Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

7/10

Starring

Brad Pitt

Christoph Waltz

Michael Fassbender

Diane Kruger

Mélanie Laurent

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Here is a movie I delayed to see much because I never heard enough about it to want to. Finally seeing it I have to admit the movie was intense, interesting and the climax was unexpected. It has some very high tension scenes where the dialogue pulls you in, and the plot which is an alternate take to what happened in World War II was written with grace.

The movie was written and directed by Quentin Tarantino in what ended up being a masterpiece which earned numerous accolades and praises for his work.

It has a huge cast of notable actors and the story starts in 1941 at farm house which was visited by German Soldiers during World War II. The soldiers are led by Hans Landa (Chrisroph Waltz) who is on the hunt for a Jewish family who are unaccounted for in the area. The conversation in the farm house is intense as we are shown that both the farmer and Landa are playing a game of chess with words and actions. Landa won.

We are taken forward to 1944 where Lt Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) is leading a bunch of men in a group called the Basterds who are a paramilitary unit who kill German soldiers. There are so good at what they do that the German army in operation where they operate fear them. Hitler was not pleased about their existence and wanted them stopped.

We soon see two plots merge as a Jewish lady who survived Landa’s Jewish hunt, was to screen a film at her cinema which will have many top German soldiers at attendance. She plans to get revenge on them for what they have done to the Jews. The Basterds also want a take on getting to kill Germans at the cinema, but Landa seems to be on top of things. Being the head of security Landa is investigating and starts to unravel what he suspects to be going down.

There are some performances that crowns an actor and Inglourious Basterds has one of such performances by Christoph Waltz. Although he was not the sort after cast for this role, his inclusion and his ability to speak fluently the three languages needed (English, French and German) made his performance more memorable and easier to digest. Waltz made this movie his own and for his role as Landa, Waltz won the Cannes Film Festival's Best Actor Award. He went on to also win a BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild, Critics' Choice, Golden Globe, and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

The movie was both a critical and commercial success and I will ask anyone who has not seen this movie to go see it, it is worth every minute.