Best of 2009 - Inglourious Basterds

Best Action Movie I Saw in 2009 – Inglorious Basterds

Inglourious Basterds was one of the last movies I saw in 2009 and replaced Watchmen as the best action movie I saw in 2009. Now, you might say – “But James, there are only, like, two or three action scenes in the whole movie - the Basterds at the Drainpipe, the Pub Shootout, and the Theater Massacre! It’s not an action movie; it’s a foreign-language drama type flick, like The Lives of Others.” And I would respond by snapping my fingers at you, cackling and saying “Exactly.”
Read more after the break.



What my hypothetical responder failed to realize that Inglourious Basterds was made by the undisputed King of Subversion, Quentin Tarantino. When the trailers came out, everyone went, ‘Ooh, Jewish soldiers running around in the forest massacring Nazis? And Tarantino’s behind it? Kewl, bloodbaths galore!’ I’m sure many were thinking it’d be Kill Bill Vol. 1 meets Saving Private Ryan. But that’s why QT is so brilliant – he took the popular preconception of a WWII slaughter fest movie and turned everything around so the stereotypes and clichés were surprising again.

Nothing in this film happened the way I expected it to. The steely-jawed American hero with the undoubtedly checkered past, (Lt. Aldo Raine’s hanging scar completely unexplained?) suave, sophisticated British secret agent (Lt. Archie Hicox), the beautiful Jewish girl hiding her identity in occupied France (Shoshanna), the turncoat German officer (Col. Hans Landa), none of these characters interacted in the ways the old movies told us they would.

In a typical movie, Raine and the Basterds would maraud around a while until the Allies found out about the movie premier at Shoshanna’s theater. Hicox would link up with the Basterds and give them an air of polish and sophistication to the unit’s merciless brutality. He’d make them clever, more than just a blunt terrorizing object. Raine and Hicox would meet Shoshanna and butt heads over who’s a bad enough dude to pursue her. The Basterds would team up with Shoshanna and plan out how they’d lay the trap for the Nazi elite. Romance would start to blossom between Raine and Shoshanna. Hicox would gallantly step aside for true love and hook up with the German actress character.

On the night of the operation, everything would go smoothly except for one thing – the bomb wouldn’t go off, or Hitler and pals would decide suddenly to see a different film at another theater – because everyone knows that Hitler doesn’t die until 1945, and he kills himself. Oh well; the Basterds would head back out to the enemy lines with Hicox in tow, but Raine now has someone to go back to after the war ends. Bittersweet, but happy, ending! Yay! (Spoilers Follow)

But the Basterds and Shoshanna never meet. The suave, talented British agent gets killed in, if my count is right, his third scene. Shoshanna and the Basterds have two completely independent plans for dealing with the Nazi elite, and both succeed perfectly (except for [spoiler] Shoshanna’s death at the hands of the disillusioned young German soldier). Landa, the brutal SS officer who’s been hunting both the Basterds and Shoshanna throughout the entire movie sells out Nazi High Command in exchange for a clean defection and a heavy reward.

Inglourious Basterds is possibly my favorite Tarantino movie yet (though I’ve only seen it, Pulp Fiction and bits of Kill Bill vol. 1 and 2). In Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino played with, averted or subverted 65 years of WWII movie tropes and clichés and managed to make them all surprising again. It’s like what he did with Kill Bill – the first movie was full of face-meltingly good action scenes, and people expected Vol. 2 to be even better – except Kill Bill vol. 2 was mostly character development. Quentin Tarantino – subverting expectations and killin’ Nat-zees. Love it.