Director : Quentin Tarantino

Writer(s) : Quentin Tarantino

Genre : Drama, Thriller, War

Cast : Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger, Gedeon Burkhard, Jacky Ido, B.J. Novak, Omar Doom, August Diehl, Denis Menochet, Sylvester Groth

Summary :

“Quentin Tarantino’s Masterpiece”

“Inglorious Basterds” just might be Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece. It’s a delirious re-imagining of World War II. A hypothetical “what if” story. Where last year’s “Valkyrie” was based in fact, Tarantino’s film is based in fantasy. It’s a visualization of a conversation most kids have when they first learn about Hitler and the Holocaust. If we were there and given the opportunity to kill Hitler ourselves, how would we do it? I’ve never heard anybody answer that question with as much detail and rich characterizations as Tarantino has done here.

In Tarantino’s version, all his characters are cinema-obsessed fans (like him) who contsantly discuss movies. There’s even a scene where a French cinema owner is polishing the letters on the theatre’s marquee. Tarantino’s mad love of cinema is evident in every frame. So it’s no surprise that Tarantino’s “kill Hitler” scenario involves having Hitler attend the premiere of a new German movie called “Nation’s Pride” in which the theatre is booby-trapped to explode and burn, killing all the highest-ranking officials of the Nazi party at once, effectively ending the war.

Among the conspirators trying to make this happen are a team of Nazi-killing Jews know as The Basterds headed by Brad Pitt in a weird but brilliant performance in which Pitt seems to be channeling Warren Oates. Also part of this team is a character known as “the bear Jew” who kills Nazis with a baseball bat! He is played by Eli Roth, the director of the torture-porn movie “Hostel”, and apparently the director of the movie within this movie, “Nation’s Pride,” the one having the premiere.

Diane Kruger turns in one of her best performances as a German movie star who is acting as a double-agent and is in on the theatre explosion plot. But in the film’s greatest performance is little-known Austrian actor Christoph Waltz as Nazi colonel Hans Landa, a detective for the SS known as “the Jew hunter” with a cold-as-ice interrogation technique. I can’t imagine Waltz not getting an Oscar for this performance. For that matter, the time may finally have arrived for Brad Pitt to win his Oscar. Pitt’s performance here is more than deserving.

Tarantino’s film is like “revenge therapy” for anyone who has ever fantasized about seeing the Nazi party brought to vigilante justice. It’s also a loving homage to cinema and some of the legendary filmmakers of its past. After previous Tarantino brilliance such as “Pulp Fiction” and “Kill Bill”, “Inglourious Basterds” is his crowning achievment.

With the August release of “Inglourious Basterds” we finally have a movie that 2009 can be remembered for.

DVD Double-Feature: To see the movie that influences the cinematic style of ‘Basterds’, check out Sergio Leone’s uncut 165-minute spaghetti-western epic “Once Upon A Time In The West.” Henry Fonda, as a cold-blooded killer, heads an all-star cast that includes Jason Robards, Charles Bronson and Claudia Cardinale. The film also contains a now-classic score by Ennio Morricone who also contributes music to ‘Basterds’.

Runtime : 153 min

Awards : Won Oscar. Another 56 wins & 54 nominations

Director : Edward Zwick

Writer(s) : Robert Gould Shaw, Lincoln Kirstein

Genre : Drama, History, War

Cast : Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, Morgan Freeman, Jihmi Kennedy, Andre Braugher, John Finn, Donovan Leitch, JD Cullum, Alan North, Bob Gunton, Cliff De Young, Christian Baskous, RonReaco Lee, Jay O. Sanders

Summary : Glory is a celebration of a little-known act of mass courage during the Civil War. Simply put, the heroes involved have been ignored by history due to racism. Those heroes were the all-black members of the 54th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, headed by Col. Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick), the son of an influential abolitionist (played by an uncredited Jane Alexander). Despite the fact that the Civil War is ostensibly being fought on their behalf, the black soldiers are denied virtually every privilege and amenity that is matter of course for their white counterparts; as in armies past and future, they are given the most menial and demeaning of tasks. Still, none of the soldiers quit the regiment when given the chance. The unofficial leaders of the group are gravedigger John Rawlins (Morgan Freeman) and fugitive slave Trip (Denzel Washington), respectively representing the brains and heart of the organization. The 54th acquit themselves valiantly at Fort Wagner, SC, charging a fortification manned by some 1,000 Confederates. Glory was based on Lincoln Kirstein’s -Lay This Laurel and Peter Burchard’s -One Gallant Rush; the latter book was founded on the letters of Col. Robert Gould Shaw, the real-life character played by Matthew Broderick. The film won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for co-star Denzel Washington, and additional statuettes for Best Cinematography (Freddie Francis) and Sound Recording.

Director : Franklin J. Schaffner

Writer(s) : Ladislas Farago, Omar N. Bradley

Genre : Biography, Drama, War

Cast : George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Stephen Young, Michael Strong, Carey Loftin, Albert Dumortier, Frank Latimore, Morgan Paull, Karl Michael Vogler, Bill Hickman, Pat Zurica, James Edwards, Lawrence Dobkin, David Bauer, John Barrie

Summary : In 1943 North Africa, George Patton (George C. Scott) assumes command of (and instills some much-needed discipline in) the American forces. Engaged in battle against Germany’s Field Marshal Rommel (Karl Michael Vogler), Patton drives back “The Desert Fox” by using the German’s own tactics. Promoted to Lieutenant General, Patton is sent to Sicily, where he engages in a personal war of egos with British Field Marshal Montgomery (Michael Bates). Performing brilliantly in Italy, Patton seriously jeopardizes his future with a single slap. While touring an Army hospital, the General comes across a GI (Tim Considine) suffering from nervous fatigue. Incensed by what he considers a slacker, Patton smacks the poor soldier and orders him to get well in a hurry. This incident results in his losing his command-and, by extension, missing out on D-Day. In his final campaign, Patton leads the US 3rd Army through Europe. Unabashedly flamboyant, Patton remains a valuable resource, but ultimately proves too much of a “loose cannon” in comparison to the more level-headed tactics of his old friend Omar Bradley (Karl Malden). Patton won 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Scott, an award that he refused.

Director : Lewis Milestone

Writer(s) : Erich Maria Remarque, Maxwell Anderson

Genre : Action, Drama, War

Cast : Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, John Wray, Arnold Lucy, Ben Alexander, Scott Kolk, Owen Davis Jr., Walter Rogers, William Bakewell, Russell Gleason, Richard Alexander, Harold Goodwin, Slim Summerville, G. Pat Collins, Beryl Mercer

Summary : One of the most powerful anti-war statements ever put on film, this gut-wrenching story concerns a group of friends who join the Army during World War I and are assigned to the Western Front, where their fiery patriotism is quickly turned to horror and misery by the harsh realities of combat. Director Lewis Milestone pioneered the use of the sweeping crane shot to capture a ghastly battlefield panorama of death and mud, and the cast, led by Lew Ayres, is terrific. It’s hard to pick a favorite scene, but the finale, as Ayres stretches from his trench to catch a butterfly, is one of the most devastating sequences of the decade. The film won Oscars for Best Picture and for Milestone’s direction — and trivia buffs should note that the actors were coached by future luminary George Cukor, while Ayres became a conscientious objector in World War II. The Road Back (1937) followed, and the film was remade for television in 1979.

Director : Billy Wilder

Writer(s) : Donald Bevan, Edmund Trzcinski

Genre : Drama, War

Cast : William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger, Robert Strauss, Harvey Lembeck, Richard Erdman, Peter Graves, Neville Brand, Sig Ruman, Michael Moore, Peter Baldwin, Robinson Stone, Robert Shawley, William Pierson, Gil Stratton

Summary : The scene is a German POW camp, sometime during the mid-1940s. Stalag 17, exclusively populated by American sergeants, is overseen by sadistic commandant Oberst Von Schernbach (Otto Preminger) and the deceptively avuncular sergeant Schultz (Sig Ruman). The inmates spend their waking hours circumventing the boredom of prison life; at night, they attempt to arrange escapes. When two of the escapees, Johnson and Manfredi, are shot down like dogs by the Nazi guards, Stalag 17’s resident wiseguy Sefton (William Holden) callously collects the bets he’d placed concerning the fugitives’ success. No doubt about it: there’s a security leak in the barracks, and everybody suspects the enterprising Sefton — who manages to obtain all the creature comforts he wants — of being a Nazi infiltrator. Things get particularly dicey when Lt. Dunbar (Don Taylor), temporarily billetted in Stalag 17 before being transferred to an officer’s camp, tells his new bunkmates that he was responsible for the destruction of a German ammunition train. Sure enough, this information is leaked to the Commandant, and Dunbar is subjected to a brutal interrogation. Certain by now that Sefton is the “mole”, the other inmates beat him to a pulp. But Sefton soon learns who the real spy is, and reveals that information on the night of Dunbar’s planned escape. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Stalag 17 is as much comedy as wartime melodrama, with most of the laughs provided by Robert Strauss as the Betty Grable-obsessed “Animal” and Harvey Lembeck as Stosh’s best buddy Harry. Other standouts in the all-male cast include Richard Erdman as prisoner spokesman Hoffy, Neville Brand as the scruffy Duke, Peter Graves as blonde-haired, blue-eyed “all American boy” Price, Gil Stratton as Sefton’s sidekick Cookie (who also narrates the film) and Robinson Stone as the catatonic, shell-shocked Joey. Writer/producer/director Billy Wilder and coscenarist Edmund Blum remained faithful to the plot and mood the Donald Bevan/Edmund Trzcinski stage play +Stalag 17, while changing virtually every line of dialogue-all to the better, as it turned out (Trzcinski, who like Bevan based the play on his own experiences as a POW, appears in the film as the ingenuous prisoner who “really believes” his wife’s story about the baby abandoned on her doorstep). William Holden won an Academy Award for his hard-bitten portrayal of Sefton, which despite a hokey “I’m really a swell guy after all” gesture near the end of the film still retains its bite today.