a review

I don’t know if I told you, but I saw Inglourious Basterds last weekend, and I just wanted to say – highly recommended. Two thumbs up, five stars, a juicy red tomato, the whole shebang. I have probably seen almost every Tarantino film, and find him to be entertaining, but often a little over done. Take Kill Bill, for example – it was great, but after the 57th blood-spewing-jugular, I was over it. Before now, True Romance and Reservior Dogs were tied for my favorites, with Pulp Fiction a close second. But I am going to go out on a limb here and say that every other Tarantino movie ever made was simply in preparation for this, his masterpiece, a perfect combination of comedy, gore, and, most importantly, restraint. The genius lies in the balance – you have sympathy for the victims, but it stops short of sentimentality; you are repulsed by the gore, but the violence feels justified; there is death, either literal or implied, in every single scene, but life barrels forward with bull-headed optimism and exuberance. Very little time is wasted with backstory or character development, yet nothing about the plot lacks depth; the film is too busy rolling out its own fantastic version of history to stop for motives or lengthy explanations. It ends with sacrifice, defeat, and triumph (I’m not telling you in what order) leaving no storyline unresolved, no wrong unrevenged, and deftly skirting all the most predictable versions of riding off into the sunset. Finally, the casting was perfect (Pitt’s butchered Italian might top his gypsy boxer in Snatch) and the movie is so visually stunning I could watch the entire 2.5 hours again with the volume off.

p.s. I am not sure if we always have the same taste in movies (my last favorite before this was Pan’s Labyrinth, I think) but you really should see this one regardless.