Yes! Believe it or not, a good Tarantino movie!

Sarcasm.

I’ve long enjoyed his films and am not surprised at the quality of his latest: Inglourious Basterds.

Minor peeve: the title itself is mispelled. Maybe British readers may think that is the proper spelling, being from England where English originated, but it’s an American movie from a U.S. director and actors about hardcore Yanks beating the shit (literally) out of the Nazzy dogs that were raping them nearly 70 years ago.

Still, a cool title.

Glorious means “marked by beauty or splendor”. Inglorious, the opposite, is exactly what these offensively disagreeable (basterdly ) soldiers were. I was expecting more character detail regarding the members of the squad. We learn of and love Pitt’s Aldo the Apache – a character with swagger comparable to Val Kilmer’s Doc Holiday from Tombstone. No where near equal, but comparable. We appreciate the coldness of Hugo Stiglitz and marvel at the brutal passion of Bear Jew Donowitz, but what of the others? I’d envisioned this as a gritty version of Hogan’s Heroes, but my sensibilities run more comedic creatively.

Don’t act like that wouldn’t be classic.

Action comedy? No. IG is an Action drama without a large quantity gore but a high quality of violence. There isn’t a lot of blood but when there is it leaves an impression because you’re not desensitized to it. Tarantino proves what I term the Spielberg Principle, which holds that nothing done to a Nazi in a war film can be termed too heinous. When Stephen melted the faces off them at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark it was an awesome effect for the time. Quentin does nothing as flashy but it’s every bit a cool.

The success is the dialogue and the characterization. IG engages the audience without being too ridulous or verbose in places like Kill Bills were at times. However, as those movies were homage to Samurai vengence and spaghetti westerns this one felt a lot like a classic WWII movie in terms of style.

The conclusion is lackluster but this is forgivable to me given the preceding 150 minutes. I recommend it to everyone that dislikes Nazzies.

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