The early buzz on Quentin Tarantino’s latest picture, Inglourious Basterds, was about its excessive gore. So I worried. And then I saw the trailer with Brad Pitt jutting out his jaw and I grew even more concerned.
But I saw it recently and it’s fabulous.
No more gory then Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction and certainly less bloody then all of Kill Bill. Brad Pitt won me over as Lt. Aldo Raine, the leader of the Basterds, a handpicked team of Jewish-American soldiers who sneak behind enemy lines in occupied France to wreak havoc for the Nazis. Pitt is fine, but Christoph Waltz steals the show as Hans Landa, a delightful SS officer that you love to hate. He’s really terrible, one of the most delightful monsters since Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
The ending is surprising, but then when you leave the theater you find yourself wondering why no other WW2 film has done something similar. Lots of fun.
Present Tense 
[…] Basterds – Fun to watch, fun to mull over. Once you see it, it’s hard to understand why all WW2 pictures don’t end this way. […]