‘Inglourious Basterds’ Movie Review - Tarantino Delivers Once Again

Best movie of 2009 so far? I think so. I’ve spent the eight months getting increasingly bored of the blockbusters Hollywood keeps chucking out. Some have been good this year (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince) while others have failed to deliver on the most basic levels (Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen and G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra).

And then there was Quentin Tarantino’s latest epic, and it is epic in its proportions, Inglourious Basterds. I approach every Tarantino movie with a certain amount of trepidation for fear that he has lost it, that he has tried just that little bit too hard and actually failed to deliver what he hoped to. And Inglourious Basterds was no exception.

Luckily, this movie delivers on all levels. I’ll probably get ripped to shreds for saying it but it could actually be Tarantino’s best film yet. That’s because it seems to take the best elements from his other films and blends them together in as near a perfect way as possible.

Inglourious Basterds tells the story of a group of Jewish-American soldiers who sped most of the Second World War behind enemy lines killing Nazis. They don’t just kill them, they massacre them, always leaving one alive to recount what happened and spread the fear (and a certain mythology) to the rest of the foot soldiers.

However, this isn’t, as the frankly misrepresenting trailers would have you believe, a gratuitous bloodbath showing ambush after ambush. There is the odd moment of that, which is to be expected from Tarantino, but Inglourious Basterds is much more than that.

There are some incredibly funny moments which raised more laughs at the screening I was at than The Hangover managed. There are nods to different genres of cinema, another Tarantino hallmark, and there is dialog aplenty. Thankfully none of it boring or unnecessary.

This isn’t a fast-paced movie at all, with most of the movie relatively slow, most scenes drawn-out. But while I’d usually baulk at these long, intense set-pieces, Tarantino delivers them with a class and style that leaves your eyes and ears desperate to soak up more.

At 153 minutes long, Inglourious Basterds is a hefty film, but the only reason I knew I’d been watching for that long was my ass falling to sleep. The action on screen kept me glued from beginning to end, which may not be good for my bladder but is certainly good for my creative senses.

There are some memorable acting performances. Brad Pitt leads the cast well, with those who think he’s wooden seeming not to grasp the fact that’s exactly what his character should have been. But he and the rest of the Basterds are upstaged by Mélanie Laurent and Christoph Waltz as a revengeful Jew and SS officer respectively.

Inglourious Basterds is not a film for everyone but I can heartily recommend it to anyone who wants to see how cinema should be done. If you liked Transformers 2 or G.I. Joe then you may want to stay away because this is a highly intoxicating film that requires thought and feeling to enjoy to its fullest.

It’s not perfect by any means but what has been done well more than makes up for the slightly patchy pacing and slightly disjointed storyline.