The American government assembles a squad of Jewish avengers, the “Inglourious Basterds,” who wreak havoc on German communications in occupied France, killing German soldiers and officers and scalping them. Sometimes, very rarely, they release prisoners, but then the squad leader, Brad Pitt with his repulsive mustache and Marlon Brando-esque jutting jaw, carves a giant swastika on their foreheads with a huge knife, so that even after the war, anyone can recognize them as Nazis. Meanwhile, in a Parisian cinema owned by the Jewish Shosanna Dreyfus (hiding under a French name), the Germans are preparing to premiere a propaganda film, “Nation’s Pride,” about a sniper who killed 300 enemies with his trusty rifle. Shosanna’s parents were killed by the SS, and she dreams of revenge. The “Basterds” dream of revenge. The premiere promises to be spectacular.
Tarantino is a man who is pleasant to deal with. He never hides anything, he’s an open book. Back in 2004, opening the retrospective “Italian Kings of B-movie” at the Venice Film Festival, he confessed his love for Italian trash of the 60s and 70s. And personally for the films of Enzo Castellari, who in 1978 shot the film “Inglorious Bastards” - the story of four American soldiers who, during the war, instead of a military prison, where they were being taken for numerous crimes, ended up on a mission to capture a warhead for the fascist “V-2”. After watching Tarantino’s version, Castellari fervently disowned it, stating that he had made a completely original, independent film. And for those who doubt this, Tarantino included a scene in his film where a film critic is shot in the balls.
Inglourious Basterds: A Neo-Classic Spectacle
Original or not, “Inglourious Basterds” promises to be the most profitable picture of the neo-classic. There is plenty of everything here: Brad Pitt and his jaw, a soldier nicknamed the Bear Jew with a baseball bat and painted sad eyes (played by Eli Roth), the psychopathic Til Schweiger, Colonel Hans Landa, a sadist and fetishist, an SS detective, a cynic and a villain (played by Austrian Christoph Waltz, who received the Cannes Prize for this role), the death of film critics, the death of cinema in the flames of Jewish revenge. The dialogues are still dizzying, swaying, in addition, in a swing of the four languages in which the film was shot. The game of charades ends with one of the most absurd and most brutal shootouts in cinema, the game of cinema leads to endless mentions of Pabst and Clouzot, and film, it turns out, is not only suitable for entertainment. And after the blazing finale, nothing but an explosion in the hall - not of dynamite or something as dangerous, but of a joyful, visceral spectator’s cry - can end the film.
A Critical Take: Tarantino vs. War Myths
We also yelled, what the heck. It’s still fun to watch such a large-scale wrestling match - who will break whose neck: Quentin Tarantino the myth about the war or the military myth Quentin Tarantino. Risking our balls, we note that the score turned out to be ambiguous - for two and a half hours the magician and wizard roars and kicks a dead lion. Looking at “Inglourious Basterds” you clearly understand - a new “Das Boot” (1981) or “Cross of Iron” (1977) can no longer be filmed today.
Final Thoughts
Well, the feeling of regret that only “Basterds” are now possible does not at all prevent us from rejoicing.