Review: Tarantino's 'Basterds' Bloody Brilliant

'Inglourious Basterds' (R)(out of four)

Where's there's smoke, there's a Quentin Tarantino film, and the inferno is at its blazing hottest since "Pulp Fiction" with "Inglourious Basterds" -- a blistering revisionist revenge fantasy that marks the writer-director's return as a master storyteller. Just as creative but perhaps less flashy than his previous work, "Basterds" reveals how much Tarantino has matured as a moviemaker.

That's not to say the films between "Fiction" and "Basterds" were weak by any means. It's just that with this latest effort, he's clearly learned to trust the strength of his material again, instead of trying too hard to set himself apart from other filmmakers and genres. There's no need for him to over-achieve here, the magic is all inherent. And with "Basterds" he delivers some of the best twists, characters, action and even laughs -- in a perverse sort of way -- since his 1994 pulp classic.

The key to the success of "Inglourious Basterds," not surprisingly, comes mostly in its dialogue, which works brilliantly in the context of the film. True, it doesn't quite have the same type of snappy "Royale with cheese" stretches of "Pulp" prose that fans will be reciting 15 years on; but the penetrating dialogue that you just know will to lead to some very bad things is far better than the jaw-jacking that drove Tarantino's last film, "Death Proof," straight into a brick wall.

Tarantino has no qualms about turning the history of World War II on its head with "Inglourious Basterds," which begins with the tag line, "Once upon a time in Nazi-occupied France." Unlike the fractured narratives of his previous films including "Pulp Fiction" and the "Kill Bill" movies, "Inglourious Basterds" is mostly told in chronological fashion from two points of view. The narratives eventually intersect, where Tarantino ultimately marries his love of movies with pivotal set piece: a posh movie theater where the mayhem all comes together in a brilliantly orchestrated sequence of mass chaos. It's a strikingly original movie-within-a-movie idea that could only come from the brain of a true cinephile.

Brad Pitt stars as Lt. Aldo Raine, a foul-mouthed, hard-living Army troop leader from Tennessee who drafts a group of Jewish-American soldiers for a specific purpose: find and kill Nazis (or as he pronounces, NAT-ZEES) to instill fear in the Third Reich. A quarter Cherokee, Aldo wants to make it clear to the Nazis that it's his soldiers, known as "The Basterds," who are doing the dasterdly deeds: In a tip of the cap to his heritage, Aldo orders his men to leave their mark by scalping every Nazi they kill.

While Aldo's MO is to terrorize and brutally dispatch as many Nazis as he can, a young French-Jewish woman, Shoshanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent), is intent on bringing pain to Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), a sadistic S.S. officer who goes by the moniker "The Jew Hunter." Spared during a massacre on her family by Landa, Shoshanna finds refuge in Paris as the operator of movie theater. It's a palace that becomes, through fate, a venue that will host Landa, film propagandist Joseph Goebbels (Sylvester Groth) and other Nazi heavies as they celebrate the movie debut of one of their own "heroes," Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Bruhl).

But Shoshanna isn't the only one with death and destruction on her mind. The Basterds, unbeknownst to Shoshanna, intend on infiltrating the premiere because it will also attended by their ultimate prize: Adolf Hitler (Martin Wuttke).

It's a given at this point where you know Tarantino's films are going to be ultra-violent, and he's on par with his earlier work in "Inglourious Basterds." Whether the Basterds are scalping or bludgeoning their Nazi prey, it's hard to argue whether the action is gratuitous or not because it most often serves the story. Either way you look at it, you have to marvel at the way Tarantino approaches the impending doom, by building tension through slow burning dialogue (mostly by Waltz -- more on that below) or, through seemingly simple acts. The best example would be when one of the Basterds, Sgt. Donny Donowitz ("Hostel" director Eli Roth), clinks his baseball bat on the ground at a slow, deliberate pace, as he approaches a Nazi to bash his head in.

Pitt is clearly the star of "Inglourious Basterds," and his commanding presence is felt throughout the film. Although Tarantino (who's from Tennessee and part Cherokee) added a personal touch to the character, Pitt also seems to be channelling Sgt. Hulka (Warren Oates) from "Stripes," with a good-ole Southern boy drawl and a don't-F-with-me attitude. True, Aldo comes off as part caricature, but the character wouldn't be as nearly as entertaining without Pitt being as animated as he is. It's a great performance.

Despite the star power that Pitt brings to "Inglourious Basterds," the film really belongs to Waltz, a veteran Austrian actor unknown to American audiences who's sure to nab an Oscar-nomination and probably a win for his slimy portrayal of Landa. Mastering Tarantino's longest stretches of dialogue, Waltz whimsically delivers his lines with skin-crawling intensity as he ferrets out information on his prey. Waltz is frightening and, thanks to the character's outrageous sense of self, funny at the same time. He's the ultimate megalomaniac.

There's no doubt that "Inglourious Basterds" is one of Tarantino's most ambitious projects to date, and in the end, the risks pay off big. Before the two storylines converge, the writer-director expertly weaves the narrative together with four different languages (French actress Laurent is a natural and "National Treasure" star Diane Kruger speaks her native German throughout as European movie star) without once disconnecting from its audience. Even with a couple instances of overkill, the movie clips along at a great pace, and even 2 hours and 30 minutes in length, it hardly ever feels overlong.

While the film has its standout performances, the great thing about "Inglourious Basterds" is that it's ultimately a collaborative effort. Even the briefest of cameos by the likes of a barely recognizable Mike Myers as a British officer bear great significance. Tarantino makes the circle complete by throwing some off-the-wall moments in for good measure, including two laugh-out-loud story primers narrated by Samuel L. Jackson. By the time the curtain falls, "Inglourious Basterds" undoubtedly has easily earned the distinction of being the most unique -- and for the lack of a better word, glorious -- movie experience of the year.