Inglourious Basterds
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Brad Pitt, Melanie Laurent, and Cristoph Waltz
At the Loma 9:15 nightly

Going in to this review, I have a confession: I like Quentin Tarantino movies. Some I liked a lot (like Reservoir Dogs), some not so much (Kill Bill Vol. 2). I just want to make sure you understand that up front. I enjoyed this movie. Being standard Tarantino territory, expect: extravagant violence, self indulgent dialog, well composed direction, and the closest thing to pulp fiction put on film you will see today. I really think Tarantino approaches film making as an art form, and this film is no exception. His direction is on par with few living directors (Lynch and Miike come to mind) as far as I'm concerned. His films are different fundamentally from those two directors, but I still feel that he fits in the mold of seeing film as a means of manifesting an artistic vision.

In line with his past films, character development takes a back seat to vignettes strung together into a storyline, with setting and long monologues (framed as dialog, but he's not fooling me) acting as the backbone to the plot. Pitt does well as the leader of a Nazi-hunting group of American Jewish soldiers wandering the occupied French countryside, killing and scalping Nazis; but the acting highpoints in this film for me were Laurent (playing Shosanna Dreyfus) as the sole survivor who witnessed her family's slaughter - at the hand's of Col. Landa's troops, and Waltz as the "Jew Hunter" Col. Landa (in a nice tip of the cap to the pulp fiction genre, he prefers to think of himself as a "detective"). Tarantino also chose to portray the high ranking Nazis (Hitler and Goebbels) not by look-alikes, but by using actors that could portray the evilness of those individuals. It made it very easy to hate the Nazis.

Pulp fiction is the perfect way to describe this movie. In true Tarantino style, he has no problem with making it clear to the viewer that his story's universe does not exist beyond the frame of the screen. In most World War II movies, there's some reference to real events going on in the war, but in this movie, it's all about the Basterd's hunting and Shosanna's brewing hatred for the occupying Nazi's. With little character development, we are left with scenes of people killing Nazis, or talking about killing Nazis. It's completely enjoyable, if you're ready to take the violence with the lengthy dialog. There are some scenes that go too long, but are tolerable. As the story continues, Tarantino builds up the tension of the inevitable climax very well.

In closing, this is an unapologetic Tarantino film, and anybody going to see it should go into it understanding this. The violence is gruesome and excessive, the characters are two dimensional, the set scenes are brilliantly crafted, the dialog can drag on too long at times, and it is all wrapped up into a too-cool package only Tarantino can put together. If you are a Tarantino fan, you owe it to yourself to see this movie. If you aren't a Tarantino fan, stay away. If you've never seen a Tarantino movie, expect violence, mild character development, and a film made by one of the more interesting American director's for our time. This has date movie potential if both people are Tarantino fans.

Editor's note: Here's a well-written and thought provoking article from the Huffington Post which critiques Mr. Tarantino's trivialization of violence; that is my personal concern for Tarantino's films.