Oh Those Glorious Bastards

So I finally saw Quentin Tarantino's new film, Inglorious Bastards. Some friends of mine had already seen the movie and had expressed their utmost apporval so my expectations were rather high upon entering the theater. Now I simply can't stand it when I find that what I expected to be a fantastic film is really a sub-par piece of Hollywood trash with a nonsensical plot and poor acting. Luckily for me, "Bastards" delivered every step of the way.

The plot of Inglorious Bastards is relatively simple, despite the fact that it is split between three main storylines. This is a blessing actually since it scrubs out holes and inconsistency and leaves more room to enjoy and develop the characters. Basically there is Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), the Tennessee-born Nazi-killing machine who leads an elite squad of Jewish-American soldiers into Nazi-occupied France. There's Shoshanna Dreyfus (French actress Melanie Laurent), an undercover Jew who runs a theater in France. And last but not least Hans Landa (Christopher Waltz), the charismatically evil Nazi known as the "Jew Hunter."

Now, as the commercials may suggest, it would seem that Brad Pitt is the star of the show. However, most sources beyond that will tell you that Waltz really steals the show and I would have to agree. Hans Landa is a truly genius character and it is amazing that Tarantino even found an actor to pull him off, after all, he speaks German, English, French, and Italian. And even more importantly, he strikes a harmonious balance between pure evil and kind, manipulative flattery. Every word he says makes you hate him more but at the same time, you can't help but like the guy.

Don't get me wrong though, Pitt's character, Aldo Raine, is also immensely entertaining in his simple kind of way. He is known to the Germans as "Aldo the Apache" due to his propensity for requiring his men to collect the scalps of the fallen Germans and he has that classic "American Commando" attitude through and through. That being said, he provides an excellent contrast to Landa, who is sophisticated  and conniving, unlike Raine who is a straight-talking, straight-shooting back country boy.

As for Shoshanna Dreyfus, at times she comes off more as a necessary plot element than a compelling character when compared with Raine and Landa. Her screen presence may not be as impressive as the other characters, but thankfully her own character doesn't demand that it be so. She is quiet and while she is a rather angry person due to her life's circumstances, it is a seething anger that she unleashes in due time.

Now anyone who is familiar with the work of Quentin Tarantino will know of his tendency to produce some of the most violent, over-the-top gore in his movies. Bastards doesn't disappoint in this department but the gore isn't an inordinate( at least by Tarantino's standards) occurrence and it isn't where the film really shines anyway. The dialogue amongst characters is by far the most entertaining aspect of Inglorious Bastards.

Some critics have accused Tarantino of "arrogance" due to this film's glorification of the cinema (Shoshanna's theater plays an very important role in the plot). I frankly couldn't care less. This was a genuinely good film and if you ask me, the industry could use a bit more dignity after box office blowouts like Transformers 2 and G.I. Joe. These movies made millions on plots more porous than swiss cheese and characters more shallow than  a pie plate (ironically, Pitt, the biggest Hollywood name in the film, plays the shallowest character). It's good to know there are still directors out there more concerned with the art that goes into film making than  money and commercial success. Although, Inglorious Bastards certainly deserves both.