Saturday, July 12, 2008

by Ari

The screenplay for Quentin Tarantino's highly anticipated Inglorious Bastards is a curious thing. Part historical cartoon, part mature character drama (sort of), the lengthy World War II epic is simultaneously an evolution of his sensibilities and a celebration of his quirks and imagination. I've never read anything that changes from infantile to adult so quickly from scene to scene, but Tarantino still manages to make the story as entertaining and memorable as you'd expect despite its uneven nature. While Bastards is not his There Will Be Blood, the screenplay is certainly his most thrilling and affecting work since Jackie Brown. In a way it's a mixture of that film's quieter moments with Kill Bill's pop attitude. This has to do with its structure, which intercuts two stories over five chapters (I particularly like the concluding segment's title: "Revenge of the Giant Face").

One story follows a group of soldiers lead by Lt. Aldo Raine, aka Aldo the Apache (more on this in a moment) who become known throughout occupied France as "the Bastards". It's perhaps the most historically inaccurate, ludicrous, and comedic portrayal of World War II we're ever likely to see on film, a complete fantasy that one could either take as insulting or hilarious. Since a lot of the scenes are played for laughs in an innocent, almost childish manner, I'll go with the latter for now. You've seen the Bastards in countlesss World War II movies before, The Dirty Dozen being the most obvious connection. Aldo collects Nazi scalps (hence the Apache) or, as he says to his men, "every man under my command owe me one hundred nazi scalps. And I want my scalps" One of his men is known as "The Bear Jew". He beats people to death with his baseball bat. As the Bastards tread into enemy territory and collect scalps, their reputation grows to the point of personally infuriating Hitler himself. As Hitler says in a side-splitting, hilarious tirade, "the one they call "The Bear Jew"....is a golem. An avenging Jew angel conjured up by a vengeful rabbi to smite the Aryans!" Just remember to check reality at the door before entering the theater.

It's sort of cute the way Tarantino introduces real historical figures into his fantasy. There's Hitler, there's Goebbels, there's even Winston Churchill. While some of these moments are probably meant to be serious, it's quite clear that QT is mostly just amusing himself with his deranged imagination. Some early reports have said Brad Pitt is in talks to play Aldo Raine, a brilliant choice of casting as far as I'm concerned. If it's filmed as comedy, it will work extremely well. The Bastards part of the script is the usual dose of exploitation inspired thrills from Tarantino, it's World War II based on movies, not history. The other half, however, is an improvement in terms of character and theme, and Tarantino does something very smart with this material, he centers a story with revenge, intrigue and romance around a subject he actually understands: the movies.

A young girl named Shoshanna witnesses the massacre of her family in a small village and flees to Paris where she hides as a film projectionist. She inherits the theater and has a relationship with the other employee, Marcel. To remind the reader that Tarantino loves homage, Chapter 3: "German Night in Paris", will be shot in "French New Wave black and white". Not just any black and white, French New Wave black and white! It's a great section, though, one of the best written chapters in his career. After the theater gains some notoriety for screening classic German films, Goebbels takes particular interest in the movie palace and decides to hold a private evening for Hitler and the troops. Once the allied forces hear about this, the Bastards enter the picture again. Shoshanna has her own plans, of course, and from there things escalate and twist until everything explodes (literally) at the end.

I'll say this, the last line is vintage Tarantino, the type of hilarious ego-fueled personal statement that only he likes to spew. If the film doesn't succeed up to that point it'll be an embarrassing final note, but if he shoots the story with the same level of energy he put into writing it, Inglorious Bastards could be a potent new chapter of an already storied career.