Fellman's Movie Reviews

Red = Spoilers 

Inglorious Basterds is a 2009 war film about a group of Jewish American soldiers fighting Nazi occupied Germany during World War 2. There’s a little more to it than that, but in the traditional Quentin Tarantino style, there are multiple storylines that intersect and combine to create the full story. That’s actually really important here, because I literally don’t think there’s a single part of this movie that you could cut out. It’s two and a half hours long, and I don’t think you could lose a single minute of it. Every second of it is just as important as the last. Not only for quality, but for context. 

What’s it about? So, we start with a man, chopping wood outside of his house. Soon, he sees cars coming up the road and he tells his family to get inside. It turns out to be the Nazi leadership, looking for Jews. They find the Dreyfuss family hidden underneath the floorboards of the house and execute them, except for Shoshanna, who escapes. Three years later, Lieutenant Aldo Raine is recruiting Jewish-American soldiers to a Black-ops commando unit called “The Basterds” in Nazi occupied France. They spread their name through the ranks of the nazis by scalping the people they kill and carving swastikas in the foreheads of people they let go. Shoshanna now owns a movie theater in Paris under a new name, Emmanuelle Mimieux, and a young soldier, Frederick Zoller, comes into her theater and attempts to hit on her. It turns out that Zoller is a war hero and a recent propaganda film that Joseph Goebbels made is about and starring him. Shoshanna then makes a plan to kill the nazi leaders during the premiere of the film.  

Bridget Von Hammersmark, A German actress, is a contact for the British military and is working with them on a secret mission. Three other people, posing as German soldiers meet her in a tavern in France when things go awry, and everyone is shot except for Von Hammersmark and one of the German enlisted men. Raine attempts to make a deal for Von Hammersmark’s life and in the distraction, she shoots the enlisted soldier, getting her out of the tavern. Raine believes she set his men up, but she convinces him otherwise and tells him it was just an unfortunate accident that those German soldiers were there that night, and then tells him that Hitler is going to be at the premiere at Shoshanna’s movie theater. Then then come up with a plan to infiltrate the premiere and kill the nazi leadership. During the premiere Landa finds and kills Von Hammersmark and has Aldo Raine and Smithson Utivitch taken prisoner and put in the back of a truck. Meanwhile, Seargent Donny Donowitz and private Omar Ulmer are infiltrating the premiere with the intention of killing everyone there and ending the war.  

What’s good? I love everything about this movie. It’s been a favorite of mine for a long time. From the characters to the acting, to the way that it’s shot. Everything about it is so masterfully done, it’s a crime NOT to watch it.  

What’s bad? I can’t think of a whole lot. It’s too good of a movie. And I’m usually the first to criticize things. It’s two and a half hours long, and I don’t care in the least.  

The acting? Fantastic acting. Christoph Waltz won awards for his role as Hans Landa in this movie. I think it’s one of Brad Pitt’s best roles as Lt. Aldo Raine. Everybody did an amazing job. Even Mike Myers does a great job in a serious role. I’m willing to give credence to Mike Myers. Congratulations.  

The effects? The effects are great. Not only are the practical effects great, like the blood and shots being fired, but the fire in the theater during the premiere looks as real as it can get without setting the actual theater on fire. Which, I’m sure is a total fire hazard… 

Hans Landa is ruthless. Hans Landa is just heartless when he’s going around, hunting Jews. He knows multiple different languages, so they probably can’t understand him, and then he acts like he’s leaving as he brings his men in to execute the family. Just cold-blooded. 

Shoshanna escapes. I’m not exactly sure how Shoshanna got out from under the floorboards when they were shooting like that. But she was covered in blood when she was running away from the house, so I can only assume that it was the blood of her family that was all over her. So, the soldiers must’ve just barely missed her and sprayed blood all over her and then she escaped somehow. 

Aldo Raine. Aldo Raine is one of Brad Pitt’s best characters. Just, his mannerisms, the way he speaks, his facial expressions. Brad Pitt really worked hard on that character, and it shows.  

Shoshanna’s cinema. How did she get that movie theater? Are the details that she gives Landa in the restaurant just some made up cover story? Who is Marcel? There’s not really any details for Shoshanna between when she escapes from the farm until the theater three years later.  

The unfortunate tavern incident. It’s just an unfortunate coincidence that that soldier happened to have a baby born on that night, and they picked that particular tavern to go to celebrate and that the Nazi Colonel happened to be sitting in the booth in the back. Just an unfortunate series of events, as the old saying goes… 

The screening. You have to believe that they almost expected to get caught going into the premiere. What with Raine’s thick southern accent and the fact that none of them understand any German, whatsoever. 

The bombs were strapped to their legs. I think it might’ve been a suicide mission, because the bombs were strapped to their legs before they got up to go and shoot Hitler in the booth. I think before that they were just going to let the bombs go off and kill as many people as they could.  

Shoshanna and Zoller. She shoots Zoller in the back and then goes and checks on him like she didn’t just shoot him in the back, and then when he shoots her in the chest, she’s surprised about it. Like, what are you surprised about? You just shot him in the back. If I still had my wits about me, I’d shoot you back too… 

Landa and Von Hammersmark. Landa tells Von Hammersmark to put her foot on his lap like it’s not some sort of trap. She clearly knew something was about to happen. I mean, he’s known for being a cold-blooded killer. And then he, in a very cold-blooded fashion, killed her. She really should’ve seen that coming. 

Shoshanna’s face. That’s a good scene, having Shoshanna’s face, laughing on the screen, lit up with fire, while everybody’s trying to escape the theater, but they can’t because the doors are jammed shut. 

Donny and Omar keep reloading. The looks on the faces of Donny and Omar as they keep shooting into the crowd of nazis is intense. And they keep unloading magazine after magazine and pulling another out of their pocket and reloading another and continuing to fire into the crowd. They don’t stop firing. And they have this insane look in their eyes. It’s crazy. 

The Tarantino style. It’s done in the same way that Pulp Fiction is done in that it’s a series of chapters, put together, to make one big story. Instead of having one long movie. It has several storylines of essentially little movies that all combine to make the bigger picture. I like movies like that. I’m a big fan of films like that. It kind of gives you the chance to get involved in one story at a time and then put it all together yourself. Maybe, giving you a reason to watch it again.  

So, yeah. Watch Inglorious Basterds. It is definitely a great movie, and one of Quentin Tarantino’s better films. And as always, keep on watching, with a smile on your face…