“Inglorious Basterds”
Dialogue is Not Dead

Tarantino is quite adept at coaxing amazing performances out of his actors, and he does so again in “Inglorious Basterds”. It was fun to see Brad Pitt play a character like Lt. Aldo Raine, a nearly incomprehensible Appalachian with a drawl a mile long. Pitt did not steal the show, however. The best performance was by German actor Christoph Waltz, who played the detestable Col. Hans Landa, a Jew hunter and all around nasty fellow.  Waltz portrayed a character that, while you utterly hated him was a treat to behold.

There were occasions in the movie where nothing was happening aside from the dialogue of Waltz and a supporting cast member, but these moments are what made the movie great. Heavy, intelligent dialogue which jumped over the language barrier as it shifted from French to German to American, and even one fleeting and comical moment to Italian.

As mentioned before the acting was superb, which was derived from the motley cast of bilingual actors Tarantino assembled. Mélanie Laurent a French actress plays Shosanna Dreyfus, a young Jewish girl disguised as a gentile to hide from Nazi Jew hunters. She happens to own a theater, which she runs with her lover Marcel, played by Jacky Ido. The dynamic between these characters as they plot the deaths of Nazi theatergoers borders on disturbingly cute.

There are a number of other actors who performed extremely well. Daniel Brühl played Pvt. Fredrick Zoller an annoying nuisance, and a bit of a whiner. This character will bounce from scene to scene with an oblivious smile that will likely fill you with a mighty fury.

There were a large handful of great characters such as Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger), Sgt. Donny Donowitz (Eli Roth), Pfc. Omar Ulmer (B.J. Novak) and my personal favorite Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz (Til Schweiger). These characters contributed immeasurably to the quality of Inglorious Basterds, and made the film one that is destined to be in my collection. I give Inglorious Basterds a 10 out of 10, mostly because of Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz.

Starring   

Plot:

In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers.