Favorite Filmmakers: Quentin Tarantino/1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die- Inglourious Basterds

#116- Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Starring: Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender

Directed by: Quentin Tarantino


Plot Summary: In 1941, SS Colonel Hans Landa interrogates a French dairy farmer for hiding Jews under his floorboards. Ordering his men to shoot up the Dreyfus family, a young Shosanna Dreyfus barely escapes as Landa decides not to shoot her. 3 years later, Shosanna runs a movie theater under a new alias. A German war hero named Frederick Zoller takes a liking to her and arranges for a new film honoring his efforts to be held in her theater. Knowing that the entire Nazi political leadership will be attending, Shosanna plans to burn down the theater with everyone inside it for revenge. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Aldo Raine recruits Jewish-American soldiers to the Basterds, who spread fear among the German soldiers due to their brutal killing methods. They plan to rendezvous with Lieutenant Archie Cox, a British film critic, and German film star Bridget von Hammersmark to negotiate planting explosives at the premiere. Upon their meeting, new developments unfold as Bridget informs the Basterds that Adolf Hitler has decided to attend the premiere. 

We've come to the end of my retrospective on the career of Quentin Tarantino. Alas, we also arrive at a film that has been labelled a film you must see before you die. Inglourious Basterds is considered one of his modern classics, thanks to its talented cast and fun premise. Altering history immensely, the film depicts 2 different plans to assassinate the Nazi political leadership simultaneously. Now, when I started this film, this honestly felt the least "Tarantino" of his films, and I'm not sure what it was. It might have been the historical setting or the lack of immediately noticeable continuity with the rest of his films. Then, the blood and over the top violence started to kick in and then I was like "and...there he is." By the end, I was blown away by a lot of the questions Tarantino left me asking myself. And that's what I'm here to talk about. While the film has great characters, I honestly think Tarantino's greatest contribution to Inglourious Basterds is that he accomplished what many moviegoers could deem nearly impossible: to humanize Nazi characters, while dehumanizing the allied characters that we are supposed to root for.

There are a ton of great characters here, so let's analyze them by groups. The first group on our list are The Basterds, led by Aldo Raine, played by Brad Pitt. Pitt is a great choice to carry this film, as he has enough talent and natural charisma to really bring a lot of viewers into rooting for The Basterds. His fun accent and demand for Nazi scalps are left in the minds of the viewers forever and I really think only Pitt could give Aldo the proper amount of charm needed for it to work. Another great character in The Basterds is Donny Donowitz (also known as the Bear Jew), played by Eli Roth. While not much depth to his character, he has a love of gore and violence and a fun accent. Really, not much is known about him, but he certainly makes an impression with that baseball bat. We also have the fan favorite character Hugo Stiglitz (who doesn't hear a guitar solo right now?), played by Til Schweiger. Rivaling Donny in terms of love of violence, it's arguable that Hugo is more psychotic and over the top with his violent tendencies. He's given this amazing reputation throughout the film, and you can really tell he's an important asset to the team. But really, we watch The Basterds for the violence right? That's what I thought.

We then cut to a very interesting relationship between a German Nazi war hero, Frederick Zoller, played by Daniel Bruhl, and Jewish French movie theater owner Shosanna Dreyfus, played by Melanie Laurent. Laurent plays Shosanna as your typical tough Tarantino female character driven by revenge for the Nazi's killing her family, and it really works. But there's one big character flaw in liking her and it's her treatment towards Frederick. Frederick is actually a likable character, not enjoying his fame and simply wanting to go out with Shosanna (using the false name of Emmanuelle Mimieux) and bond over their mutual love of movies. Instead, Shosanna gives him the cold shoulder, and even if he's a Nazi, you can't help but feel sorry for the guy. In any other film, they would have a romance that stands this culture clash, but Tarantino isn't your average filmmaker. Shosanna is driven by revenge and won't stop for anything or anybody. Admirable, yes. But, it does raise some questions on if her actions and behaviors are justified towards Frederick.

Then, we have a couple of agents that are involved in Operation Kino, including Archie Cox, played by Michael Fassbender. Fassbender is one of my favorite actors in this current generation, so I always relish the opportunity to see him on film. While he's only in two or three scenes, he's involved in the tensest scene of the film. I won't give much away, but I will say every moment of it is pulse-pounding and it's the point in the film where everything starts to feel like a Tarantino movie again. Another agent in Operation Kino is actress Bridget von Hammersmark, played by Diane Kruger. Now, here's a character that actually got me to start questioning the morals of our "heroes." Again, I'm not one for spoilers, but Bridget does something that really grinds my gears. She's likable up to that point, and once that point of no return happens, I couldn't care less what happens to her.

But the best performance of the film is Christoph Waltz as Hans Landa, a Nazi colonel that is known as the Jew Hunter. The man is so intelligent, so calculating, so ruthless, and so quirky, that you can't help but look at him and go "dang, he's is so impressive. Is there anything he CAN'T do?" Any screenwriters looking to get ahead in the industry should look at the film's opening scene to see how to properly introduce a villain. The scene is absolutely chilling and brilliant to watch. Even if the joke is obvious with Waltz playing the lead antagonist in the upcoming Spectre, I have to say it: Hans Landa could be a James Bond villain. Christoph Waltz is probably my favorite actor to watch nowadays, and I could argue he's the greatest actor to work with Tarantino, since he has starred in two Tarantino films (Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained) and walked away with the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in both films. He is the only actor in Tarantino's films to go undefeated in Academy Award wins. That's pretty impressive. Even more impressive is to see how different Landa is from Dr. King Schultz (Waltz's character in Django Unchained). Looking at them, you probably wouldn't even believe they're played by the same actor. THAT is the mark of a truly great actor.

As you can see, with the characters in Inglourious Basterds, there is no black and white, no good and evil. Each character has reasonable motivations, but that doesn't mean you can honestly agree with any of them. Nazi characters are given quirks, backstories, and character development that actually draws empathy from the viewer. Characters fighting the Nazis that we should be rooting for are blinded by anger and revenge, resulting in senseless, over the top violence that actually feels reminiscent of cold, heartless soldiers....like the Nazis. It's well-written characters like this that truly represents Tarantino's career in a nutshell. His films feature some of the most memorable scenes and quoted movie lines of the last 25 years. But none of that is achievable if he didn't give each of his films a compelling cast of characters played by some of the best actors Hollywood has to offer. Indeed, we will be looking at Tarantino's films for years to come, and it would be easy to see why a new generation of filmmakers could say they were influenced by Tarantino's style of filmmaking. If I ever get into making movies, I know he would be my number one source of inspiration.


Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.

The cast of Inglourious Basterds is astounding, and the plot definitely causes the viewer to ask a lot of questions. This modern Tarantino masterpiece proved to the world that he could make period pieces, and this film belongs in the collections of all movie buffs.

Comment below to share your thoughts on the movie or to discuss a topic that I left out of my review

Inglourious Basterds and movie images are copyrighted by The Weinstein Company