Inglourious Basterds – Should I Watch It?

Intro to… Inglourious Basterds
Hitler goes to the movies, and while he is enjoying the experience, everybody else is trying to blow him the fuck up.

The Plot
Nobody likes Hitler. The Americans hate him, the French hate him, the British hate him, and even some Germans think they would be better off without him. So when he decides to visit Nazi-occupied France to attend the screening of a German movie honouring the deeds of a young but decorated German soldier, many plans to assassinate him are contrived. And all centre on a small theatre in downtown Paris owned by a secretly Jewish woman.

Should I Watch It?
Inglourious Basterds is an adventure war drama lined with dark comedy. It follows in the steps of its spiritual predecessors Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs as a movie that heavily depends on unique and volatile characters, and the interactions between them.

Director Quentin Tarantino is often called the master of dialogue, and he once again proves his writing prowess with Inglourious Basterds. Like most of his films, the thing that drives the movie is dialogue. And nowhere rings this more true than with the Hans Landa character, played by Christoph Waltz. The combination of the always striking and witty dialogue of Tarantino and the irrefutable talent and unparalleled delivery of Waltz makes every scene an absolute joy to watch. There are other great actors and characters in this movie, but it is Waltz that steals every scene he is in, it is Waltz who you will talk about with your friends.

The movie has several stories that are eventually all tied to the assassination of Hitler and the Hans Landa character. After me praising Waltz to such an extent in the previous paragraph, you might think that this makes the movie even better, but you would be mistaken. Individually, his scenes are awesome, there is no question about that, but collectively it can become a bit of an incoherent mess. A big chunk of the story happens off screen and characters suddenly pop-up when and where they are needed, with little to no explanation. Especially Landa suffers from this form of plot convenience. Since he is involved with nearly every character he often randomly appears. This is great when it happens once or twice, because it is unexpected, but over time as it continues to occur, it turns from unpredictable screenwriting into lazy screenwriting.

Inglourious Basterds is not the best Tarantino movie, but it is also far from his worst. It’s endearing dialogue and solid acting will even warrant a second or third viewing.

Yes, watch it.

Hi guys, I hope you enjoyed reading this review. If you have any comments or suggestions on what I should watch next let me know in the comment section below.