Trailer Tuesday: Inglourious Basterds

The geeky Interwebs have been going wild for the curiously spelled Inglourious Basterds for so long, I feel like the film has been out for months. However, until watching this trailer I hadn't seen a single second of writer-director Quentin Tarantino's latest post-modern cinematic experiment - a tribute to Spaghetti Westerns using World War II iconography.

Personally, I hate Westerns but the Basterds trailer resurrects many fond memories of WWII action-adventures like The Dirty Dozen, Kelly's Heroes, The Great Escape and Where Eagles Dare. And these films belong to one of my all-time favourite genres, so naturally I'm keen for this new, no doubt "arty", addition to the genre.

Inglourious Basterds focuses on a maverick US military unit assembled by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) with the sole intention of making the Nazis suffer. These 8 Jewish-Americans infiltrate beyond enemy lines and set about performing their mission - which also involves collecting hundreds of Nazi scalps as trophies.


Soon the Basterds find themselves joining forces with double agent Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) to alter the course of the war and assassinate the Third Reich leadership - including Hitler, Goering, Goebbels and Bormann - when they attend a film premiere in Paris. Meanwhile, Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent), the only Jewish survivor of an attack that killed her entire family, also schemes revenge.

Inglourious Basterds premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and apparently impressed massively. It was the only American film to win at this year's festival, with Christoph Waltz securing the Best Actor award for his portrayal of a deadly Nazi colonel, nicknamed "The Jew Hunter."

Personally, my only Basterds expectation is that in terms of Tarantino's more recent efforts, the film is more Kill Bill Vol 1. than Grindhouse in terms of quality, fun and overall coolness factor. For the record, Tarantino spent over a decade writing the script for Basterds, and likens it to Pulp Fiction in terms of his eventual happiness with the final product.


Inglourious Basterds opens in the States this Friday, 21 August, and in South Africa on 23 October (another bloody long wait!).