Film: Inglorious Basterds (2009)

Tarentino Dialogue

Can you believe this film is 10 years old? I don't know why but out of all of Tarentino's films this is the one that I think about most, the one I tend to revisit and the one which I think is the only serious challenger to Reservoir Dogs as Tarentino's finest work (I'm glad the Once Upon a Time In Hollywood hysteria has died down finally).

When discussing Quentin Tarentino himself of course, it’s probably best not to mention anything visual. The chances are, you’d be complimenting some B-movie director from 60’s Hollywood or an obscure exploitation film. His films are bathed in intertextuality, magpieing anything that he remembers or looks good from the thousands of films he’s seen. But the dialogue… that’s where Tarentino comes to life.

It is often in the deliberateness of evasion that his films tend to get you hooked, as well as the flow of the words. Think of the classic example in Pulp Fiction where Vincent and Jules turn up to carry out a hit, they end up talking about McDonalds and a footjob for around 10 minutes, and that is the bit everyone remembers. In this film though, the tension is noticeably more tangible due to Nazi aspect. 

The opening sees the jewhunter, AKA Hans Lander, turning up to a Frenchmans farm where there are rumours of Jews hiding. The dialogue procrastinates but with such deliberateness at the same time, and Lander delivers the lines with perfect pace and eloquence, demanding attention and setting up the film perfectly.

Of course a lot comes down to performances as well as the lines, but for me a Tarentino film will always be about the screenplay. In an interview he suggested an approach of dropping you in at a scene of action, and then slowly unravelling each character’s personality and motives, thus rendering the scene of action with more and more significance. This is perhaps why things are often in chapters and non-linear within his films, but actually Inglorious Basterds opted for a straighter narrative, but nonetheless it still split interestingly, at first it was Lander’s film, then Aldo Raine’s, then Shosanna’s, then back to Raine’s etc.

Naturally this non-linear form and intertitle chapter things are classic examples of postmodern story-telling, which is corroborated in Tarentino’s style in his stealing and mixing of genres, as well as the various types of music that were involved. All the rest can be taken away from him, but the screenplays – the backbone – cannot. And as long as you have that, even with sub-standard direction, you will always have an OK film on your hands. I just wish someone would have told the creators of Quantum of Solace that.