Who's the bastard?

Quentin Tarantino... Many believed that even a quasi-serious war movie is an over-ambitious project for him. Being seriously disappointed by his latest features (a too-long-and-quite-boring Kill Bill saga and a nice-try-but-failed Death Proof incident) I was obviously very sceptical prior to watching the Basteds. Reading the mixed reviews from Cannes could not help either. Putting it short: I did not expect much. I did not even believe it may be a good fun. And as it usually goes in such cases... it got close to a masterpiece!

Inglourious Basterds (sic!) is a film about World War II that you haven't seen before. It's a fairy tale, a product of imagination, a cruel fantasy and a morality play, all in one.

The U.S. secret service sends out a specially selected Jewish squad led by Aldo "The Apache" Raine (Pitt) to Nazi-occupied France. Their mission is to scare the hell out of Germans by introducing some of the American Indians methods of war, including scalping and using a baseball bat as one of the weapons of destruction (wait a minute... did the Indians really play baseball? I thought they invented soccer... well, nevermind). The mission is quite successful, but if you're expecting that the film concentrates on Pitt and his small army, I shall disappoint you.

Basterds: Eli Roth, Brad Pitt

It's not Pitt, but Christopher Waltz who owns this movie. The Austrian steals it at the very beginning and keeps it until it ends. Waltz (yes, we know you don't know him, that's OK, no one knew him before this feature) is Col. Hans Landa aka "The Jew Hunter". His main role is to... well... hunt for the Jews hiding in the attics and in the basements of some good people's houses. Hunting for them and killing them -- this is what he does. And he's a master of this cruel profession. We get to know Hans in the first scene (one of the most powerful in the movie) where he pays a visit to a noble Frenchman suspected of hiding a Jewish family in his house. It's the first time of many when Waltz shows his talent. Friendliness, anger, cruelty, sympathy and true respect -- he shows all of these feelings during his short conversation with the host. And he does it all so naturally that we immediately start believing him.

Christoph Waltz

There is a third hero out there, too. The woman. The Uma Thurman replacement: Mélanie Laurent. She is playing a Jewish girl miraculously (is that really so?) saved during one of Landa's huntings. She now owns a cinema in Paris and this cinema is going to become a catalyst of the story. She's brave, beautiful and she wants her revenge (does that remind you of something?). And when a young German boy arrives, a war hero who immediately and predictably fells in love with our Jewish cinemaphile, we know this is going to be a traditional love story.... NOT.
In fact, Inglourious Basterds is the first American war movie in years that is missing a love story. Fortunately the hectolitres of blood make up for this omission quite well.

Mélanie Laurent

What is kind of new and unexpected knowing Tarantino's previous work is that Basterds are... quite funny. Even hilarious at times. The gestures of Laurent when she's trying to kindly tell the German kiddo to stop harassing her... Or the way Pitt speaks and behaves in general, creating a silly parody of a naive (or even dumb) but brave and cruel American from the South... Or Mike Myers's little episode in Churchill's office... Or Pitt, Roth and Doom dressed up as and trying to behave as Italians on a party prior to the premiere of the German movie... Or finally Waltz and his mimics and ironic comments throughout the whole film... Or Hitler... All this makes Basterds one of the greatest comedy war dramas in history.

But what about the plot?

There is a plot. It's simple (in its own Tarantino convoluted way) but not predictable. Even though we kind of know how it's gonna end, we know that Hitler and Goebbels die (oh, this scene is simply magnificent!) and the war ends a couple of months earlier than it should, we still don't know HOW it happens.

As all Tarantino movies, Inglourious Basterds is all about the actors and their magnificent performances. And the cinematography. And the music. And all these things that make cinema such an exciting and entertaining part of our lives. Yes, the plot is interesting and makes you wonder what happens next, but even if you exactly knew what happens next, it would still be fun to watch.

I'm certainly going to watch it again at least once as Tarantino movies always taste better the second time. And this is best Tarantino in years!