Monday, March 29, 2010

Movie Review - Inglorious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino is a genius. And though I can't resist to count him among the likes of Spielberg and Polansky and Coppola; he unmistakably has a thoroughly different and somewhat whacky style of film direction. The guy just throws the conventional film making norms out of the door. He creates his own norms and however unorthodox they seem, they actually turn out to be quite effective. An example would be the character introductions that he gives, like the ones in Kill Bill (which even had a animated strip as Gogo's intro, if I remember her name correctly) and the Stiglitz's character intro in Inglorious Basterds. His style is refreshingly different and I have high regards for him especially because he dares to swim against the tide and makes it successfully more often than not.

The kind of violence he shows in his movies, would drive the public aways ouf of disgust; but he takes the risk. The kind of non-linear story-lines he chooses for his movies, would confuse the masses; but he takes the risk. His movies are violent, but they bear hallmarks of great direction despite the violence. High-speed artistic photography, pacy action, puking-point violence, lively screenplay, intriguing dialogues - all bear the hallmark of a genius director. And now with Inglorious Basterds, one more Tarantino special - fictional storyline which twists the world history involving high-profile characters like Hitler himself!

The Inglorious Basterds story is about an anti-nazi Jewish-American gorilla group that existed in real-life history; but Tarantino takes it from there, and depicts a fictional plot to kill the higher echelons of Nazi political circle, including Hitler himself. The story and the screenplay is very intense and would catch and keep your full attention till the end. All the interrogation scenes are so well-thought out that you can actually feel the tention building up in the air. The direction, photography and acting, especially the facial expressions, are just remarkable. The opening scene of the interrogation of the farmer who is hiding jews; or the one in randezevous basement where the gestapo officer catches the bluff of the undercover british agent; are masterpieces.

Apart from Tarantino, the credit for the extra-ordinary appeal of Inglorious Basterds, also goes to Christoph Waltz for his powerful depiction of Colonel Hans Landa. The character is so intense and powerful, that in my opinion it's next only to Heath Ledger's surreal Joker from The Dark Knight. Given my not-so-good knowledge about hollywood actors and films, I haven't seen Waltz' any other film, so I didn't know him before the movie. But I am going to remember his performance for a long time for sure. The character depiction is just as good as it gets.

So all in all, Inglorious Basterds is a Tarantino classic, and a must watch. If you aren't familiar with Tarantino's style or haven't seen his other movies like Kill Bill, I would recommend to watch his movies on an empty stomach. His movies contain puking-point graphic violence. To his credit though, Tarantino knows to stop just before the public would start puking! So if you can digest that, you are in for a treat.

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