Inglorious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino
2009

The immaculate avatar of Cinematic notation delves deeper into genre ecstasy with a satisfyingly mature WWII revenger complete with Spaghetti Western nods and mission-film tropes. This revisionist take on WWII pits a guerilla gang of Jewish Americans against Hitler's army, while a secretly Jewish young woman running a movie theater in Paris hatches her own plot to stick it to the Krauts. Pitt's scar-necked hilbilly Lieutenant with ragtag gang in tow is the equivalent of cinematic crack, but for better or worse Tarantino proves a lackadaisical pusher man, instead fronting a more ambitious multi-thread yarn, bordering on epic. While the picture left me wanting more action-oriented Basterd madness, it was a fallacy on my part to expect that graphic violence or harrowing thrills would ever steal the spotlight from Tarantino's obsessive expressive rebop dialogue. I certainly enjoyed the picture immensely, but frankly I need to see it again to develop a final opinion. I've found that in Tarantino's work reveals itself best through multiple viewings.