Video Pick of the Week: Inglourious Basterds

Set ‘Once upon a time in Nazi-occupied France, 1941’, ‘Inglourious Basterds’ tells two stories: Story one revolves around Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent), a young Jewish woman who witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of sadistic Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). Narrowly escaping her own execution, Shosanna flees to Paris, where she forges a new identity as an owner of a movie theater.

Story two deals with a group of Jewish- American soldiers, organized by Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), to engage in targeted acts of retribution against the Nazis. Because they collect the scalps of their victims as a prize (each solider owes Raine 100 scalps), the group is dubbed by the fascists as "The Basterds". Raine's squad is chosen for a rather important, and possibly suicidal, mission: taking down several prominent leaders of The Third Reich (including Landa) who are in Paris to attend the premiere of the Nazi propaganda film ‘Nation’s Pride’. As fate would have it, the Basterds’ mission and Shosanna’s opportunity for revenge converge under a cinema marquee.

A film set in 1940s Europe is a long way from the modern-day California crime capers Quentin Tarantino is known for, but in many ways ‘Inglourious Basterds’ still very much feels like one of the films that made Tarantino a household name. Like ‘Pulp Fiction’, ‘Kill Bill’ and ‘Reservoir Dogs’, ‘Basterds’ is chock full of cinematic homage, an eclectic selection of music and long, slow-building, tension-filled passages of dialogue that usually result in a euphoric eruption of sudden violence. And like QT’s other works, ‘Basterds’ seldom plays by genre rules, opting instead to go in audacious, unexpected and wholly satisfying directions. Wartime revenge has rarely had it so well.

The man knows his movies; the man also knows how to put together a great cast. Pitt is wonderfully over-the-top as Raine, while Diane Krueger is suitably sexy as the Aryan actress out to help the Basterds carry out their big mission. ‘Hostel’ director Eli Roth turns in a surprisingly good turn as ‘The Bear Jew’, a Basterd that has quite a way with a baseball bat, while Laurent nicely conveys Shosanna’s long-simmering quest for revenge.

The real standout of the cast, however, is Waltz. The German actor, who should have a draft of his Best Supporting Actor speech ready by now, gives us a villain that is capable of being charming and sadistic without missing a beat. Landa is a wonderfully-realized character, one of Tarantino’s best, and Waltz’s wonderful performance more than solidifies that.

In a summer movie season where most filmmakers felt content phoning in their work, it was a relief to have Quentin Tarantino pop up for some late summer fun. ‘Inglourious Basterds’ is a gift to movie fans everywhere, and is easily one of the most entertaining movies of 2009.

"Inglourious Basterds" is available on DVD and Blu-Ray disc from Universal Home Video on December 15th.