Sunday, 9 September 2018

Inglourious Basterds

(Quentin Tarantino/2009/USA & Germany)

Tarantino tackles World War II in an escapade that’s very much indebted to comic books, as usual, and also films like the Dirty Dozen and Merril’s Marauders. The stand out performance is Hans Lamda as the “Jew Hunter” Nazi whose casual menace is palpable. Each chapter is a set piece much like Pulp Fiction or indeed any Tarantino movie really but this isn’t just business as usual. Tarantino is employing his style with a level of self awareness and tact learned from his previous films and he’s at the height of his powers. Each time I see this film I get a little closer to considering it his best. He manages to balance the adult horror of fascism and violence of war with the little boy excitement and adventure of those old comics like Warlord, Victor or Commando. Neither suffocates the other and the result is an exciting and funny war movie that doesn’t side step the terrible reality and brutality of humans killing each other.

(3.5/5)

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