INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
Written and Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Diane Kruger, Eli Roth & Martin Wuttke

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

*** WARNING! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS***

Nazi Slaughter Provides Perfect Summer Thrill
por Scott Marks

Forget about machete-wielding monsters wearing William Shatner masks and other assorted psychopaths eager to take garden shears to Achilles tendons. There is no villain more frightening or worthy of audience hatred and contempt than the Nazi.

Believe it or not, it was The Three Stooges, not Charlie Chaplin or Ernst Lubitsch, who first saw the satiric possibilities in Hitler’s jackbooted apes. At the outset of World War II, before the reality of Hitler’s ovens had spread, Hollywood depicted Nazis as goose-stepping stock buffoons. Once the truth became known, the idea of showing Nazis in anything but a reprehensible light was unthinkable. Tragedy + Time = Comedy, and it wasn’t until Mel Brooks’ “The Producers” that movies were finally able to once again employ Nazis as comedic targets.

Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” could be the most Hitlerious movie of its kind since Mel had the audacity to set Hitler to music. It is also the first time that critical darling QT, a bit of a vainglorious bastard himself, has been able to set aside the in-jokes and his particular brand of pop culture babble to apply his knowledge of and passion for cinema to a coherent and wildly entertaining narrative.

The film begins by cross-referencing two unlikely sources: “The Diary of Anne Frank” and Sergio Leone. (The film could just as easily have been titled “Once Upon a Time in West Berlin.”) Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz in the year’s most ruthlessly engaging performance) travels to a remote German village to question a farmer once accused of harboring Jews. Landa convinces the farmer to confess and once the truth becomes clear, the Colonel, as any good Nazi killing machine must, air conditions the floorboards with a shower of bullets. Landa must have been off his game that day, for Shoshana (Mélanie Laurent) manages to escape.

The young woman flees to Paris, changes her identity and opens up a movie theater which exhibits films by Leni Riefenstahl and G.W. Pabst, two of Der Fuhrer’s favorite filmmakers. Meanwhile, in another part of the forest Lieutenant Aldo Ray… I mean Raine (Brad Pitt) is gathering together a group of Jewish American soldiers whose one goal is to bring back as many Nazi scalps as possible. Admittedly, the older I get the less appealing graphic on-screen violence becomes, but in the case of Nazis I’ll be more than glad to make an exception.

Don’t let the advertising fool you. He may get star billing, but Pitt only appears in a handful of scenes. While I didn’t get why everyone was raving about his performance as the dim health club worker in “Burn After Reading,” Pitt’s role as Tennessee born “Natzy” killer is a hoot and a half.

Judging by the trailer, this looked like it was going to be one giant rip-off of Robert Aldrich’s “The Dirty Dozen.” It’s not, but if there is one complaint to be leveled against the film it’s that out of the six members of Raine’s squad, only three are given anything to do. The rest seem to disappear into the background. Something tells me this will be rectified when the director’s cut is released on DVD.

The basterds eventually team with Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger), a German actress/double agent who helps the boys achieve their goal. Trapped in Shoshana’s theater for the premier of Dr. Goebbels latest propaganda masterstroke, the team uses highly flammable nitrate film stock to fry Hitler and his henchmen. To the best of my knowledge there is only one other film, the unintentionally uproarious American propaganda picture “Hitler: Dead or Alive,” that manages to kill Hitler before the final fade-out.

The scenes in the theater are so precise and brilliantly executed that they almost brought a tear to my eye. Watching Tarantino film a reel change — the changeover bell, the cue mark, the projector beam switching from one booth porthole to the other — brought back cherished memories of bygone days before platters and multiplexes.

With its graphic depiction of the slaughter of flesh-and-blood Nazis (as opposed to digitized giant toys or prawns), “Inglourious Basterds” is my idea of a perfect summer thrill ride. It’s officially safe for adults to return to the theater.

Scott Marks was born and raised in some of the finest single screen movie theaters in Chicago. He moved to San Diego in 2000 and has never looked back. Scott authors the blog emulsioncompulsion.com and is co-host of KPBS-Radio’s Film Club of the Air. Please address any bouquets or brickbats to [email protected].