Inglourious Basterds movie poster

I left the theater after seeing this film totally jazzed and wide-awake. The movie had injected me with adrenaline and I wanted to run around the block while speaking fanatically and out of breath about the themes, style, dialogue and plot. It was too much. I’ve never studied film and I’m not an educated film critic so I can’t discuss style, technique or whatever it is one learns in film school, but as an average moviegoer I was floored and can only hope to convey some of that feeling here.

In one sentence I would describe this film as a historically incorrect historical dark comedy that is an emotional rollercoaster. Tarantino wrote this movie about Hitler and the Nazi era, but it is by no means a historical drama. He uses the powerful emotions already associated with the Hitler era to conjure a certain feeling of disgust – then pushes it over the top. While starting with such an intense and emotional base, he also manages to weave in humor and violence without doing it in bad taste. At times I nearly died laughing and in the same scene would wince and look away from the violence. He was constantly pulling at my emotions.

One aspect of this film that is well worth mention is the dialogue between the characters, which is one of Quentin Tarantino’s specialties. Amazingly clever, thoughtful, shocking, hilarious and witty things are ejected out of the character’s mouths so effortlessly and naturally. These characters have exactly the right thing to say at exactly the right time and before you have time to recover from the words that just hit you on the head, something else equally profound is being spewed out in the same sentence. This happens over and over again with perfect delivery. My jaw dropped and at times I had trouble covering my laughter. Why wasn’t everyone in the theater laughing? I wanted to yell at the screen and to every silent unemotional moviegoer, “holy shit, this is fucking amazing!”

Rarely do I see a movie with which I am so enthralled, so wrapped up in each moment, so shocked, awed, and humorously amused all at once and on so many levels. With Inglourious Basterds Quentin Tarantino proves with finality that he is for real.