Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Quentin’s back to his best

Lt. Aldo Raine: The German will be sickened by us, the German will talk about us, and the German will fear us.

Order has been restored – Quentin Tarantino’s previous film, Death Proof (2007) suffered somewhat from being crap.

Such a disappointment, when one considers the fact that both Kill Bill: Vol 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Vol 2 (2004) were nothing short of amazing.

The first, an incredible, exhilarating, dazzling riff on the chopsocky extravaganzas of old, the second a genuinely thoughtful, intelligent look at the price that the first film’s central character, Beatrix Kiddo (Uma Thurman) must pay for her vengeance quest against the titular Bill (David Carradine) and his cohorts.

And Tarantino’s latest (which was, of course, also written by the US’s most intelligent movie-nerd) also concerns vengeance, but of a very different genre – Inglourious Basterds (2009) transports us into the heart of Nazi-occupied France during World War II, and into a master plan engineered by one Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt as you have absolutely never seen him before).

Raine’s mission? To lead a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as ‘The Basterds’, who have been chosen to spread fear and chaos throughout the Third Reich by the brutal murder and scalping of Nazis – each of the eight men chosen must deliver 100 Nazi scalps to Raine, or die trying. Truly, let the fun begin…

How tasteless? How does QT get away with it? Very simple – his unadulterated love of what cinema is supposed to be about gleams from every frame of this massacre masterpiece.

It is, of course, too early to begin wondering if Basterds is not in fact his finest work to date, but this reviewer (who’s sensibly staying on the fence on that issue) knows that other critics will be queuing up to make that very claim.

A description of this scene, that scene, this line, that line would simply defeat the object – for once, I intend to spoil absolutely none of the (truly) glorious experience that awaits each lucky ticket owner, save to say that, while the film is sickeningly violent, outrageously offensive and gloriously gory, it is also just about as much fun you’re likely to have in a picture house with your clothes on. Take it away, Quentin…

153 mins. In English, German, French and Italian.