Quentin Tarantio has been batting about this movie idea for years. Was it worth the wait? You bet it was. Many may not agree with me, and I don't care, but this is definitely one of the best movies this year.
It's World War II, but not as we know it. As the subtitle suggests, this is a fairy tale. After escaping from the Nazi officer Landa, nicknamed 'The Jew Hunter', Shosanna has been living in Paris where she runs a cinema. For four years she has been building hatred in her heart and waiting for the right time to inflict revenge for the death of her family. After meeting another German officer, who begins to pester her, it turns out he is a national hero, and a film about his exploits is about to be premiered. The officer convinces the German high command to move the event to Shosanna's cinema.
News of this spreads and the chance to kill many of the top dogs of the German forces arises, so a British officer is sent to France to join forces with a renegade bunch called The Basterds, led by Southern Lt Aldo Raines and his band of Jewish soldiers, who enjoy nothing more than killing Nazis and scalping them.
And so we have the set up for quite possibly Tarantino's best film since Jackie Brown.
I have recently complained about the length of movies, particularly the blockbusters, but at two and a half hours, this flies. Tarantino has pushed aside some of the more flashier elements of his film making (as found in the Kill Bill movies) and gone for long, dialogue-led scenes in which we really get to understand the characters. Most of the film is in subtitles, which also surprises, as the characters switch from German, to French, to, hilariously, Italian. We know that Tarantino can write pretty decent dialogue, well here we get to appreciate his wordmanship.
It is violent, as you would expect, but the violence isn't as frequent as you would thought, even if it is quite graphic and squirmish when it does happen. This is a film that relies on performances and they all shine, particularly two stand-outs. Melanie Laurent, as Shosanna, is stunning. A woman who shows so much pain in her eyes, and hatred in her heart. The scene in which she is ordered to dinner, and she doesn't say much is beautifully handled. The star, however, is Christoph Waltz as Landa. A multi-layered performance that takes the part of a villain to a new level. He shows every nuance of the character, moving effortlessly from acting like a man just doing his job to being understanding to pure evil in a blink of an eye. He is also very funny, and if he doesn't get more work from this, then the world is missing out on a superb talent.
The film belongs to Tarantino. His obvious love of spaghetti westerns is given a proper springboard here. From the stunning opening scene, which comes right from the pages of A Fistful Of Dollars, to the use of music and the characters he has created, you feel like you are in Sergio Leone country. This is a far more mature, more restrained film maker than he was with Kill Bill, where every visual trick going was thrown at the screen. With most films being full of fast cuts and flashy editing, this is quite a leisurely affair, and it works in its favour. Better to take its time than rush the point, and you are given time to relish every single frame.
It is lyrical, it is brutal, it is violent and it is very, very funny. It may not be for everyone. For me, it is a triumph and as Pitt says at the end, a masterpiece.
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