Inglourious Basterds (2009) review

(9/10)

I have finally seen it. The wait is over for me, and passed on to another unlucky cinephile.

PLOT:There are two separate storylines in this anti-Holocaust film. The first is led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), leader of the notorious Nazi killing group, The Basterds. They have grouped everyone from the ferocious Donnie "The Bear Jew" Donowitz (Eli Roth) to the notorious Hugo Stiglitz (Til Schweiger). They formulate a plan to ambush the local theater they're showing the Nazi film, "Nation's Pride" in and blow it up, for the four highest ranks in the war (including Hitler) are attending. The second storyline is following Shoshanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent), an escaped, incognito Jew, who now runs a theater with her partner in France. When she meets a Nazi war hero that falls for her (Daniel Bruhl), he pulls a few strings and has the premiere of his film, "Nation's Pride", shown at her theatre; the same Col. Landa (Christopher Waltz) that killed her family is even going to be there. To get her revenge, Shoshanna comes up with the idea to lock all of the Nazis inside of her theatre and burn it down. If you haven't noticed already, the two storylines seem to run into each other to where the climax sycnhronizes. As you can guess, things don't go directly according to plan. It's a well-thought out plot based on the Holocaust executed to the true Tarentino factor.



ACTING:The acting in here was brilliant. Pitt shined indefinitely in this role as Aldo Raine. He added a certain flair and charm to the role that I don't think could have been pulled off quite by anyone else. Every actor did a fine job, but he definitely stole the show. Other shiners or honorable mentions are Laurent as Shoshanna, Waltz as Col. Landa, Eli Roth as Donny, Michael Fassbender as Archie Hilcox, Martin Wuttke as Hitler, Diane Kruger as Bridget von Hammersmark, and the brief cameo of Rod Taylor as Winston Churchill.

SCORE:The soundtrack is one of the finest parts of the film; my dad even had to buy it and he isn't a cinephile or score fan! The score consists of old, vinyl-sounding tunes, marching string tracks, haunting piano themes, and in your face rock songs. This is definitely one of the best soundtracks I've heard in a while.



OTHER CONTENT:This is indeed a Quentin Tarentino film. His direction shows, from cut scene to calm-then-violent cutscene. He definitely has a clean cut vision for direction, and it showed in here. I admire his directing. This film was a thrilling, fun, violent, interesting ride through a historic fiction idea. Just as Tarentino likes, he separated the movie into sections, or chapters, for better effect. Like the films he does that in, you find yourself somewhat confused until the finale. It follows classic Tarentino formula, and follows it well. The film would have gotten a lower rating from me if it had not been for the shocking and pleasing ending. The finale ties the whole film together and gives us what we have been waiting for. My only problem with the film is I feel it's a slight bit predictable,  though satisfying, and that it lags a bit in the middle. It's just a few small flaws to such a great masterpiece.

OVERALL,an awesome Tarentino film with a well-thought out plot, brilliant acting, a great soundtrack, a fun and interesting ride of thrills, classic Tarentino formula, and a finale that ties the whole film together, but with all these flaws comes one small problem; it lags a bit in the middle.