Directed by Quentin Tarantino - 2009 poster
What a film! From the haunting music of The Green Leaves of Summer (remember The Alamo?) backing the suspense-filled start as an SS car and outriders slowly approach a French farmhouse, to the carving of the Nazi Swastika on Standartenführer Hans 'The Jew Hunter' Lander's forehead, the viewer is regularly caught off balance. There may have been mixed reactions from the critics (more of which below) but I enjoyed the movie; I found the grisly scenes horrific but the black humour on my wavelength! No wonder the film received an 8-11 minute standing ovation at its first screening at Cannes.
'The Jew Hunter' meets the French farmer
Tarentino has said that the opening scene, where Lander (superbly played by the Austrian actor Christoph Waltz) meets and silkily chats to the French farmer (also well acted by Denis Ménochet as Perrier LaPadite), is his favourite thing...he's ever written. The terrified three daughters, the pouring of the glass of milk, the camera shot of the Jews hiding below the floorboards, swiftly builds to a denouement you know is coming. Lander's charm turns to menace - the ghastly shooting of the Jews through the floor, Zoller's aiming of his gun at the escaping Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) - all send a chill down one's spine.
Essentially, there are two plots, both aimed at assassinating Hitler and other top Nazis - one by a team of Jewish American soldiers, led by Lieutenant Aldo (Brad Pitt - who was adequate, but no more, and I could barely stand his accent!) - and the other by Shosanna (now reborn as Emmanuelle Mimieux and owner of a small cinema). The story is preposterous but good fun. Scenes which stick in the memory are mainly the horrific ones (no wonder the DVD has an 18 certificate, with the warning, contains strong, bloody violence). The scalping of the Nazi soldiers by the 'basterds'; the bludgeoning to death by a baseball bat of their unbowed and uncowed leader; the carnage in the cellar of a bar (plenty of humour there with the bloodbath); Aldo torturing Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger), by pushing his finger into a deep bullet wound in her leg to check is she really is their side's spy; the swastika carving at the end; all very Tarantino. The music playing when Stiglitz was rescued by the Basterds was brilliant.
Swastika carving here we come
The premiere of Stolz der Nation (to extol the achievements of Nazi marksman Frederick Zoller - brightly played by Daniel Brühl), which is attended by top Nazis, including Hitler, Goebbels and Goering, is a marvellous example of a gripping cinematic presentation.
The 'Jew Hunter', two Jews, an American and a Spy!
Although there is plenty of bloodshed - Emmanuelle shoots Zoller who in turn shoots her and both die in the projection room; as the spliced footage tells the audience they are about to be killed by a Jew, a huge pile of flammable nitrate film behind the screen is set alight; Hitler and Goebbels are gunned to death in their box; two Basterds, disguised as Italian film assistants, machine gun the audience until bombs strapped to their legs go off.... what's not to like! Churchill, on hearing of the plan, says The master race at play. All the rotten eggs in one basket. Blow up the basket. Another remark made me chuckle: Paris when it Sizzles!
Well, several critics did dislike the film. David Denby, of The New Yorker, argued that the film was too silly to be enjoyed, even as a joke. Christopher Hitchens was more caustic: said the experience of watching the film was like sitting in the dark having a great pot of warm piss emptied very slowly over your head. Roger Ebert probably hit the proverbial nail on the head when he wrote: the film was a big, bold, audacious war movie that will annoy some, startle others and demonstrate once again that [Tarantino] is the real thing, a director of quixotic delights. I wasn't keen on the credit list of eight guest stars - why can't they just be stars? Seeing Harvey Weinstein's name there gave pause for thought. These are minor quibbles. Christophe Waltz received the Best Actor Award at Cannes, as he did at the Golden Globes; and Best Supporting Actor Award at both the BAFTAs and Oscars. The movie is certainly one of the best in the 50 Films; whether it will make my Top Five is yet to be decided.
2009 DVD
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