Inglourious Basterds in summary

Watched Quentin Tarantino’s new movie yesterday – Inglourious Basterds and I’ll have to say that if you have watched Pulp Fiction then this is about the same caliber, as fiction as you can get yet with the right prudence of seriousness, extremely funny scenes with equally funny characters, violent as usual, and with a storyline that has different plots crossing and locking into each other. Typical Tarantino brand.

I’ll leave you to go over at the official website of the Inglourious Basterds to watch the trailers. Make sure you watch the different trailers they have. I think the International version is the best although these trailers will never do justice to the film. Then traverse over at Youtube and do a search on the movie’s name. Read the comments as they are just hilarious. You will also see remnants of the neo Nazi propaganda, posts from anti-Jews and anti-Americans fighting for comment space in there.

We watched the movie in Pathe Rembrandt Theater in Utrecht. Good thing that the conscientious always-a-boy-scout Dutchman bought the tickets online because when we got there 15 minutes before showtime, crowds were packing like shrubs at the cashier with a long tail of people queuing up all the way to the cobbled street outside in Oudegracht. This is probably the first time I have experienced in my going to the movies in the Netherlands that the cinema is full.

Cinemas in the Netherlands are tiny and Rembrandt Theater probably has the biggest seat capacity in Utrecht. The Dutch are really not avid cinema goers as many of them are so cheap (and proud of it) they just watch movies downloaded free from the internet at home.

The film has a very impressive international casting. German, French and English were spoken all throughout the movie. It really gives you the feeling of transcending boundaries, cultures and languages, and it’s inspiring to see actors such as Christoph Waltz (Lt. Landa in the movie–I was quite enamored by his charismatic yet stealthy performance but I can understand why some people find him irritating haha) who spoke fluent German, French, English and Italian!

One of the funny scenes in the movie is when Brad Pitt aka Lt. Aldo posing as an Italian escort to German actress and spy, Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) at the Nazi film premier spoke Italian with a very, very, very thick American accent, “Buongiorno!”

The rest of that scene was just frickin hilarious.

On the other hand the movie has a tragic Romeo and Juliet effect with the characters, Shoshana Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent), the French-Jewish survivor turned Theater owner and Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Bruehl), the Nazi soldier hero. There was momentous heartbreaking gravity there when they both killed each other.

Another favorite character is Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz (Til Schweiger), the ex Nazi who became famous for killing Gestapo officers and recruited into Lt. Aldo’s the Barterds team. His character in the film is so mean, unyielding and driven that it’s almost and insanely bordering comic. It is strange but so true!

3 hours long. Worth it. Watch it.
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