INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS IS QUENTIN TARANTINO’S MOST MATURE WORK AS A FILM MAKER. QUENTIN IS THE CHAGALL OF GENRE…

By that I do not mean visual phantasmagoria, rather the way he mixes the thematic cocktail. An unconventional combination of ideas which is constantly interesting with each new painting.

A week ago Quentin had invited the surviving members of the Grindhouse Gang - Film Editor for the LA WEEKLY Scott Foundas, directors Richard Rush, George Armitage, Alan Arkush, Lewis Teague and myself to a screening at his house. Missing was Bob Clark, killed along with his son by a drunk driver just 10 days after the Grindhouse Gang’s last dinner in 2007. I recently directed a re-imagining of Bob Clark’s PORKY’S franchise. In tribute to Bob, Quentin first played the original theatrical trailer of PORKY’S, followed by trailers from the other directors early work. Ales were uncapped and the main feature rolled.

The film starts in 1941, the year my father was shot down over France, parachuting into a field surrounded by German soldiers. (There is a small point to this family history) The officer in charge actually addressed him with the famous cliché: “For you the war is over.” My father dug tunnels for the Great Escape. The escapees drew lots for their order of exit. He drew ninety something. Halfway down the tunnel he heard gunfire, just after number 73 ran into the woods. The thwarted escape was just as well perhaps, because Hitler ordered 50 recaptured officers to be shot. So I am steeped in World War Two lore. It’s been a fascination of mine - and the baby boomer audience - since childhood, as we wonder how we would stand up to the perils that faced our fathers. BASTERDS will entertain not only Tarantino’s youthful fan base but an older generation as well. It will have a special resonance for European audiences.

But I’m not a WWII purist, satisfied only by the authenticity of KANAL, A BRIDGE TOO FAR, PRIVATE RYAN etc. Like KELLY’S HEROES, war movies can be wacky fun and this one certainly is. To get the full benefit of any Tarantino movie, you have to enter his alternative universe without reservation. So to the nay-sayers who quibble too long/too episodic/too fanciful/too much chat, etc., I am tempted to say eat shit and die; but instead I will suggest they are missing out on a delicious post modern layer cake full of quirky characters, surprising plot developments, and wry asides running the gamut from WWII cliché to riffs on the etiquette of strudel and the power of cinema.

The story is driven by two totally balls-to-the-wind performances that set the tone for the movie.

Brad Pitt‘s sadistic hillbilly commander, complete with gloriously fulsome accent, is a worthy addition to his gallery of oddballs, which best display his acting chops. The unexplained rope burn on his neck is a clever touch, prompting the audience’s subconscious to speculate on the cause, thereby deepening the character without spending any screen time on the subject. Quentin will probably tell you the backstory on the eventual DVD.

Christoph Waltz’s villain is as groundbreaking a piece of work as was Alan Rickman’s criminal mastermind in the first DIE HARD.

He does a daring high-wire act every scene, sometimes in three languages, always theatrical but never straying into camp, and is totally fascinating to watch. Till Quentin cast him, he was a well thought of German television actor. Now he is the beneficiary of a Cannes Film Festival Best Actor award. I wouldn’t be surprised if he got a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for a performance of such impish evil charm.

Martin Wuttke’s brings intriguing new flavors to the latest screen Hitler. The red lining to his cape in his introductory scene is another nice touch, immediately establishing that sense of grandiosity that all dictators assume.

For comparison here is the winner of the “My Cat Looks Like Hitler “ competition. 

Yes, there really is such a thing. Check out the site. www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com

Some critics are like eunuchs at the orgy. They can’t to it , so they bitch about people who can. Other critics have a blinkered vision that can only define an auteur’s work by what they have done in the past. They would criticize Picasso for daring to paint a Gainsborough. Get used to it, guys: every Tarantino movie is one of a kind, pushing new boundaries, breaking new rules. BASTERDS - as some have complained - is not an action picture, though the action, when unleashed in a blizzard of well framed shots, is masterfully staged. Unlike other disjunctively-cut/overly-telephoto action scenes of some recent movies, a clear sense of geography makes the BASTERDS action more impactful and involving.

BASTERDS is a unique subset of the Men on a Mission genre: World War Two Revenge Fantasy Black Comedy as devised by the world’s greatest authority on genre. It is a character based suspense piece, re-arranging some WWII Iconography in an entertaining way. Above all, it is a Tarantino dialogue piece, a cinematic play, with all the riffs and digressions that implies, climaxing in the best ending ever for a WWII movie. You get a sense of the fun Quentin was having in this teaser.

The assembled Grindhouse Gang loved the movie. (It got an 11 minute standing ovation at Cannes) Our applause did not last as long, because…we were hungry. We all went out for dinner, and bombarded Quentin with questions. His answers confirmed that BASTERDS is definitely a movie to see twice.

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS opens in the US on August 21. I’ll be there.