Inglourious Basterds
From FilmFile
Taglines:
- Once upon a time in Nazi occupied France...
- You haven't seen war untill you've seen it through the eyes of Quentin Tarantino.
- If You Need Heroes, Send In The Basterds
- An Inglorious, Uproarious Thrill-Ride of Vengeance.
- "We're in the Nazi killin' business and cousin, business is a-boomin'."
- A basterd's work is never done.
- Brad Pitt Is A Basterd
- "...because, Marcel, my sweet, we're going to make a film, just for the Nazis."
- "Can you Americans speak any other language than English?"
- "I love my unofficial title, precisely because I have earned it."
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Synopsis
In German-occupied France, Shosanna Dreyfus witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa. Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris, where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema. Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine organizes a group of Jewish soldiers to engage in targeted acts of retribution. Known to their enemy as "The Basterds," Raine's squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget Von Hammersmark on a mission to take down the leaders of The Third Reich. Fates converge under a cinema marquee, where Shosanna is poised to carry out a revenge plan of her own...
Review
What number film are we up to for Tarantino now? Kill Bill was 4, or was it 5 as well? Do we class Death Proof as one or a half? Oh who cares...
Finally, after years of discussion, specualtion, and promises, Tarantino delivers Inglourious Basterds to the world. Reception at Cannes was, to say the least, dreadful. Booing and walk-outs were the order of the day. You have to wonder if they saw the same film as has been released to the mass market as the majority of audiences are finding Basterds to be glourious (sic) fun to watch.
It is late into World War II when the story begins. The film begins by introducing the character of Hans Lander (Christoph Waltz), the so called "Jew Hunter" of the SS as he seeks out some more Jewish refugees. We are then introduced to the 'Basterds'of the title, a motley group of Jewish Americans who are led by Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt). Their focus is to kill Nazis and retrieve their scalps. We are also introduced to Emmanuelle Mimieux, a survivor of Lander's hunting, owner of a cinema in Nazi occupied France. She becomes the object of attention to a young Nazi war-hero, Frederick (Daniel Bruhl), who requests her cinema be used to premiere the film of his life. As plans go ahead for the premiere, drawing in a large group of Nazis, and the upper echelon of the Third Reich, including Hitler himself, the players in the story see an opportunity to strike out and get revenge.
The film is purely tongue-in-cheek throughout, and disregards any attempt at historical accuracy, instead setting itself firmly in an alternate World War II, thus allowing Tarantino to really go to town with the events. The early part of the film feels like a western, and the opening scene is so reminiscent of Eastwood films such as Unforgiven that you would be forgiven if you were unsure whether you had wandered into the wrong film by mistake. However the dialogue is pure Tarantino - even when spoken in German or French (and dreadfully elocuted Italian). Some cleverly forced ways to get the cast speaking English again raise a smile in the absudity, yet twisted logic of the switch, but even when not in English the subtitled lines are soaked with Tarantino-style references and mundane chit-chat. A scene which, under another director, would be 5 minutes with limited dialogue is stretched to 15 minutes in QTs hands, but never feels too long, and always engages. Casting works well too with Eli Roth surprisingly effective as the "Bear Jew", and Mike Myers deliciously funny as an English General.
This is a stong entry into Tarantino's canon of films, and there are subtle references to his other films, setting this version of WWII firmly in the same world as Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. Any fans who longed for a return to form for QT after the mis-step of Death Proof should look no further than Basterds.
Trivia
- Quentin Tarantino started writing this movie before Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) but could not decide on a good ending and decide to put it on hold to do Kill Bill with Uma Thurman, a project he had been mentally preparing since Pulp Fiction (1994).
- Quentin Tarantino has said that he intends for this to be as much a war film as a spaghetti western, and has said he considered titling the movie "Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied France". He gave that title instead to the first chapter of the film.
- British actor Simon Pegg was originally set to play Lt. Archie Hicox but was forced to pull out of the project because of scheduling conflicts. Michael Fassbender replaced him.
- Tarantino approached Adam Sandler to play Sgt. Donnie Donowitz. But Sandler had to turn it down because the schedule conflicted with the filming of Funny People (2009).
- Eli Roth's character, Sgt. Donnie Donowitz, is part of the Tarantino-verse, sharing the last name of the film producer character, Lee Donowitz, in the Tarantino-written True Romance (1993). The Lee Donowitz character also produced a war film "Comin' Home in a Body Bag".
- Michael Madsen was originally announced to star as a character named Babe Buchinsky.
- Despite being Brad Pitt and Quentin Tarantino's first time working together, Brad had co-starred in True Romance (1993) (which was written by Tarantino).
- The name of Brad Pitt's character, Lt. Aldo Raine, is an homage to both the actor and WWII veteran Aldo Ray and a character from Rolling Thunder (1977), Charles Rane (played by William Devane). One of the casting directors, Johanna Ray, is Aldo Ray's ex-wife.
- When asked about the misspelled title, director Quentin Tarantino gave the following answer: "Here's the thing. I'm never going to explain that. You do an artistic flourish like that, and to explain it would just take the piss out of it and invalidate the whole stroke in the first place."
- Eli Roth directed the film-within-the-film, "Nation's Pride". Quentin Tarantino asked Roth to direct the short, and Roth requested his brother Gabriel join him to direct behind a second camera, which Tarantino agreed to. In two days the brothers got 130 camera setups, and Tarantino was so pleased he gave Roth a third day that he was originally planning to shoot with actor Daniel Brühl. Roth got 50 more setups the third day, much to Tarantino's delight. The total running time of the short is 5:30, and was always intended to feel like pieces of a longer film, not a coherent short.
- Eli Roth and Omar Doom were nearly incinerated filming the fire sequence in the theater. During tests the flame temperatures reached 400 degrees centigrade, and during the take the set burned out of control and the temperature of the ceiling above them reached 1,200 degrees centigrade (2,000 degrees fahrenheit.) Quentin Tarantino was seated on a crane operating the camera in a fireproof suit, and none of them wanted to back down and ruin the shot. Fire marshalls said that another fifteen seconds of filming and the steel structure would have collapsed, incinerating the actors. Roth and Doom were treated for minor burns.
- Rumor had it that Harvey Weinstein was trying to force Quentin Tarantino to cut 40 minutes of the movie after the feedback from Cannes Film Festival (which ran 148 minutes). However, Harvey denied this rumor stating that Quentin was reorganizing some scenes since he didn't have enough time to completely finish editing the film before sending it to Cannes since he was given only six weeks to edit whereas other directors are given normally six months to a year. In fact, the theatrical cut runs one minute longer than the cut that was premiered at Cannes.
- The very first scalping shown in the film on a dead Nazi is a dummy of Quentin Tarantino.
- WILHELM SCREAM: In the film-within-the-film, "Nation's Pride", the Wilhelm Scream can be heard when a soldier is shot and falls from an upper window.
Cameos and allusions to other films
- Cameo: [Zoe Bell] In a brief shot in the basement shootout, filling in for Diane Kruger.
- Cameo: [Samuel L. Jackson] The Narrator.
- Director Cameo: [Quentin Tarantino] In the German propaganda film-within-a-film, "Nation's Pride", directed by Eli Roth, Tarantino voices an American soldier, who says, "I implore you, we must destroy that tower!".
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