Inglourious Basterds (5 Stars)

Normally I would deduct half a star for the ugly misspelling. Yes, I know it's deliberate, but I still hate it. I'll let Quentin Tarantino off just this once because I want to include this film in my Five Star Month. It's a five star film, even if it has a one star name. I'm not even sure why the name is misspelt. Is it because there was already a 1978 film with the same name, just spelt correctly? That can't be the reason, there must be a dozen other names Quentin could have chosen.

But let's get to the film itself. It's a war film, but in so many ways it's not a war film. It breaks all the conventions, starting with the opening music that sounds more like the introduction to a spaghetti western. The ringleader of the American hit squad, Aldo the Apache (Brad Pitt) is a really disgusting character. I can't think of any other war film in which the Americans are portrayed as being so evil and bigoted. He says in his first speech that Nazis have no humanity and every son of a bitch found wearing a Nazi uniform has to die. But as everyone knows, Germans had no choice about fighting in the war. Any German who refused to join the army after being called up was shot.

The film is slow, not a typical action film, although it does explode into violence at key parts. What makes the film a masterpiece is its atmosphere. As in all of Tarantino's films the conversations between the characters are just as fascinating as what they actually do. Interestingly, there are two plots that run in parallel. The viewer expects them to meet one another, but although they converge they never quite touch. On the one hand we have Shoshanna, a French Jewess who owns a cinema and plans to assassinate the Nazi leadership when they meet in her cinema for a film premiere. On the other hand we have Aldo and his Nazi hunters, also planning to assassinate the Nazis at the same film premiere. Even though they have the same goal and unknowingly assist one another, Shoshanna and Aldo never meet. And then there's the final twist that reminds me of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's "Romulus the Great".

Click here to view the trailer.