R | 2h 33min | Drama, Comedy, War, Historical Fiction | 21 August 2009 (USA)
With the exception of two key, patience-testing, dialogue-heavy scenes, Quentin Tarantino’s purposefully misspelled “Inglourious Basterds” is a near-perfect movie and one of the most innovative and unique World War II films ever made.
It should be pointed out that this is not a remake of the 1978 Italian movie “The Inglorious Bastards” and is more of a re-imagining of sorts along the lines of “The Dirty Dozen,” or a better realization of the non-fictional storyline in “Defiance” (2008).
Tarantino’s First Point A to Point B Narrative
Told in chapter form ala “Pulp Fiction” and “Kill Bill,” and not counting a couple of flashback scenes, this movie marks the first Tarantino film not presented out of sequence. For any other filmmaker this wouldn’t be a big deal, but in Tarantino’s case, it’s a major artistic leap. This is a guy whose previous movies would fall flat if their respective narratives were presented in chronological order….