Inglorious Basterds Review

From our programmer Jason Wood:


INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
After the major disappointment that was Death Proof, Tarantino's bloody and unbowed war movie is a surprising success. Structured in chapters, the film is a gloriously OTT and irreverent revisiting of Enzo G. Castllari's The Inglorious Bastards that also takes in the war movies of Sam Fuller and Robert Aldrich and Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti western series. Some of the set-pieces are brilliantly executed and unlike Death Proof the film is not enslaved to its B-movie origins (but retains some lovely retro touches). Michael Fassbender as a toffiish British colonel confirms his stature as one of Britain's strongest acting talents and the rest of the cast including a number of genre stalwarts) are similarly well-marshalled. The use of music is characteristically strong, including a revisit of Bowie and Moroder's theme to Paul Schrader's Cat People. Definitely not for the squeamish, which is just how Tarantino's fans (and after Death Proof he is lucky to still have some) like it. Christopher Waltz carried off the Best Actor award as the sadistic and self-serving Nazi ‘Jew hunter’. Broadsheet reviews have been poor – with The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw failing to understand it given his comments re the narrative – but this shouldn’t harm it’s box office prospects. The lengthy running time might…

Note: this review appeared originally in the Picturehouse Blog.