Inglourious Basterds

From its opening scene, we can see that "Inglourious Basterds" is going to be a different kind of Quentin Tarantino movie. It's an encounter between Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), a member of the Third Reich known as the "Jew Hunter," and a French farmer harboring Jews. Much of the dialogue is spoken in French. Deprived of his native tongue, Tarantino reverts to simple, formal dialogue which aptly underlines the tension running through the scene. He's relying on storytelling rather than verbal wit. The scene also draws strength from a couple of other more "conventional" filmmaking strategies: terrific acting and an effective instrumental on the soundtrack. Waltz delivers a monologue which is all the more disturbing because of his pleasant demeanor. Then, as he identifies where the Jews are hiding, frenzied strings arise to amplify the horror of what is to come.

The underhanded, classical approach to the scene is a big departure for Tarantino, who frequently relies on pop songs for his soundtrack and mediocre actors for his cast. He seems to understand that a World War II story cannot be delivered entirely tongue-in-cheek.

Yet "Inglourious Basterds" is still unmistakably a Tarantino production; no one else could have made this film. Following the opening scene, we meet the titular bastards, nine Jewish soldiers led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), a Tennessee native who demands 100 Nazi scalps from each of his recruits. Pitt is almost a comical version of Humphrey Bogart in this movie; he's supposed to be the calm tough guy, but his lines make him more of a cartoon character.

After a scene introducing the Basterds, told with Tarantino's typical verve and energy, we meet Shosanna, who escaped Landa in the opening scene and went on to open a movie theater under a new name. Through a series of events, a Nazi propaganda film is slated to premiere at her theater; she plots to burn the building down with top Third Reich officials inside.

These plot developments come out a little slowly, but from here things start to take off. The British instigate a separate plot to blow up the theater during the premiere, and enlist the Basterds to help them pull it off. It all leads to a gruesome set piece which would fall apart in the hands of a lesser filmmaker.

What gives the second half of the movie its strength is that it's told chronologically. Again, this may seem like an elementary approach, but it's different for Tarantino, who likes to jump back and forth in time. He used this method strategically to great effect in "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction," but since then his films have seemed to bounce around at random. As a result, his works have been more a series of great scenes, rather than great films. Here, however, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. As usual, Tarantino's overflowing gifts are all on display in "Inglourious Basterds," but he has harnessed them here to create his first great film since "Pulp Fiction."