Inglorious Basterds

One of Quentin Tarantino’s finest works, ‘Inglorious Basterds’ follows a Jewish-American militia group, The Basterds, sent deep behind German/enemy lines in France, the group are tasked by the British government with assisting in an attack on a small Paris cinema which promises to take out most of the Nazi high command, but things change when word reaches the allies that the Fuhrer himself plans to attend the premier.

The film itself probably only has about 5 or 6 scenes, but each scene is about 40 minuets long, a large amount of the film is in French and German, a detail I enjoyed for accuracy purposes, but it can be a little hard to follow if you take your eyes away from the screen for a minute or two. But these long conversations are great for capturing the attitude of France at the time, even just something small such as a side eye from a bar tender to a German soldier captures so much.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Christoph Waltz’s amazing performance as Clonal Hans Landa, calm yet, a now hugely iconic character, the opening scene has now become synonyms with Quentin Tarantino, his usual massacre style setting the tone of the film. The film itself has a fantastic structure, following a Shakespeare style storytelling, there is a real focus on character development as opposed to action, in the pub scene we’re introduced to a group of random, infantry level German soldiers, instead of rushing the scene along Tarantino takes time with this scene, he fleshes out every character, we learn about the Germans and why there celebrating, it turns out one of the soldiers, Willhelm, had just become a father that night, it makes you think about how justified the Basterds are in their mission, showing that most of the soldiers they kill are just conscripts, men forced into a war they may not even believe in. But this scene is perfectly juxtaposed by the SS Officer present in the bar, he does believe in Hitler’s cause, he’s completely committed to the war and a Nazi victory, the scene leaves you feeling relatively indifferent, your satisfied with the SS Officer’s fate but you saddened for the young father, the sad reality of the war, somewhat summed up in a single scene.

With this film being a fictional history, none of the events really took place, it’s an interesting insight into what could have been, if the war had ended two years earlier how many lives would have been saved, how many more Willhelms wouldn’t have died, on either side.
Despite how great this film is, there was one aspect I didn’t understand, in the opening scene Hans Landa executes a Jewish family, all but one, a girl who escapes, Bridget Von Hammersmark, it turns out her aunt owns the cinema where Goebbels plans to hold his premier. In the scene were Bridget first meets with Goebbels to discuss holding the premier at her cinema, Bridget once again comes face to face with Hans Landa, she has a flashback to Hans’ massacre and the scene became incredibly tense, you're on the edge of your seat, the same goes for their next scene together and the rest of the film for that matter, your constantly thinking ‘will Hans recognise her’ or ‘is Hans going to kill her’, but no, none of that happens, Hans doesn’t recognise her, they’re not even in the same scene or the same building. Nothing comes of this revelation, it’s confusing because it doesn’t fit Hans’ character, with his meticulous nature and duty to finish his mission. Or maybe it does, Hans had Bridget in his sights, but he chose to let her flee, maybe he too recognised her but in his own twisted senses he wasn’t going to kill her after she’d made it so far away, despite them coming together again.

All in all, Inglorious Basterds is a fantastic interpretation of WW2’s alternate history, it’s a fascinating and unique watch, I'd recommend it highly to any fan of history, politics and Quentin Tarantino, it might not always be an easy watch, but you’ll be glad you’ve seen it once you have.