Wednesday 2nd September

Inglourious Basterds

Director: Quentin Tarantino
Year: 2009
Stars: Brad Pitt, Melanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger, Daniel Bruhl

It was mostly curiosity that made me interested enough to see this, and, on the strength of Tarantino's last few movies, I wasn't expecting a lot. Although I have to say, there was a small part of that young girl in me that was excited about getting to see an 18 film at the cinema - I should probably remind myself I've been allowed to do that for 10 years now sometimes.

If you're looking for a history lesson, this film is emphatically not it. I do have fears that in 10 years time teenage-loving Tarantino fans will think this really is what happened to Hitler, but it didn't happen to me, so I guess it's just my age that makes me think kids will be that stupid in the future. The film is set in Nazi-occupied France in the '40s, and follows a gang named the Inglorious Basterds as they hunt down and kill Nazis indiscriminately.

And I have to say, I really enjoyed it. There are some properly clever moments, and some very enjoyable ones. The opening scene, although long, has to be one of my favourites - from Tarantino setting up scenes he knows we think he will use (White sheet splattered with blood anyone? What will happen to that axe? And where is that pen going?) to the great way language is used. The whole film is stylistic in a truly Tarantino style, but works on and plays with his previous films, rather than just rehashing them. Although I'm not sure I agree with the final assessment that this may well be his masterpiece (as we all know, you should be looking to Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction for that - Tarantino did nothing if not peak early), it's certainly worth a look.

A couple of words of warning though - it's long; too long really. Some scenes are dragged out when they only needed to be given 5-10 mins max. And it's not in English. A lot of it isn't, anyway - it's in French, and German, and Italian, and American (yes, most definitely American as opposed to English-see the film!). Not a problem if you don't mind subtitles (I don't, I think they made this film better), but I can imagine there are some bemused Tarantino fans out there not too happy about having to read 80% of this.

Rating: 4 out of 5