Wednesday 19 August 2009

Inglourious Basterds

Cast
Brad Pitt
Melanie Laurent
Eli Roth
Michael Fassbender
Diane Kruger
Daniel Bruhl
Til Schweiger
Omar Doom
Screenwriter
Quentin Tarantino
Director
Quentin Tarantino
Running Time
152 minutes

In the first year of the German occupation of France, Shosanna Dreyfus witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa. Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema. Elsewhere in Europe, lieutenant Aldo Raine organizes a group of Jewish American soldiers to perform swift, shocking acts of retribution. Later known to their enemy as "the basterds," Raine's squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget von Hammersmark on a mission to take down the leaders of the Third Reich. Fates converge under a cinema marquis, where Shosanna is poised to carry out a revenge plan of her own. (The Weinstein Company)

I enjoyed it and the story moved in directions that I didn't expect but time and time again scenes went on for far too long. You could see where the scene was headed but Quentin just kept drawing it out more and more. Like humour tension in a thriller needs the right timing and he repeatedly stretched situations beyond their breaking point.