INGLORIOUS BASTERDS
A gusty, comic, fairy tale, shift of cultures from American pop to European holocaust arty, 'Inglorious Basterds' is Tarantino's best after 'Pulp Fiction'
by Vishal Verma

Release in India by Paramount Films of India. A Weinstein Co. (in U.S.)/Universal Pictures Intl. (foreign) release of A Band Apart (U.S.) / Zehnte Babelsberg (Germany) production. (International sales; Universal Pictures Intl., London.)

Producer : Lawrence Bender
Executive producers : Erica Steinberg, Lloyd Phillips, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein
Co-producers : Henning Molfenter, Carl L. Woebcken, Christoph Fisser
Writer- Director : Quentin Tarantino
Genre : action thriller
Target Audience : Niche in General

Starring

Lt. Aldo Raine - Brad Pitt
Shosanna - Melanie Laurent
Col. Hans Landa - Christoph Waltz
Sgt. Donny Donowitz - Eli Roth
Lt. Archie Hicox - Michael Fassbender
Bridget von Hammersmark - Diane Kruger
Fredrick Zoller - Daniel Bruhl
Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz - Til Schweiger
Cpl. Wilhelm Wicki - Gedeon Burkhard
Marcel - Jacky Ido
Pfc. Smithson Utivich - B.J. Novak
Pfc. Omar Ulmer - Omar Doom
Major Hellstrom - August Diehl
Perrier Lapadite - Denis Menochet
Joseph Goebbels - Sylvester Groth
Hitler - Martin Wuttke
General Ed Fenech - Mike Myers
Francesca Mondino - Julie Dreyfus
Sgt. Rachtman - Richard Samuel
Master Sgt. Wilhelm/Pola Negri Alexander Fehling
Winston Churchill - Rod Taylor
(English, German, French, Italian dialogue)

Technical Analysis

‘Slapped’ & delivered. ‘Inglorious Basterds’ is such kind of a film where Tarantino punches, slaps, giggles & then cunningly cuddles you & asks ‘how was it’. A violent, intelligently entertaining imagined fantasy in which the history of World War II gets rewritten for a decisive absorbing cinema.

Watching Inglourious Basterds, reminds of Paul Verhoeven's Black Book and Bryan Singer's Valkyrie, both of which contain themes and ideas that are echoed here. This is no Schindler's List. It's not about nobility or sacrifice. It's about the dirty, bloody side of war. Inglourious Basterds is suffused with dark humor - so much so that it's tempting to label it an action/comedy. There are laugh-out-loud moments, this is nothing new for Tarantino, who has always interwoven humor with violence, but its incorporation here is refreshingly unsettling.

A must for Tarantino fans, the pic also offers some novelty - American pop art with a strong Euro flavor. Keeping its known elements like women taking revenge, treating violence with special care, creating a mystery by drama, dialogues & when it starts getting more then bang boom bang in its unique humorous way.

Inglorious Basterds’ is divided into five "chapters," the first being "Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied France.", which honestly reflects the fantastical nature of the narrative to come. Tarantino brings to Inglourious Basterds some subtle, some obvious - that run the gamut from D-grade exploitation flicks to A-list classics. This is not, as has been reported in some places, a remake of the 1978 feature The Inglorious Bastards, although the title is an homage. Reportedly, some of Tarantino's nascent versions of the screenplay used elements of the earlier film, but those are mostly gone in the final edition. This is pretty much 100% Tarantino, which could be good or bad, depending on your opinion of the man's work.

Tarantino loves dialogue and, between taut, brutal action sequences, there's a lot of talking. The conversations aren't as elliptical as some of those in the director's previous efforts, but there are some intriguing moments - a Nazi providing a detailed comparison between Jew-hunting and rat-hunting, a 20 questions-like guessing game with the answer of "King Kong,", the ‘deal’ sequence during the final moments, having a point to the talk, however, that goes beyond the filmmaker showing off his skill with words. All these scenes precede instances of sudden, violent action and the threat of bloodshed is heavy in the air. With every sentence, the tension mounts. Tarantino uses these sequences to prime the audience, teasing them until the suspense is nearly unbearable, then releasing it in one explosive burst.

Most Tarantino films feature at least one high-profile actor in a major role and, in this case, it's Brad Pitt. From his opening speech about the mission - one that recalls monologues from The Dirty Dozen and Patton - Pitt is clearly in character.

While World War II has probably inspired as much fiction as any other single topic in film history, "Inglourious Basterds" is one of the few to have brazenly altered history to such an extent. Because Tarantino carefully sets up the approach at the outset, as well as through his sense of style, Tarantino gets away with it, and is in a position to fine-tune the picture before locking a final cut.

Shot almost entirely at Babelsberg Studio outside Berlin, with brief location work in Paris, pic features terrific production values across the boards, from David Wasco's rich production design and Anna Sheppard's fine costumes to Robert Richardson's clear-eyed, beautifully framed lensing and Sally Menke's sharply timed editing. Tarantino eschews a traditional score in favor of a crazy stew of source music, ranging eclectically from Dimitri Tiomkin's "The Green Leaves of Summer" from "The Alamo" and some Mike Curb motorcycle movie music to eight selections from the Ennio Morricone library.

With Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino has made his best movie since Pulp Fiction. He has also made what could arguably be considered the most audacious World War II movie of all-time. If you think there are rules for this sort of motion picture, guess again. Even the film's occasional artistic flourishes (such as chapter titles and out-of-period music pieces) work within the context of what Tarantino is trying to accomplish. This is clearly an attempt by the director to expand his range and step outside of the comfort zone in which he has worked for the majority of his career.

The movie scores 4 out of 5

One for the imagination

One for writing

One for the helmers skill in creating & maintaining the mystery around his art.

One for the performance of Bradd Pitt & the Australian actor Christoph Waltz.

The Story

Inglourious Basterds begins in German-occupied France, where Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris, where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema.

Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) organizes a group of Jewish soldiers to engage in targeted acts of retribution. Known to their enemy as "The Basterds," Raine's squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) on a mission to take down the leaders of The Third Reich. Fates converge under a cinema marquee, where Shosanna is poised to carry out a revenge plan of her own..

Business Analysis

Tarantino’s best work after ‘Pulp Fiction’, ‘Inglorious Basterds’ will please its followers & add weight to the kitty of Paramount Films of India, thanks to the gusty, comic, fairy tale, shift of cultures from American pop to European holocaust arty.

Other Credits

Camera (Deluxe color, Panavision widescreen): Robert Richardson; editor: Sally Menke; music supervisor: Mary Ramos; production designer: David Wasco; supervising art director: Sebastian Krawinkel; art director: Stephan Gessler, Marco Bittner Rosser, David Scheunemann; set decorator: Sandy Reynolds Wasco; costume designer: Anna B. Sheppard; sound (Dolby Digital/DTS/SDDS): Mark Ulano; supervising sound editor: Wylie Stateman; re-recording mixers: Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti; sound designers: Harry Cohen, Ann Scibelli; visual effects designer: John Dykstra; visual effects supervisor: Victor Mueller; special effects supervisors: Gerd Feuchter, Uli Nefzer; special makeup effects: Gregory Nicotero, Howard Berger; stunt coordinators: Jeff Dashnaw, Bud Davis, Antje "Angie" Rau (Germany); associate producer: Pilar Savone; assistant directors: William Paul Clark, Bruce Moriarty; casting: Johanna Ray, Jenny Jue, Simone Bar, Olivier Carbone. Reviewed at Famous preview theatre, Mumbai, on September 29, 2009. Running time: 152 MIN.

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