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 : Charles Chaplin

Writer(s) : Charles Chaplin

Genre : Comedy, Drama, War

Cast : Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie, Reginald Gardiner, Henry Daniell, Billy Gilbert, Grace Hayle, Carter DeHaven, Maurice Moscovitch, Emma Dunn, Bernard Gorcey, Paul Weigel, Chester Conklin, Esther Michelson, Hank Mann

Summary : “This is the story of the period between two world wars–an interim during which insanity cut loose, liberty took a nose dive, and humanity was kicked around somewhat.” With this pithy opening title, Charles Chaplin begins his first all-talking feature film, The Great Dictator. During World War I, a Jewish barber (Chaplin) in the army of Tomania saves the life of high-ranking officer Schultz (Reginald Gardiner). While Schultz survives the conflict unscathed, the barber is stricken with amnesia and bundled off to a hospital. Twenty years pass: Tomania has been taken over by dictator Adenoid Hynkel (Chaplin again) and his stooges Garbitsch (Henry Daniell) and Herring (Billy Gilbert). Hynkel despises all Jews and regularly wreaks havoc on the Tomanian Jewish ghetto, where feisty Hannah (Paulette Goddard) lives. Meanwhile, the little barber escapes from the hospital and instinctively heads back to his cobweb-laden ghetto barber shop. Unaware of Hynkel’s policy towards Jews (in fact, he’s unaware of Hynkel), the barber gets into a slapstick confrontation with a gang of Aryan storm troopers. He is rescued by his old friend Schultz, now one of Hynkel’s most loyal officers. Thanks to Schultz’s protection, the ghetto receives a brief respite from Hynkel’s persecution. The barber sets up shop again, developing a warm platonic relationship with the lovely Hannah. But things take a sorry turn when Hynkel, angered that a Jewish banker has refused to finance his impending war with Austerlitz, begins bearing down again on the Ghetto. Near the end of the film, when the dictator is expected to make another one of his hate-filled, war-mongering speeches, the barber steps up to the microphones…and Charles Chaplin drops character and becomes “himself,” delivering an impassioned plea for peace, tolerance, and humanity.

Director : Oliver Hirschbiegel

Writer(s) : Joachim Fest, Traudl Junge

Genre : Biography, Drama, History, War

Cast : Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara , Corinna Harfouch, Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Köhler, Heino Ferch, Christian Berkel, Matthias Habich, Thomas Kretschmann, Michael Mendl, André Hennicke, Ulrich Noethen, Birgit Minichmayr, Rolf Kanies, Justus von Dohnanyi

Summary : The last ten days of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime are seen through the eyes of a young woman in his employ in this historical drama from Germany. Traudl Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara) was 22 years old when, in the fall of 1942, she was hired to be personal secretary to Adolf Hitler (Bruno Ganz). In April of 1945, Junge was still working for Hitler as forces were bearing down on Germany and the leader retreated to a secret bunker in Berlin for what would prove to be the last ten days of his life, as well as that of the Third Reich. As Hitler’s mistress Eva Braun (Juliane Köhler) attempts to throw a cheerful birthday party for her man, Hitler’s closest associates, including Heinrich Himmler (Ulrich Noethen), Joseph Goebbels (Ulrich Matthes), and Albert Speer (Heino Ferch), urge him to flee the city with only Goebbels maintaining any illusions that the Third Reich has any hope of survival. Hitler refuses to leave Berlin, and he spends his final days ranting and raving to Junge, blaming all around him as he tries to understand where his leadership went wrong. Meanwhile, Goebbels and his wife round up their six children and bring them to the bunker as Berlin begins to topple, determined to take their lives rather than face the Allies after Germany’s certain defeat. Der Untergang (aka The Downfall) was based in part on the memoirs of the real-life Traudl Junge, whose experiences also formed the basis of the 2002 documentary Im Toten Winkel: Hitlers Sekretarin (aka Blind Spot: Hitler’s Secretary).