Sunday, November 22, 2009

Inglourious Basterds - The Bastard is back and How!!


"You probably heard we ain't in the prisoner-takin' business; we in the killin' Nazi business. And cousin, Business is a-boomin'."  - Aldo Raine

Quentin Tarantino is probably one of those directors whose names would not be taken in the same breath as a Scorsese, Spielberg or a Kubrick, maybe because after watching a QT movie you never feel uplifted, maybe because he glorifies violence like no other director can, or maybe because his movies are not about the triumph of good over evil. His movies dare to venture the darker side of man, which is always about vengeance, and retribution of the most violent kind. There are many who find him to be over-rated, and there are many who worship him, but the truth is: without a Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, or even Kill Bill, Hollywood would seem incomplete. So when the opening scene of IB slowly unfolds in the barn we realise that the ace director is slowly reaching at the top of his game. Christopher Waltz as the cold and calculating Hans "Jew Hunter" Landa is one of the best characters etched by QT in his career, Waltz even steals the thunder from Aldo Raine effectivly played by Brad Pitt.

You need a lot of patience to sit through a QT movie, you may drift off during the lengthy conversations his characters may have, but that is just a build up to the final act which will take your breath away. You need to savor his movies like a good bottle of wine, you gotta take it sip by sip rather than just gulping it down. The ending may not be historically accurate, its more like an "alternate history"- the kind of ending QT would have scripted had he been playing God during WW2. The 2.5 hour long movie may get a bit dull in between, but just when the pace seems to slow down, an incident may catch your eye which will wake you from your slumber, and by the time the movie ends it leaves you asking for more. Love him or hate him, but you just cant ignore QT. The bastard is back!

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