Writer/Director: Quentin Tarantino
Year: 2009
Cinematographer: Robert Richardson
I was hooked when I saw the poster of Brad Pitt announcing "Brad Pitt is a Basterd." And then I saw in print below "The new film by Quentin Tarantino."
I will always go along with Tarantino for his cinema-loving violent revenge-flick romps. And by now I know I will always have guilty pleasure watching his glorified revenge violence. Although I want to condemn his plot lines for their unabashed brutality and accuse him of being nothing but a pop-culture blender and smut dealer to the blood-thirsty desensitized first-person-shooter video-game generation... I must confess that this film may be his masterpiece.
The simple structure of the film, being slimmed to a few great, long scenes, the most spectacular of which being the opening sequence featuring Christoph Waltz's powerhouse villain, totally won me over. Each scene is a delight to watch, and Tarantino must be crowned the king of entertainment. Only a cinephile as notorious as Tarantino would rewrite history, giving a group of violent Jewish-American soldiers the chance to reap revenge against the Nazis, but leaving the massacre of Hilter and his entire SS elite up to the work of a Jewish Cinema owner. Oh, and a British film critic, a german soldier-turned-actor, and Hitler's propaganda minister, Goebbels are also essential characters.
This is a film made for Tarantino, by Tarantino. A revenge flick that lets film itself execute revenge. It's meta. And I have to confess I continue to have fun when Tarantino has fun, even though I still feel guilty for liking it.
