principal actors are all on their games with Austrian Waltz as the uber-Nazi Col. Landa topping the heap. He will no doubt receive an Oscar nomination, and no one will complain should he win.
Tarantino fans will love "Inglourious Basterds." Film aficionados will not only enjoy the movie itself but will have fun picking out the director's many homages to other films, to the art of filmmaking and even the day-to-day business of running a projection booth in a theater.
Forget what some people are saying about the two-and-a-half hour running time being too long. "Inglourious Basterds" has not a dull moment.
Under construction beside the existing Republic branch of the Springfield-Greene County Library District – which remains in operation throughout the project – is a new building that will double the size of the original, according to library officials.
