Inglourious Basterds

Inglorious Bastards Tarantino’s long-awaited World War II movie is an instant classic and represents the director’s return to fine form. About 100 times more compelling than Death Proof, Tarantino shows he still has much to offer paying audiences even if plot isn’t high on the list. Although Inglourious Basterds takes its cues from movies like the Dirty Dozen and Kelly’s Heroes, this is not what one would call a taut World War II actioner so much as a stitching together of mighty long yet extremely seductive scenes. The chaptered set pieces are propelled by Tarantino’s gifted writing, violent humor, and exceptional character acting from Brad Pitt (the best I’ve ever seen him) as a Kentucky fried Nazi killer and Christoph Waltz who plays his cliches as diabolical Nazi so well they seem transcendent. Besides paying homage to military task force films, Basterds invokes the bloody revenge stories of Spaghetti Western, and is laden with references to Third Reich cinema and the greater cinematic landscape of the World War II era. Like so many of Tarantino’s other movies, this one is a film nerd’s wet dream.