|
Director Quentin Tarantino returns with a fantasy alternative
history of World War II where Hitler and his evil minions
get theirs in a French movie theater in a tribute to the
foreign B-movies that Tarantino grew up watching as a kid
(the same ones I grew up on so I have a fondness for Taratino's
tributes in his films). Borrowing his title from one of
his favorite Italian World War II "epics" "The Inglorious
Bastards" which was sort of an Italian variation on "The
Dirty Dozen", Tarantino revives the World War II action
picture in much the same way that he revived the dark noir
genre with a modern twist. ***
Brad Pitt plays Aldo Raines aka Aldo "the Apache" (so
called because he's part American Indian and his team collects
the scalps of those they kill) the leader of the guerilla
warfare team of the title. They are all Jewish and all take
their revenge killing Nazi soldiers behind enemy lines and
striking terror in the hearts of German soldiers in Nazi
occupied France. His band of killers ultimate mission--to
kill Hitler, Gobbels and the other leaders of the Nazi party
in a rain of bullets and explosives. ***
Featuring an odd performance form Brad Pitt as Aldo,
anonymous performances (for the most part) by the members
of his team, two other strong performances from German actor
Christoph Waltz as the charmingly evil and bizarre Col.
Hans Landa and Mélanie Laurent as Shosanna Dreyfus who escapes
from Landa after her entire family is brutally murdered,
"Inglorious Basterds" is a dark, often funny romp with Tarantino
doing what he does best--raid other genres from the past
and paste them together into a colorful, often unique picture.
Don't get me wrong, I admire Tarantino (although I don't
believe he's a genius--everything that he's created borrows
from the B-movies and foreign films that he admired growing
up) and think this deserves to be named as one of the best
films of the year BUT he tends to over reach with "Inglorious
Basterds" which doesn't allow significant character development
of Aldo's band of guerilla fighters and that means that
he often misses the opportunity to recall the colorful films
(like the original Italian film he borrowed the title from)
which often had unique, bizarre secondary memorable characters.
***
There are a number of secondary characters where the
casting of Tarantino's friends at the expense at more gifted
actors weakens the material. Eli Roth as "The Bear Jew"
a feared killer within Raines' team looks the part but doesn't
have the dramatic skills to pull off his underwritten part.
Likewise there are other supporting roles that were given
to Tarantino's friends that feature generic, weak performances
(which may be part of the intend here considering the source
films that he is citing in his work but the average member
of the audience isn't going to know that) or he places talented
actors before the camera with an underwritten part requiring
them to inject their personalities into the role to help
expand on the meager characterizations (speaking of which
look for a nice cameo by Rod Taylor of "The Birds" and "The
Time Machine" fame as Winston Churchill and Mike Myers as
General Ed Fenech) in his script. The fact is that Tarantino
like Spielberg manages to ape the films that he admired
growing up and can inject something new and fascinating
in his deconstruction of these minor exploitation classics.
***
If Tarantino had burst on the scene thirty years ago
these films would have gone right over the heads of most
movie savvy fans luckily he has a better informed film culture
to deal with now. That said, he also resorts to cinematic
shorthand that is illegible to others not because the audience
isn't informed about film culture or his references but
because he ends up being a bit lazy allowing his "voice"
as a director to be overwhelmed by making a tribute to the
films he admired. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't
luckily for most of this film it does but, as he did with
"Deathtrap", Tarantino seems to be losing his ability to
focus often pushing his material from riveting cinema that
has tributes to the films he admired to becoming full fledged
copies of the films he grew up admiring without their low
budget cinematic energy. What does all of this mean? It
means that if Tarantino continues down this path he's going
to be guilty of making pale imitations of the films he admired
without the spark of creativity that made his work so refreshing
20 years ago. As a film director Tarantino seems at a creative
crossroads--if he continues on the same path his films will
become dull in the wake of the other directors he has inspired
and if he takes a different but wrong road his work could
easily degenerate into a parody of itself as it did with
"Deathtrap" and "Kill Bill Part II". ***
The fact is that as good as "Inglorious Basterds" is
(and it's DAMNED good), it could have been better if Tarantino
had bared down the multiple subplots that all connect at
the conclusion of the film. The film is meant to be episodic
but parts of the story often fail to add to the power of
the whole here. If Tarantino had worked with another writer
or producer that could have either tightened the multiple
narratives of the film or expanded them further with character
bits that would have made the supporting characters more
than ciphers, than "Inglroious Basterds" could have been
an exhilarating masterpiece instead of an exceptional film.
Flawed as it is "Inglorious Basterds" still manages to pay
tribute to the foreign exploitation films that flooded the
American market as B-movies during the 60's and 70's. ***
The sequences that work best in the movie are those
like the tension filled opening where Tarantino isn't afraid
to keep his camera somewhat static as Waltz interrogates
Denis Menochet trying to discover where he might be hiding
the Drefyus family or the sequence in the French tavern
basement where Allied operatives meet to discuss the assassination
of Hitler. Surprisingly the scenes with actress Mélanie
Laurent in the French cinema because the sequence acts as
a set up for the conclusion of the film but just doesn't
have much dramatic value (until the party begins). Still,
overall the best parts of the film manage to dazzle even
and often seem to come from a better unseen movie. Tarantino
could have used a writing partner to help strengthen the
script. ---
Image & Sound:
All I can say is that "Basterd" looks glorious with
a marvelous looking crisp Blu-ray transfer. Detail manages
to be razor sharp even during some of the night sequences
or those that take place within the dark theater. Kudos
to whomever supervised the transfer because they captured
the essential look of Tarantino's film. ***
Audio sounds marvelous with a lossless SDTS-HD 5.1 mix
that remains startling active even during low key scenes
relying heavily on dialogue. ---
|
