Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Inglourious Basterds’ With Brad Pitt Lives Up to Expectations

CHICAGO – What truly distinguishes Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” from the cookie-cutter marketplace also makes its impact incredibly difficult to put into words. It’s a film that’s impossible to pin down - a thriller, drama, comedy, action film, and a slice of revisionist history played as modern revenge fantasy. And it’s a total blast.

Rating: 4.5/5.0

The man who directed “Pulp Fiction,” “Reservoir Dogs,” and “Kill Bill,” has made another near-masterpiece that will likely be his most divisive and controversial film, one of the few from this season that you can expect to hear arguments about in coffee houses and bars. Some will find QT’s latest way-too-talky, about an hour too long, and even offensive in its subject matter. Others will embrace a few of the most remarkable performances of the year, a masterful technical accomplishment, and a film that could have only come from the unique mind of one of the best directors of the last twenty years. Tarantino has done it again.

Read Brian Tallerico’s full review of “Inglourious Basterds” in our reviews section.

The ads may (incorrectly) make “Basterds” look like a big summer action movie, but it’s much more of a dialogue-driven film about the power of reputation and propaganda. The film, told in chapters, opens with the two characters who will provide the true through-line for the story - Shosanna Dreyfus (played later by Melanie Laurent) and Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) - in arguably the best scene of the year in any film.

The rest of “Basterds” is about how the life of Shosanna, now the manager of a movie theater scheduled to show Nazi propaganda, and that of Landa will intersect again by way of a few crazy Americans (including Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, and BJ Novak), a British double agent (Michael Fassbender), a German actress (Diane Kruger), and an audience filled with the leadership of the Third Reich.

Continuing reading for Brian Tallerico’s full “Inglourious Basterds” review.

Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) and Sgt. Donny Donowitz (Eli Roth) in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds.
Photo credit: Francois Duhamel/TWC