Raise your hand, if you're a Basterd

I'm not a huge fan of Quentin Tarantino's films. I fell asleep during Reservoir Dogs, I thought Pulp Fiction was somewhat interesting, but nevertheless have no intention of watching it again, never saw Jackie Brown...Kill Bill Volume 1 was awesome, 2 was a bit of a letdown, and Death Proof was definitely the weaker of the Grindhouse films. Which leads me to Inglourious Basterds (which I think is the correct way to spell Inglourious...I know that's not the right way to spell "Bastards"), Tarantino's attempt at a war film.

Now, if you've never seen a QT film, just to let you know, he is known for having long dialogue scenes...and I do mean loooooong dialogue scenes. His character's like to talk about everyday things, and while from a nuance side, I do appreciate the fact he's trying to get as much characterization and what not in there, sometimes it can lead the audience member to wonder what the point is of the entire scene. Basterds is no different, though I'm becoming acclimatized to Tarantino's style, so it didn't bother me as much as usual. There's also a lot of brutal scenes, including a bat-wielding bastard taking it to a Nazi, the carving of swastikas into Nazi foreheads, scalping, and at one point, shooting a corpse until their face is basically destroyed. That's right, this film is not for the squeamish, and it's certainly not for people who look away at the very sight of implied violence. When it happens, it's brutal.

Also, this film is not really about the Basterds (though they do play an important part), and one thing I did appreciate, is that if a character was supposed to be German or French, they spoke in German or French, it was not implied that everyone knew English or German or whatever (this also accounts for subtitles, so if you don't like reading dialogue, don't bother), and this film is also not historically accurate, other than the fact that there was a World War 2, and a Hitler, etc, etc. So, don't go looking for a history lesson.

What you get though, is a pretty interesting ride, with over-the-top characters (Brad Pitt and Christoph Waltz excel as the leader of the Basterds and the main villain of the film, respectively), and gratuitous violence (did I mention the blowing off of a corpse's face?), so quite frankly, if you're into that, then you'll like the film. I often find it amazing that Tarantino can have characters discussing the most mundane of things in one scene (take strudel, for instance), and then in the next scene, a character has two guys pointing guns at his balls. That's pretty much what you're going to get for the film, so either you like it, or you don't. For the record, I did.

I bid thee a fond goodnight (with the blowing off of corpse's faces)

- Stephenstein

Rating 4 out of 5 stars.