'Inglourious' is an Apt Description

At long last, my 'blogger's block' is broken-- last night, you see, I saw Inglourious Basterds. Now I have quite a bit to say. In other words, this is my review:

Right off the bat, this is nowhere near the quality of finely-tuned Tarantino masterpieces like Pulp Fiction. Don't expect to see one of his films reach that level again.

The film follows the exploits of Lt. Aldo Raine and his company of soldiers (aka 'The Basterds') as they don civilian cloths and cut down swaths of Nazi troops in World War II, German-occupied France. Also, it follows a young French-Jewish woman, Shosanna, as she plots revenge on the cruel murderer of her family, German Colonel Hans Landa. And that, readers (assuming you exist), is the only semblance of story to be found in the film. That's it.

Who are the Basterd's exactly? They are Jewish Americans-- somewhat of a cheap tactic. The motivation behind their cruelty to the Germans is understood by default. That, however, is the only thing that is understood. Where are they from? We don't know. Are their characters developed in any way? Not really. And without character development, and the ability to actually relate to the characters, we are deprived of one of the archetypal devices that has made so many war movies great.

But how silly of us to look for something like that-- this is a Tarantino film. How could someone expect anything typical out of it? Character development, story, and even common historical accuracy be damned! This is Tarantino's movie and he's going to make it his way! His way, as expected, revolves around the seeming importance of letting his audience know that he has seen a lot of movies. The cinema industry even factors into the settings of the film. This time around, however, his running-the-film-knowledge-gamut, pop-culture referencing, influential-director-homaging, and niche-genre cutting-and-pasting feels somewhat... off. None of his references are as fun or energetic as they were in his past movies-- even in other story-less bloodbaths like Kill Bill Vol. 1. His trademarks are starting to wear thin and lose their poignancy. All of the Leone-ish camera work, outside-genre soundtrack choices, dark humor, Scorsese brutality, blaxploitation voiceovers, and such are starting to become very recognizable. This is the first of his movies that seems as if it would claim Tarantino as its primary influence, and not just as its director.

One of the tricks of Tarantino's trade is his dialogue, and Basterds certainly has its share of that. Much of it is subtitled, but, honestly, if you can read that shouldn't be a distraction. The reason the dialogue falls short in this movie is that far, far too many of the scenes revolve around the classic "Mexican Standoff" where tension builds as multiple characters prepare to do each other in. Using this device so often robs it of its power. The film feels as if Tarantino fast-forwarded to the climax of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, said "I like this," and decided to base every other scene in Basterds upon it. Haven't we already seen this used to much better effect in one of his films (Reservoir Dogs)?

And make no mistake, this one is, indeed, a bloodbath-- equiped with all of the gratuitous violence we've come to expect of a Tarantino movie. Because of it's Jews vs. Nazis setup, it doesn't feel entirely ill-motivated, but, at the same time, one can't help but feel like it is merely a step above Hostel (albeit with much better dialogue). Tarantino even casted his 'torture-porn' making director-buddy, Eli Roth, as a member of the Basterds' crew.

What Inglorious Basterds really does have going for it is performances. Sorry to say, but Brad Pitt does one of the poorest acting jobs in the film, as he is heavily outshined by the brilliance of Christoph Waltz as Hans Landa. A truly terrifying villain, Landa is easily one of the more fascinating characters to watch-- his evil is almost tangible. The very first 'Chapter' of the movie introduces Landa in a suspenseful home-inspection that is actually on par with 'The Bad's' introduction in The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly. The viewer will love to hate him.

Another standout performance is given by French actress Melanie Laurent as Shosanna Dreyfus. She is perhaps the character that the audience will become most attached to. Where so many of the encounters between other characters are stagnant, the audience will sympathize with her motivations and feel her fear, determination, melancholic cynicism, and anger the way they would with a good Tarantino character in a good Tarantino movie.

That is the biggest problem-- this one falls far short of the Tarantino standard. Fanboys and critics alike have already heaped praise upon praise onto this movie, but, had it been made by another director it would absolutely not have generated so much buzz, and those same critics would not have been so blind to its flaws.

Not to say that the movie should be skipped all together. Aesthetically, the movie does wonders. This is especially apparent in the aforementioned first chapter which includes a truly awe-inspiring shot of silhouetted figures stepping through a doorway into the golden French countryside. But great camera shots alone do not behold a cohesive film, and Inglourious Basterds is certainly not that, nor do they behold a good film, and it is not that either. What Inglourious Basterds is, on the other hand, is a series of good ideas that cannot connect their way into a single piece of storytelling that, with more work somewhere along the way, could have been a sheer masterpiece.