Disclaimer: This blog has spoilers and if you are the kind who would rather kill a friend than hear the climax of a movie, please steer away.
Let me start with all the obvious that we have come to expect in a Tarantino creation. The movie is divided into chapters, follows a book style narrative and has more than enough gut wrenching, blood spilling scenes of raw violence.
Rushes: A Jewish American troop of nine soldiers (called "The Inglorious Basterds" are assigned a mission to drop into France (this is during the WWII years) and kill Nazi soldiers brutally. They are ordered to leave a clear trail of their horror in the dismembered, disfigured bodies of the Nazis they kill so that the Nazis fear them and get a taste of their own anti-Jew atrocities. The "Inglorious Basterds" decide (towards Chapter 3) that the premiere for a German movie (at a Parisian movie theatre) that is set to be attended by top rank Nazi officers is the perfect war ground to maximize the brutality of their mission. Meanwhile we are introduced to a young Soshanna who is orphaned by the Nazis and is out to seek her revenge. Her revenge is bestowed with a sheer stroke of good fortune when a set of events leads to a new German movie ( that was mentioned earlier) to be premiered at the very Parisian theatre she now owns. A strew of high profile dignatories including the Fuhrer himself (Hitler) shall attend the premiere and it spells the perfect moment for her long waited revenge.
The head of the security for this premiere event, Col Hans Landa (wonderfully enacted by Christoph Waltz) stumbles upon the plan of the "Inglorious Basterds". A highly intelligent detective he is known for his powers to snoop out people and their plans. How the Inglorious Basterds" and Soshanna converge in their plans unkowing to each other forms the core of a wonderfully shot climax that is excitingly surprising (blow your seats off kind of material).
There were a few scenes in the movie that were absolutely engaging. I have tried to include a few of these here with my own interpretations of why those scenes had been orchestrated (yes thats the word), a particular way. To me, Chapter One was the best part of the whole movie. I could exhilarate on how every scene from Chapter 1 was an experience in itself and I would still do injustice to the quality of its making.
Chapter 1:
We are introduced to a family in German occupied France who suddenly one morning have unwelcome visitors: Col Landa and his men. The head of the family, father to three girls, stays calm and resolute as Landa interrogates away in his piercingly intelligent style but finally gives in and points to the floorboards beneath when it comes to choosing between the refugees and his family. The conversation between the father and Landa starts in French with subtitles in English and when you wonder why they switch over halfway to English you realize it is because the detective does not want the refugees hiding underneath to know that they will be eventually sniffed out and shot. The only small complaint I had : Would have rather preferred Tarantino to leave this to the audience to figure out than have the detective explain the reason for the language switch.
Tarantino arranges the script, characterization of the father, the music and the dialogues in a crescendo mode to build the feeling of anticipations in his viewers. By the climax of the chapter the movie watcher is almost on his fours pleading the director to end the anticipation. Tarantino wins the audience and has them to his cinematic beck and call by the end of his first chapter. The penultimate scene in Chapter 1 of Shoshanna running away is brilliantly shot. As the camera focusses on Shoshanna through the viewfinder on Landa's gun, one cannot but sympathize with the fact that Shoshanna's life hangs by the flick of Landa's trigger. The blood on her face and her cries contrast the idyllic village settings and to me this was pure cinematic brilliance. This is why: The mood contrast in the shot leaves the scene etched in the movie watcher's memory so that we easily pick upon the scene every time we cut back to the character and sympathize with her ruthless and blood thirsty motivations in the latter part of the movie.
Chapter 2: We are introduced to the "bear man" who is known to bludgeon his Nazi victims with a baseball bat. A less imaginative director would probably have just shown the man in repetitive horrific bludgeoning acts to build upon the viewers the terror of this character. Lets turn over to Tarantino's guide on movie making. Camera pans to the cave and through pitch black you hear the defeaning sound of the baseball bat getting louder for a full 30 seconds .
Chapter 4: Another scene that impressed me was Shoshanna's moments to herself before she she finally gets down to executing her revenge. Tarantino brilliantly shows through a single scene, the contrasting layers to Shoshanna's being. The interior soft side of her as she reflects moodily and rather sadly by the windowside (I would assume about her past or the wastage of a life that her revenge has rendered her to) but then the shot rolls on to the mirror as Shoshanna applies her mascara and you see her determination and that slight smile of long awaited revenge. (again brilliantly enacted). If you ponder why Tarantino would show this dual (sensitive versus spiteful) character you need to skip ahead to a later part of the Chapter where Shoshanna is taken by sensitivity to turn the body of the man whom she has just shot upon realizing he may still have some life left in him.
Think about a wonderful Ilayaraja or Rahman song that delights you with surprises like a groovy rythym accompanying a folk tune midway through a song (Genda phool for starters). Tarantino packs in similarly, a lot of 'planned' surprises along the trip. My favorite as with many others was the pause moment in Landa's conversation with Shoshanna when he says he just cannot recollect what he had intended to ask her. I almost sweared he would pounce on her by the end of their scary rendezvous.
The verdict is plain and simple. I may be a Tarantino fan but for all cinema lovers this movie shall indeed be a real exciting and refreshing watch. Walk into a theatre, strap on your seat belts and get ready for the ride.
Rating: 4.5 on 5
Chapter 1:
We are introduced to a family in German occupied France who suddenly one morning have unwelcome visitors: Col Landa and his men. The head of the family, father to three girls, stays calm and resolute as Landa interrogates away in his piercingly intelligent style but finally gives in and points to the floorboards beneath when it comes to choosing between the refugees and his family. The conversation between the father and Landa starts in French with subtitles in English and when you wonder why they switch over halfway to English you realize it is because the detective does not want the refugees hiding underneath to know that they will be eventually sniffed out and shot. The only small complaint I had : Would have rather preferred Tarantino to leave this to the audience to figure out than have the detective explain the reason for the language switch.
Tarantino arranges the script, characterization of the father, the music and the dialogues in a crescendo mode to build the feeling of anticipations in his viewers. By the climax of the chapter the movie watcher is almost on his fours pleading the director to end the anticipation. Tarantino wins the audience and has them to his cinematic beck and call by the end of his first chapter. The penultimate scene in Chapter 1 of Shoshanna running away is brilliantly shot. As the camera focusses on Shoshanna through the viewfinder on Landa's gun, one cannot but sympathize with the fact that Shoshanna's life hangs by the flick of Landa's trigger. The blood on her face and her cries contrast the idyllic village settings and to me this was pure cinematic brilliance. This is why: The mood contrast in the shot leaves the scene etched in the movie watcher's memory so that we easily pick upon the scene every time we cut back to the character and sympathize with her ruthless and blood thirsty motivations in the latter part of the movie.
Chapter 2: We are introduced to the "bear man" who is known to bludgeon his Nazi victims with a baseball bat. A less imaginative director would probably have just shown the man in repetitive horrific bludgeoning acts to build upon the viewers the terror of this character. Lets turn over to Tarantino's guide on movie making. Camera pans to the cave and through pitch black you hear the defeaning sound of the baseball bat getting louder for a full 30 seconds .
Chapter 4: Another scene that impressed me was Shoshanna's moments to herself before she she finally gets down to executing her revenge. Tarantino brilliantly shows through a single scene, the contrasting layers to Shoshanna's being. The interior soft side of her as she reflects moodily and rather sadly by the windowside (I would assume about her past or the wastage of a life that her revenge has rendered her to) but then the shot rolls on to the mirror as Shoshanna applies her mascara and you see her determination and that slight smile of long awaited revenge. (again brilliantly enacted). If you ponder why Tarantino would show this dual (sensitive versus spiteful) character you need to skip ahead to a later part of the Chapter where Shoshanna is taken by sensitivity to turn the body of the man whom she has just shot upon realizing he may still have some life left in him.
Think about a wonderful Ilayaraja or Rahman song that delights you with surprises like a groovy rythym accompanying a folk tune midway through a song (Genda phool for starters). Tarantino packs in similarly, a lot of 'planned' surprises along the trip. My favorite as with many others was the pause moment in Landa's conversation with Shoshanna when he says he just cannot recollect what he had intended to ask her. I almost sweared he would pounce on her by the end of their scary rendezvous.
The verdict is plain and simple. I may be a Tarantino fan but for all cinema lovers this movie shall indeed be a real exciting and refreshing watch. Walk into a theatre, strap on your seat belts and get ready for the ride.
Rating: 4.5 on 5
