Saw the first showing today, and I loved it. I'll go see anything Tarantino puts out, as I generally feel that Pulp Fiction is one of the greatest movies of our time. I've been waiting a long time for something as good, and this one gets pretty close. Jackie Brown and Kill Bill didn't do much for me. Death Proof was a pretty great movie, but it's hard to think of it as much beyond the greatest car chase ever with really hot chicks.
Tarantino's unconventional story structure is his greatest asset and his biggest liability. Doing Pulp Fiction out of order served the story toward the end of a redemption story. The speech that Jules does at the end wouldn't have had the same impact if you didn't know that Vincent would get killed. Other times, the splitting of a story into several long distinct acts can get on your nerves, or worse, result in a two-part movie (Kill Bill). Inglorious Basterds works as a story in five parts. The strange asides and narrated parts are a little jarring (with uncredited Sam Jackson), but in some ways it's better than trying to do some clever flashback with a blurry wave transition. Regardless, the odd story structure works really well in this case.
Also risky is the long dialog heavy scenes for which he's known. Sometimes they just don't work. The one in Death Proof with the girls talking in the restaurant served no purpose at all other than to show gal pals having a good time. But each scene in this movie has a purpose, and every word is surprisingly concise. Some of it simply builds tension, some of it gives insight to the characters. I found myself interested in every word.
Brad Pitt is completely brilliant. Why this guy doesn't have a closet full of Oscars is beyond me. He draws characters in such a rich way that you forget you're watching Brad Pitt. His comedic timing is well placed in a movie like this, which is otherwise dark and violent.
The rest of the cast, however minor or significant, is excellent. The French actress who plays the young escaped Jew is amazing and central to the entire story. I'd go as far as to say the movie is really about her. Diane Kruger, of National Treasure fame, stands up well against all of the tough guys, but doesn't get as much screen time as I'd hope. The Nazis are all convincingly evil, just as the Basterds are completely nuts.
Much of the cast is in fact German and/or French, and as such, many scenes are entirely subtitled. I'm not sure how to feel about that. It seemed distracting at times, since reading subtitles across a big screen is like watching a tennis match from the center line. In the end though, I suppose it lends a certain credibility, and also paints the Nazi's as creatures of another world.
Or perhaps it's intended to balance out the graphic violence, which is also kind of jarring and I'm not sure I understand Tarantino's decision to use it. It's over-the-top and fantasy stuff in most cases, but I'm not sure I understand the point. For all the criticism about Pulp Fiction being violent, most of it is implied, and not on camera. This one may have been better that way, but it's so over-the-top that perhaps it also keeps the film from getting too serious.
The thing I liked best about the movie is that you can't really be sure how it's positioned with regard to history. Is it some kind of fictional sub-plot of real history? Is it a rewrite of history? Is it based in any kind of reality at all? The truth is, you don't know until the end. You hope it'll end a certain way, but you just don't know. Not only that, but Tarantino has a long history of killing off which ever characters he wants, when you least expect it.
In the end, it's not better than Pulp Fiction, but it's a sigh of relief that Tarantino has gone back to writing a very rich story with interesting characters and dialog. I anxiously await this on video. I loved it.