Inglourious Basterds: Film Review

Resistance is an interesting film theme and an interesting element in all film reviews.

This choice of a film review may seem quite strange at first. For one thing, the film has been out of cinemas for a long time and has recently gone to DVD. All actual film critics have long gotten their praise and detractions in before mine. When you couple this with the insulting spelling of the title, an English Student like myself would naturally be resistant to choosing to write about Inglourious Basterds.

This resistance is quite a good summary of my overall impression of the film. On one hand, Tarantino's latest film seems to care very little about how it is received. The film is an incredibly unusual combination of old west, 60s and ultra modern styles. Any film fan would find the performances of Brad Pitt and Christoph Waltz both chilling and brilliant at the same time. However, purists of any of the many styles and war film fanatics would balk at the many ridiculous plot lines and situations that this film presents. When watching you're not sure if you should be laughing at the bizarre situation or disgusted at the brutality that it overlays. Gaining a footing with the film is almost impossible.

That is exactly why resistance is the theme of this review. If you simply must place labels on a work of art in order to understand and appreciate it then you often miss the point of the whole exercise. This is Tarantino's war film and if a viewer is expecting anything else then they will certainly be disappointed. But when the natural resistance to this Frankenstein's monster of a film is overcome it becomes a wonderful, heartfelt, harrowing and hilarious piece of art. If Inglourious Basterds teaches us anything (and it will not be morals that it teaches!) it is that we must let artists do what they will and praise them for it.

The world of the film critic should release a bit of tension and enjoy masterpieces like Inglourious Basterds.

-The English Student