#67 Inglourious Basterds

In Summary

The other Quentin Tarantino revenge fantasy film in this list, Inglourious Basterds, is the ultimate Jewish revenge tale, with the film loosely centered around a group of Jewish soldiers who are out to murder Nazis and end up involved in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler.

Like much of Tarantino's later work, there are plenty of great ideas, vignettes and excellent acting talent involved in the film, while Inglourious Basterds veers towards overindulgence in places, it is largely a captivating experience despite Tarantino's slight lack of discipline in including dragging out scenes that don't necessarily add to the plot.

Inglourious Basterds follows a few key protagonists who appear disparate but eventually wind up intersecting with each other for the film's conclusion. The central protagonist is Shoshanna Dreyfus, whose family is killed by the charismatic SS officer, Hans Landa, and escapes to run a cinema in Paris.

The eponymous 'Inglourious Basterds' are led by Brad Pitt's Lieutenant Aldo Raine. There is a Spaghetti Western feel to the 'Basterds' storyline as they trawl across Germany in search of revenge, this is hammered home by Tarantino's Leone-esque use of title cards, close-ups and music.

The main disappointment with Inglourious Basterds is that the filmed is billed to about this group of soldiers enacting a cruel revenge, however, we see relatively little of their story. Furthermore, the very intermittent use of Samuel L Jackson's voiceover feels unnecessary, heightening the sense that the film Tarantino wanted to make got away from him here.

The opportunity to assassinate Hitler arises when a young German soldier becomes infatuated with Shoshanna, and insists that the premiere to the film in which he stars be played at her cinema. While Shoshanna comes up with her own plot to blow up the cinema, the 'Basterds' end up spotting the same opportunity, assisted by a British soldier and a famous German actress.

While this additional plot leads to some captivating exchanges in the bar where the group meet, it is another unnecessary addition to an already bloated film when Shoshanna's revenge plot is not only compelling in and of itself but also is successful.

A Memorable Quote

We got a German here who wants to die for his country! Oblige him!

Things You May Not Know

• It took Quentin Tarantino nearly a decade to complete the screenplay for this film.
• Tarantino considered abandoning the film during the casting process for Hans Landa, believing he had written an unplayable character. Christoph Waltz was cast after a successful audition, with his prior acting experience mainly coming in German television.
• Adam Sandler was approached to play the role of the 'Bear Jew' but turned it down in order to star in the slightly underwhelming but fairly interesting Funny People.

One of the Greatest of All Time?
For all the unnecessary extra flourishes and tangential drifts in this film, Inglourious Basterds is largely a captivating viewing experience. Due to the quality of acting and the amount of interesting ideas thrown out, Inglourious Basterds is never far away from producing its next memorable moment.

While part of the appeal of the more recent Tarantino films is pursuit of interesting moments over purely driving the plot forward, the frustration with Inglourious Basterds is the sense that with a little more self-discipline, Tarantino could have better-realised a vision of Jewish World War II revenge fantasy, with the end product here being caught between two or three stalls.