Christoph Waltz as SS Colonel Hans Landa

What a film!  Inglourious Basterds has it all:  superb acting, a compelling storyline, great scenery, intriguing counterfactual history, outstanding music and just enough subtitles to convey a high degree of authenticity.  The film definitely has a nice Spaghetti Western feel to it.  A more apt description might be:  The Dirty Dozen meets the Reservoir Dogs meets The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. 

The film was much different than the commercial trailer lets on.  This was probably due to marketing strategy and was part of an effort to market Brad Pitt, who masterfully portrayed Lt. Aldo Raine, the commanding officer of the Basterds.  The trailer tells the story of a team of Jewish-American soldiers during World War II who are dropped into occupied France dressed as civilians to kill Nazis.  This is indeed one of the major storylines in the film, but it is part of a much more intricate plot.  In typical Tarantino fashion there are some graphic scenes.  The graphic violence, however, is not over the top–probably a total of 2 minutes in a film that runs about 2 hours and 30 minutes. 

While all the actors are top-notch, Christoph Waltz, who portrays SS Colonel Hans Landa, steals the show.  He’s the character you love to hate.  The Landa character is smart, charming, and ruthless.  Christoph Waltz, an Austrian actor, speaks several languages in the film–including French, German, English, and Italian.  He’s fluent in three of the languages:  French, German, and English–an impressive tidbit.  Three of the films most suspenseful scenes (there are four that stand out in my mind) are driven by the Landa character.  Perhaps the most suspenseful is the opening sequence where Landa interrogates a French farmer who’s suspected of harboring a Jewish family. 

Eli Roth and Til Schweiger also turn out strong performances as members of the Basterds.  Mike Myers makes an impressive cameo as an English general officer.  German actress Diane Kruger turns out an equally outstanding performance as Bridget von Hammersmark, a German film star turned Allied informant.  Again, the acting is superb all around.

Inglourious Basterds should win lots of awards, but this isn’t the type of film Hollywood elites tend to vote for.  If you like any of these three movies–The Dirty Dozen, Reservoir Dogs, or The Good, the Bad and the Ugly–there’s a good chance you’ll like Inglourious Basterds.