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INGLORIOUS BASTERDS (2009) REVIEW PART ONE (CHAPTERS 1-4)

Set in the Second World War, a group of spunky, vengeful Jewish-american mercenaries navigate their way through enemy territories, killing every Nazi they come across, combined with a grief ridden jewish girl, a German double agent movie star, and a chilling anti-hero. If the Basterds’ German fiends are smart enough to give them the information they want, they give them a special mark to ensure they remember their nationalism for the rest of their lives.

Tarintino works in his usual way of chapters, splitting the story into neat chunks and carefully constructing the tension, so at that last chapter (in this case CHAPTER 5) the audience is ready to fall off their seats in anticipation.

CHAPTER ONE

Interestingly, our story doesn’t commence with an introduction to our protagonists, but with a dairy farmer named LaPedite accused of hiding Jews and the ‘villain’ of our story COLONEL HANS LANDA OF THE SS. The farmer seems on edge and somewhat acknowledges his fate, yet Landa introduces himself very politely, complements the farmers daughters and asks before doing anything inside the farmer’s house. However, Tarintino drops in slight peculiarities to ensure we understand who Landa is, for example, he only shakes the hand of the daughter with blonde hair and blue eyes-- the only one who looks aryan. Landa makes small gestures like grabbing the daughter’s arm who is getting him wine, although masked with a kind comment, Landa’s power is being asserted. The Colonel himself, is telling the farmer that he is the weak in this situation, yet leads LaPedite to believe he is in a position of power with his meticulous manners.

But, Landa places another finger on LaPedite’s throat as he asks him to switch to speaking english, although both are more comfortable in french. The audience is always posed with the question ‘Does Hans Landa know?’, does he know that the Jews under the floor boards cannot speak english?

Landa is terrifying because the audience can never quite tell if he is ignorant or not, everything he does points to him being so until the moment he reveals he knows more than you ever thought he did. In this chapter, we see this when he sets about asking questions to LaPedite about a jewish family, the Dreyfus’, they seem easy and uncompromising until the camera lowers underneath the floor boards where the family lay, trying to catch their breaths in their mouths. Landa continues and confirms the interrogation is complete, LaPedite has kept his cool and made it through. Until, Landa asks for another glass of milk, and the tension is drawn out making us squirm in anticipation. The score builds, and Landa utilises the Dreyfus’ incompetence in english to create a ‘masquerade’ which will ensure they are executed. Hans ushers LaPedite’s daughters back inside, thanking them for their service, but like Landa’s other scheming up until now, everything is not quite as it should be. German soldiers gather around the floorboards and the music explodes with the sound of gunshots, which feels vaguely reminiscent of Hitchcock’s suspense filled scores. Tarintino does an excellent job of using framing and shadow to visually show us Landa’s brooding presence over our story. More intriguingly though, is that Landa lets one of the family get away, Shoshanna, who will hold great importance later in the film. He aims at her before playfully pretending to shoot, Landa takes great pleasure in other people’s distress, like a child playing with toys.

CHAPTER 2

Finally, we are introduced to the Basterds and Aldo the Apache, Aldo explains the premise of their mission and a ‘debit’ each of the Basterds owe him. One hundred Nazi scalps. What is interesting about Tarintino is his creativity with violence, unlike typical slasher movies the gore in Tarintino films is in context, it holds a deeper connotation to the character or situation. For example, Aldo and his Apache Indian style techniques, or Shoshanna and her use of fire later on in the movie. Moreover, although there is a large volume of Basterds, the majority of them are characterised by a particular event, object, or name. In the ‘ditch’ where the Basterds have ambushed a Nazi patrol, we are introduced to nearly all the Basterds. Most notably, Hugo Stiglitz, who gets a whole tangent dedicated to his origin story. This movie is so fun to watch because it is self aware, it lets you know you are watching a movie, we see this through the on screen text and out of context distorted guitar that lets us know who Hugo Stiglitz is as a character in our story. Moreover, Utivich is good at scalping, Hirschberg is tiny with a massive machine gun, Wicki can translate and Donowitz is known as the ‘Bear Jew’. The scene progresses and although we have already been introduced to Sergeant Donowitz, we are informed of his character as the ‘Bear Jew’, Tarintino’s dialogue is snappy and unconventional, it sounds more like crass poetry than conversation, using alliteration and rhyme which makes his scripts so memorable. We also get some insight into the nature of the Basterds, although they are living in great times of terror and hardship, they laugh in the face of adversity. They make fun out of the patriotic germans that refuse to divulge information and cheer as Donny beats them to death as a result.

CHAPTER 3

Shoshanna is still bitter four years after the massacre of her family, working at a cinema. We are introduced to a new character, Fredrick Zoller, a happy-go-lucky Nazi soldier who takes an interest in Shoshanna. Zoller seems sweet, and somewhat charming, perhaps he mistakes Shoshanna’s dismissing behaviour for mysterious charm and a cold exterior wanting to be broken into. However for shoshanna, we know it isn’t so romantic, he represents a psychotic regime that killed her entire family. Tarintino employs a specific trait of his writing that makes it so unique, the characters have a seemingly innocent conversation about German cinema, as Shoshanna’s cinema is playing one of Zoller’s favourite directors. Shoshanna shares her mixed feelings about the movie Piz Palu and through this minutiae, Shoshanna lets Zoller know her actual mixed feeling about the Germanic position. Zoller seems unaffected, not listening to the actual substance of Shoshanna’s argument, so he goes on. Zoller asks for her name, her paper’s say ‘Emmanuelle Mimiueux’, and he presents himself, surprised at Shoshanna’s little reaction and so he leaves.

The next day, Zoller’s presence in the movie is instated. We are in a bar, with Shoshanna and he is there at the window, waving. He is becoming a pest. He comes in to see Shoshanna, when they are interrupted by a wave of excited german fans, all asking for Zoller. Zoller is a Germanic war hero, he explains rather proudly his exploits, and even shares that Dr Goebbels is making a movie about him. Shoshanna is pushed over the edge of tolerance and storms out, leaving Zoller confused, but unfortunately, wanting more.

Until now, Zoller has been relatively chivalrous, complementing Shoshanna and somewhat respecting her boundaries but Tarintino doesn’t want us to forget he is still a Nazi war hero. Instead of asking her in person, Zoller sends a Gestapo Major to force Shoshanna into a car, not knowing the meaning of the endeavour. We find Shoshanna at table full of Nazis, meeting Dr Goebbel’s himself. The entire scene is now from Shoshanna’s perspective, a calculated move to ensure that the audience feels the same dread she is feeling, when Hans Landa eventually enters. She had been called to this meeting to convince Dr Goebbel’s to change the premiere of Zoller’s film to her cinema. In this scene, language is also used as a device to upkeep interest in the situation, having Goebbel’s being only able to speak German and Shoshanna, French.

Later, when a dolly shot looms up to Landa, we feel the atmosphere change from a hazy uncomfortableness to honest dread. Landa persuades Zoller to let Shoshanna stay, as he must talk to ‘Mimieux’ about security measures. Everything checks out, the others leave. Landa then commences a mind tournament with Shoshanna, interrogating her by the condolences of her dead aunty and uncle Mimieux. Shoshanna keeps up and doesn’t break a sweat, however, Landa orders Strudel and a glass of milk for Shoshanna. Landa forgets what he wanted to ask her, but puts his cigarette out in the strudel. He knows and Shoshanna knows that he knows. The waiting and the silence is where the real terror lays, this is because there is a factor of uncertainty-- and Tarintino abuses this terrifically.

Shoshanna will host the premiere of Nation’s Pride, herself and Marcel, her projectionist devise the 350 35mm Nitrate Film Scheme. The main aim, to burn it down.

CHAPTER 4

Next, we travel to England, meeting our new foreign exchange basterd, Archie Hicox. Tarintino uses yet another expositional sequence that is disguised as a formal chat with his General, Ed Fenech. Hicox explains he was a film critic before the war, and adds another force to our Nazi Vendetta, he is to be apart of the english operation KINO with the German movie star, Bridget Von Hammersmark. The aim of the game is to blow up the basket full of their rotten Nazi eggs at the Nation’s Pride premiere, and Hicox is to join the basterds and Hammersmark in France.

Their rendezvous is in a basement tavern, the German speaking basterds and Hicox pose as Nazis to meet Von Hammersmark. Aldo and Donowitz share some concerns, alerting the audience, Stiglitz is calm but sharpening his knife, Hicox tries to reassure them but it seems to fall flat.

The opening shot of the La Louisianne Tavern is of drunk German soldiers, which Hicox assured us there wouldn’t be. The scene is doomed from this point on. Von Hammersmark sits casually with the drunken soldiers, reacting to a comment a soldier makes, replying ‘the character is the character’, although she is german herself, she tells the drunken Nazis her position nonchalantly through the silly game they are all playing and they applaud her for it, missing the subtext of course.

Eventually, she joins the basterds, and they attempt to discuss the developments of Operation Kino, almost getting to the end of her sentence before being interrupted by a soldier, Wilhelm, that has had a baby and wants her autograph. He pesters their table for a while longer before Hicox looses his temper, talking for a sustained amount of time, enough for the drunken soldier notices his peculiar accent. This is where the magic of Tarintino’s writing resides, the terms of which turn the scene sour are so particular to the situation that they become iconic. The scene progresses as our Gestapo Major that we met earlier reappears, what is interesting about Hellstrom is his similarities to Landa. He plays with the minds of the characters surrounding him, interrogating Hicox about his accent as his first introduction, however this is where he sets himself as a weaker antagonist than Landa. Our characters already know they should be weary of him, so all his friendly actions and notions to play drinking games seem slimy.

We can see the other characters losing their cool now, Stiglitz’s distorted theme tune is coming back with some flash scenes of the atrocities he faced at the hands of Nazi’s. The drunken soldiers are still loud and raucous and Hellstrom is still being arrogant, making jokes that aren’t funny. Throughout the scene, Tarintino has dropped some visual breadcrumbs for us to pick up along the way, Von Hammersmark’s shoes, the Scotch, her autograph and now, Hicox’s final mistake. Hellstrom urges them to try some Scottish Scotch, asking for new glasses but not wanting one himself. Hammersmark opts for champagne, so three glasses are needed. Tarintino again illustrates his ability to take the nuances between cultures and shape them into plot points. Hicox signals for the english three finger gesture, as opposed to the German. He tries to cover it up, but he and Hellstrom are now in a Mexican standoff with Stiglitz not being able to help himself but join in.

Hicox finishes his scotch, and the scene erupts in a complete shoot out. No Basterd survives. One thing that I have always found bittersweet about Tarintino’s work is his lack of remorse for killing off main characters, they always make sense and move the story along, but are still a bit of a downer when you were starting to get attached to the character.

The aftermath reveals Wilhelm, the new dad and Von Hammersmark shot in the leg, but alive. After making a deal with Aldo for Hammersmark, Wilhelm is killed by Bridget on account of him calling her a traitor. She gets away, but the plan is ruined. A short interrogation with fingers in bullet holes and the reveal of the development in operation KINO being the Furher attending the Premiere, propells our characters into a ‘How-I-broke-my-leg-mountain-climbing-story’ for Hammersmark’s injured leg, and Aldo and the film star settling on her escorts being Italian over German, the plan isn’t foolproof but the Basterds can brazen through it, so they think.

The last part of our chapter is brief but integral, Landa visits La Louisianne Tavern. We see a different side of Hans Landa, as he was a detective before the War, it is almost as if he is arriving at a crime scene. Scanning the blood-soaked, basterd filled room, he finds the autograph signed Bridget Von Hammersmark. We are now informed, that Landa knows.

#inglourious basterds

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