Redemption Rewatch: Inglourious Basterds

Year: 2009

Genre: Drama

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Stars: Brad Pitt, Melanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Bruhl, Til Schweiger, Gedeon Burkhard, Jacky Ido, B.J. Novak, Rod Taylor, Mike Myers, Samm Levine, Lea Seydoux, Sylvester Groth

Production: Universal Pictures

The first time I watched Inglourious Basterds, I was just beginning my junior year of college. At that point I was just beginning to study the classics of cinema in earnest; barely digging into Welles and Hitchcock let alone Pabst and Riefenstahl – two names that feature prominently in this film. Being a product of the 90’s however, director Quentin Tarantino had been a fixture in my life, even if at the time I didn’t want him to be.

Me whenever a film student tells me Tarantino is their hero...

I once called Tarantino’s work an amalgam of interesting ideas made boring. “Asinine segments of dialogue punctuated by flashes of violence, isn't my idea of a good time,” is a literal quote from an article I once wrote in 2010. Of Inglourious Basterds in particular I said, “At the end of a lengthy scene filled with trite dialogue, there is a shootout where both [Hicox and Stiglitz] are killed in a hail of gunfire. Two interesting characters, each with a solid back story are dispatched without so much as a goodbye.”

Inglourious Basterds sucked! Half Baked, now there's a movie!

Mind you, I watched Inglourious Basterds in theaters! So when I sat down to watch it a second time in the safety of my own home 8-years-later, I had to think to myself, what was I smoking? The scene highlighted in the previous paragraph is not “asinine” but rather a richly detailed, meticulously setup work of suspense. If you actually manage to pay attention to the scene and prick your ears up at the minutia of the dialogue, you’ll find a lot to love and a lot to fret over.

There’s the exposition, the rising tension, the slight relief, the tip off and the explosive climax, all of which are defined by bold characterization. All five parts or chapters of Inglourious Basterds unfold in this way - exemplifying the classical, Hitchcockian mode of suspense. It’s a movie of moments, of knowing glances, improbable coincidences and unseen calculations all to serve an uncommonly aggressive narrative that prizes only the dark and the splashy.

The movie even has Hitchcock-type time bombs!

This may be why I didn’t like Inglourious Basterds the first time. It masterfully succeeds in entertaining its audience, at least those who are paying attention; but does it enlighten? Its bloody climax on the surface doesn’t claim to do so. My sympathies were thrown in with the unarmed Nazis at La Gamaar Cinema and mowed down like so much Swiss cheese. My expectations were similarly blown to smithereens as the only good guys were the by-then dead Shosanna (Laurent) and the Gomer Pyle-esque Aldo Raine (Pitt), neither of which had the stuff to give me the happy ending I craved.

(facepalm)

Time, as it seems, changes people. And the events of the day may change the context with which one views their media. After the events of Charlottesville and the impending rise of white nationalism in our nation, Inglourious Basterds comes with an added layer of shade. The theme of Jewish vengeance in the film, while no less brutal, comes with added alarm in the form of Aldo Raines’s reoccurring monologue. “You see, we like our Nazis in uniform. That way we can spot 'em just like that. But you take off that uniform, ain't no one ever gonna know you were a Nazi. And that don't sit well with us.” It’s an easy thing to miss amidst the film’s sprawling narrative but it’s a tidbit of twisted wisdom that sadly feels more prevalent and foreboding today. And, watching it again made me see just how much this theme reoccurs.

Upon second viewing, my superficial expectations (such as having the movie focus on the Bastards as advertised) and illusions of fair play were all gone. What left at the start then is the story of the excesses of cinema chortling at the dogma that has become the norm for WWII movies. It’s an exploitation film told with the effortless grace of an auteur at the top of his game; one where the heroes aren’t any more immune to death than the Nazis are immune to stylized satire. Furthermore Inglourious Basterds stands in my mind in a new social context bringing another rich layer in an already layered film. I suppose Roger Ebert was right when he said, “Tarantino films have a way of growing on you. It’s not enough to see them once.”

Previous Grade: D

New Grade: B