Tarantino’s Seventh Symphony: “Inglourious Basterds” – Music to Our Ears?

Quentin Tarantino with an award in 2007. Image via Wikipedia

The seventh film by Quentin Tarantino takes us back to World War II a full seventy years after the anniversary of its commencement and offers an alternative view of events. Inspired by the film ‘Quel maledetto treno blindato’ (Enzo G. Castellari, 1978)(working title ‘Inglorious Bastards’ in the USA), the 2009 film tells a similar story of a group of American soldiers, Fred Williamson amongst them, who are charged with bringing the Nazis to their knees through stealth. In this version though the Inglourious B*sterds, led by Brad Pitt, receive a little unexpected help along the way. We start off in the German-occupied France where Adolf Hitler is conducting his grotesque search for people of Jewish origin.

Brad Pitt waxes lyrical in 2007. Image via Wikipedia

The drawn-out opening scene is excellent cinema comparable to the coffee shop ending in ‘Pulp Fiction’ (1994) in which Samuel L. Jackson (incidentally the narrator of this film) teaches Tim Roth’s hold-up merchant a thing or two about power and respect. They has never been any doubting Quentin Tarantino’s knowledge, appreciation and love of cinema but on this occasion I felt that the content was not up to the level of his best films and that, though they started promisingly, some of the lead roles could have been better drawn. Inglourious Basterds is a spoof/parody piece…the kind of movie the Coen Brothers have achieved fame in producing but they have also been hit (Miller’s Crossing, 1990) and miss (Burn After Reading, 2008) as far as that is concerned.

A montage of World War II. Image via Wikipedia

The score I’ve awarded here is more of a 5.5, the reason being that there are so many lulls in excitement and in the story-telling that when the good scenes come along their quality is in stark contrast to what has gone just before. Again, the best scenes seem to have been borrowed from some of Quentin’s earlier films: there is a ‘Reservoir Dogs’ (1992) homage which takes place in the woods but which seems out of place here. Clearly, I’m indifferent about this film. It is somewhere between ‘Death Proof’ (2007)(1/10) and ‘Pulp Fiction’ (1994)(10/10). I’m surprised by the positive reviews which I have read, in my opinion Quentin Tarantino is running out of new ideas and one must question the relevance and timing of a spoof movie about Nazi operations in Europe during the Second World War. Roll on ‘Hurt Locker’ (Kathryn Bigelow, 2009). 5.5/10