Inglorious Basterds

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

2009

Genre is Action

Themes are crime, war, justice, death, religion, betrayal

Performance: The accents, languages and cultural differences in each characters personalities depending on whether they were a Nazi, one of the Basterds themselves, or a native frenchman were all very apparent and well done. Even when the Basterds attempted to infiltrate the cinema and 3 of them pretended to be Italian, the accents were quite well done by the actors, besides Brad Pitt but I'm sure that was purposeful for a little bit of humor. The fast talking, nazi detective who was the main antagonist of the film (or at least seemingly so right until the end) played by Christoph Waltz was a very enjoyable character to watch as nearly every single scene with him was extremely tense. Being as smart as he was, he never gave away if he had figured out something important and fatal to the protagonists which made it very hard to tell if he was ever planning something, which he always seemed to be. I found myself arguing with myself on whether or not he knew of the Basterds' plan and their infiltration.

Mise-en-scene: The outfits and scenery complimented the performances and the music perfectly. For example the classic American olive-green uniforms to show us what side the Basterds were on nearly immediately, as well as the black uniforms of the Nazi and the various extreme close ups of medals, pins and the Swastika. It gave us plenty of information with just a few seconds without wasting time with over the top dialogue. The lighting of the cinema was also very sinister and dark during the end when the Nazi's were trapped in the burning building. Even though the antagonists were being defeated and the protagonists were achieving their goal, I think the reason for this lighting and the sad music is that despite the fact they're being portrayed as evil and heartless throughout nearly the whole film, they're still people and war's still a horribly serious thing.