In Philip K. Dick’s novel “The Man in the High Castle,” a chronicle of an alternate history of World War II in which the Axis won the war and Germany and Japan conquered America, there’s a great moment in which the characters glimpse, very briefly, another world (that is to say, our world) in which the Nazis actually lost. Quentin Tarantino has a similar scene in “Inglourious Basterds,” his own fractured fairy tale version of WWII. The coolly malevolent SS Col. Hans Landa (played with careful, manicured aplomb by Christoph Waltz) tells his longtime adversary, Lt. Aldo “The Apache” Raine (Brad Pitt) of how the hand of fate can reach out and change history utterly. Landa knows history is about to change, but not in the way, he seems to sense, it’s meant to.
In this case, though, the hand belongs not to fate but Tarantino, who’s created a singular movie that’s part revenge-fantasy, part comic book and an all-around unabashed love letter to the cinema. It’s a bold and brightly colored movie, bloody and utterly shameless and supremely confident in every move it makes. “Basterds” is a homage to WWII mission flicks like “The Dirty Dozen” and Italian director Enzo Castellari’s similarly titled 1978 “Inglorious Bastards,” but its closest cousin is this summer’s “Drag Me To Hell,” another quirky piece of old-school filmmaking that makes its own rules and revels in the pure fun of going to the movies.
The movies are on the mind of everyone in “Basterds” and by the end, Tarantino transforms cinema from a passion into a weapon. But like any good fairy tale, there must be a “once upon a time,” and in the world of “Basterds,” the fairy tale begins on a dairy farm in Nazi-occupied France. Col. Landa and a squad of SS goons raid the farm in search of a hidden Jewish family; the only survivor is Shosanna (Melanie Laurent), who vanishes into the countryside. As Shosanna escapes, the Basterds, a secret American military unit, infiltrates France. Let by Lt. Raine, a hard-ass hillbilly with a wicked scar on his neck, the Basterds are a team of bloodthirsty Jewish soldiers set loose to inspire fear and terror among the Nazis. They scalp their victims (every man must deliver 100 Nazi scalps, Raine informs them at the start of their mission), mutilate any survivors they leave behind and rain glorious vengeance on any unlucky Nazis that cross their path.
Years later, fate brings the Basterds, Shosanna and Landa together again, this time at the movies. Now known as Emmanuelle and running a small cinema, Shosanna finds herself the target of the unwanted affections of Pvt. Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Bruhl), a young Nazi war hero whose exploits as a sniper are being made into blockbuster propaganda flick, “Nation’s Pride.” Zoller’s affection for Shosanna helps get the gala premier, which includes the entire Nazi high command, moved to Shosanna’s cinema. Shosanna sees an opportunity for revenge, and so do the Basterds, who are notified of the premier by way of Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger), a celebrated German actress who’s actually a spy for the Allies.
The specter of the cinema haunts “Basterds” throughout. Watching Basterd Sgt. Donny “The Bear Jew” Donowitz (director and frequent Tarantino guest player Eli Roth) crack Nazi skulls with a Louisville slugger is the “closest thing we get to going to the movies,” says Aldo Raine. When Zoller asks Shosanna why she lists the names of directors on her theater marquee, she tells him it’s because “Here in France, we respect directors.” At one point, the movie pauses to wax about the flammable nature and destructive power of nitrate film. A British film critic-turned war hero helps plan the assault on the cinema, Joseph Goebbels (Sylvester Groth) is tagged as the evil version of Hollywood producer David O. Selznick, and an ill-timed autograph session nearly spells doom for von Hammersmark. In Tarantino’s world, even the outer-reaches of the cinematic world—encounters with stars, film scholarship, the architecture of movie theaters—has power.
But even more powerful are the images themselves. As “Nation’s Pride” flashes across the big screen during the climax of “Basterds,” the Nazi luminaries cheer and clap each time Zoller (playing himself in the film within a film) takes out another Allied soldier. So too will you in the real-life “Basterds” audience when The Bear Jew, Hugo Stiglitz (Til Schweiger) and the rest of the Basterds pummel, scalp and otherwise obliterate Nazis. For each side in a war, the tune of the siren song of propaganda may change, but it always plays powerfully to the audience. “Nations’ Pride” isn’t so much different than “Basterds,” but Tarantino isn’t moralizing so much as acknowledging how movies captivate and allure.
The Basterds are allowed to murder Nazis with abandon and we’re allowed to cheer because Nazis are evil, and that sort of comic book morality provides the necessary juice for the bloody revenge fantasy aspect of “Basterds.” Call it “I Spit On Your Swastika” or whatever you like–it’s gory and primal and unsettling, but it’s not so different than the comic books of the early 1940s, in which Jewish creators like Jack Kirby and Joe Simon proudly featured Captain America beating the snot out of a comical Hitler on the front cover of their books.
That violence works in tight concert with some great performances. Waltz received a “best actor” award at Cannes for his role as Landa, and if there’s any justice, he’ll score many more in months to come. Unflappable and cheerfully methodical, Landa is the best villain to stroll across the screen in recent years. While Tarantino plays Goebbels, Hitler and the rest for laughs, Landa is utterly normal and, as such, absolutely menacing. And while Waltz let’s Landa’s emotions flash only in rare moments, Laurent makes Shosanna compelling precisely because her character can barely contain any of her emotions. When Shosanna appears on screen, she exerts a hold just as powerful as any of the flashy violence elsewhere in the film and it’s easy to forget for a moment the other Basterds roaming about. Pitt, Roth and the rest are no slouches, either, but Waltz and Laurent are mesmerizing.
As the action winds down, Lt. Raine is allowed to pause for a moment and survey some work the Basterds have done. “I think this is my masterpiece,” he says, smiling. “Basterds” may be Tarantino’s masterpiece, a definitive, bloody statement on the ability of film to create, destroy and transform. It doesn’t end happily ever after for all the Basterds, but for those who do make it out, there’s no doubt they’ll retire to the cinema for some R&R once the shooting’s stopped and the last Nazi’s been scalped.
