Face-Off: Inglourious Basterds vs. Django Unchained

Brad Pitt as Aldo Raine
Christoph Waltz as Hans Landa
Mélanie Laurent as Shosanna
Eli Roth as Donny Donowitz
Michael Fassbender as Archie Hicox
Daniel Bruhl as Frederick Zoller
Diane Kruger as Bridget von Hammersmark
Til Schweiger as Hugo Stiglitz
B.J. Novak as Smithson Utivich
Omar Doom as Omar Ulmer
Sylvester Groth as Joseph Goebbels
Martin Wuttke as Adolf Hitler
August Diehl as Dieter Hellstrom
Denis Menochet as Perrier LaPadite
with Mike Myers as Ed Fenech

When you think about Tarantino doing a war movie you wouldn’t be wrong in picturing something akin to what he would do in DJANGO, like an over-the-top, stylistic, violent adventure story with fountains of blood. Sure, the blood is still there, and with BASTERDS Tarantino crafts a movie that is filled with genre flourishes but feels so refined and precise, especially in staging some of his best dialogue-driven moments and composing some of the most striking shots of his career. That all stems from the fact that within this World War II story are complex characters with rich personalities and strong motivations, and Tarantino is far more interested in exploring them more than centering on action and gore. Take a look at his opening scene, which finds villain Hans Landa questioning Perrier La Padite in his farmhouse. Tarantino has always been one to be able to make a conversation between two people more entertaining than most blockbusters, and with credit going to his script and the work of the two men on screen, he manages to get so much out of the exchange by using a variety of shots to make the most of the characters and the simple setting. The conversation is deceptively casual, and Tarantino keeps it that way by using two-shots to show the men just sitting and having a conversation. It’s almost inviting, if not for what Landa is saying, which further keeps the viewer on their toes by emphasizing how charming he is, despite his despicable intent. Tarantino ropes us in with this stirring back and forth, all of a sudden hitting the turn hard with close-ups of the men’s emotional shifts, Landa becoming cold and exacting, and La Padite ashamed of how he’s been, essentially, fooled. BASTERDS is filled with scenes like this, where Tarantino is so confident in his actors and script that his scene construction all perfectly enhances every emotional turn and calmly shifts the tone and takes the viewer for a loop. While masterfully juggling all these characters he gets so much out of such simple scene work, where despite how little physical action there is nothing is any less thrilling. When he does get into the nitty-gritty, he has a blast playing with history, leaning into the madcap violence during the theater massacre and relishing the Basterds’ brand of violence as they treat Nazi villains mercilessly. He films these characters in a way that gives them a heroic stature, like Donny “The Bear Jew” emerging from the bunker, bat in hand, or Shosanna preparing for the German movie premiere like a costumed hero suiting up for a night of vigilantism. However, Tarantino would then bring a lot of that to DJANGO, which finds him pushing his own boundaries to incredible effect.

So many war movies stick to the story basics of the genre, wherein the righteous side of the Allies must overcome the might and tyranny of the Nazis, and what's genius about Tarantino's script is how confidentially he takes everything we expect as viewers and turns BASTERDS into a genre-bending work of art. As I said above, his script is so much more interested in exploring the characters and how they plot and interact with each other and opposing sides. Mostly sacrificing typical war movie action, the movie lives in endlessly engaging conversations, with Tarantino's unsurpassed knack for dialogue and crafting personalities carrying scenes between shifting tones, the strongest scenes written with a depth and pacing that could make them stand on their own as individual short films. That opening scene alone is my favorite scene he's ever filmed and written, with Tarantino introducing us to a different kind of Nazi (Landa), having him operate and control the scene on an intellectual level, beyond pure Nazi cruelty, lowering our defenses as an audience only to drop us into the unexpected “Oh shit” moment.

In this same way, Tarantino's writing balances numerous characters and plot strands like a seasoned trapeze artist, guiding characters towards one result — the destruction of the Nazi regime — in delightfully wild and often intense ways that ensures nary a scene feels wasted. It's an adventurous story told through compellingly written and staged sequences of dialogue, digging into the psychology of different sides of the war. You have the Allies, brought to life by the Basterds and English agent Archie Hicox; you have Shosanna, a Jewish woman who only just escaped the wrath of the Nazis and seeks revenge, and; we have the Nazis themselves, and while there are lots of them, the most devilish and well-formed is Hans Landa, who is written to dominate every scene. Pure and simple, Tarantino's script is a masterclass of juggling characters within a single story framework, and not since PULP FICTION had he delivered such an engaging cast of colorful characters wherein each come with their own compelling mythos, their scenes have their unique style and energy, and the dialogue exchanges are among the best he's ever written. As a piece of genre-bending writing where Tarantino had just as much fun creating bouts of violence as he did building tension in conversation, the man has perhaps done no better.

Bits:

Opening Scene/Hans Landa's Interrogation

Attacking Floorboards

Meet the Basterds

Hitler's Metldown

Hugo Stiglitz

The Bear Jew

Lunch With Goebbels

Landa and Strudel

A Very English Plan (feat. Mike Myers)

Basement Bar

Underground Shootout

Shosanna Suits Up

Italian Lesson

Killing Von Hammersmark

Landa's Bargain

Burn it Down!

Landa Get His Mark

Lines

Raine: “And the German will be sickened by us, and the German will talk about us, and the German will fear us. And when the German closes their eyes at night and they're tortured by their subconscious for the evil they have done, it will be with thoughts of us they are tortured with. Sound good?”

Basterds: “Yes, sir!”

Raine: “That's what I like to hear. But I got a word of warning for all you would-be warriors. When you join my command, you take on debit. A debit you owe me personally. Each and every man under my command owes me one hundred Nazi scalps. And I want my scalps. And all y'all will git me one hundred Nazi scalps, taken from the heads of one hundred dead Nazis. Or you will die tryin'.”

—–

Raine: “You probably heard we ain't in the prisoner-takin' business; we in the killin' Nazi business. And cousin, business is a-boomin'.”

—–

Landa: “Oooh, that's a bingo! Is that the way you say it? “That's a bingo?”

Raine: “You just say “bingo.”

Landa: “Bingo! How fun! But, I digress. Where were we?

—–

Raine: “Well, I speak the most Italian, so I'll be your escort. Donowitz speaks the second most, so he'll be your Italian cameraman. Omar speaks third most, so he'll be Donny's assistant.”

Ulmer: “I don't speak Italian.”

Raine: “Like I said, third best. Just keep your fuckin' mouth shut. In fact, why don't you start practicing, right now!”

—–

Hitler: “NEIN, NEIN, NEIN, NEIN, NEIN, NEIN!”

—–

Hicox: “I was saying that that makes two of us. I've had a gun pointed at your balls since you sat down.”

—–

Landa: “I have no doubt. And yes, some Germans will die, and yes, it will ruin the evening, and yes, Goebbels will be very, very, very mad at you for what you've done to his big night… but you won't get Hitler, you won't get Goebbels, you won't get Göring, and you won't get Bormann. And you need all four to win the war. But if I don't pick up this phone right here, you may very well get all four… and if you get all four, you'll end the war… tonight.”

—–

Raine: “Yeah, they made that deal, but they don't give a fuck about him. They need you.”

Landa: “You'll be shot for this!”

Raine: “Nah, I don't think so. More like chewed out. I've been chewed out before.”

—–

Donowitz: You know, Lieutenant, you're getting pretty good at that.

Raine: You know how you get to Carnegie Hall, don't ya? Practice.

—–

Raine: “I mean, if I had my way… you'd wear that goddamn uniform for the rest of your pecker-suckin' life. But I'm aware that ain't practical, I mean at some point you're gonna hafta take it off. So. I'm 'onna give you a little somethin' you can't take off.”

—–

Landa: “I didn't think so. You don't like them. You don't really know why you don't like them; all you know is you find them repulsive. Consequently, a German soldier conducts a search of a house suspected of hiding Jews. Where does the hawk look? He looks in the barn, he looks in the attic, he looks in the cellar, he looks everywhere he would hide. But there's so many places it would never occur to a hawk to hide. However, the reason the Führer has brought me off my Alps in Austria and placed me in French cow country today is because it does occur to me. Because I'm aware what tremendous feats human beings are capable of once they abandon dignity.”

—–

Landa: “I love rumors! Facts can be so misleading, where rumors, true or false, are often revealing.

—–

Shosanna: I have a message for Germany…That you are all going to die…And I want you to look deep into the face of the Jew that is going to do it!

—–

Landa: Sitting in your chair, I would probably say the same thing. And 999 point 999 times out of a million, you would be correct. But in the pages of history, every once in a while, fate reaches out and extends its hand. What shall the history books read?

—–

Hellstrom: “I wasn't speaking to you, Lieutenant Munich. Or you either, Lieutenant Frankfurt. I was speaking to Captain I-don't-know-what.”

Originally wanting Ennio Morricone to compose the whole soundtrack for the movie (he was unable to), Tarantino did as he always does and assembled a soundtrack of classic movie scores and songs to flesh out BASTERDS' soundtrack. Included are pieces from Morricone, Charles Bernstein, Elmer Bernstein, Nick Perito and, yes, even a bit of David Bowie, and together they make for a soundtrack that lends to BASTERDS' everything from a sweeping, classic sound (Pietro's opening “The Green Leaves of Summer”), to nail-biting tension, (Charles Bernstein's “Bath Attack”) and raw energy (Morricone's “Battle of Algiers” theme and Billy Preston's “Slaughter”). Tarantino perhaps loves his music as much as he loves his movies, and I quite love how by pairing more visceral tracks with equally visceral scenes he ensures that both leave a strong imprint. Notable examples include Morricone's “L'incontro Con La Figlia” for when a young Shosanna is running for her life, Preston's “The Surrender” when Donny is beating that Nazi to death with his bat, or when Tarantino lets the pop power of Bowie's “Cat People” play as Shosanna gets ready to exact her revenge. Such unique moments, all powerful for vastly different reasons, and all because their music cues are so distinct and hit the perfect notes.

Col. Hans Landa…the sly, dastardly, compelling, cerebral, and undeniably charming Hans Landa. Tarantino has written so many terrific characters over the years, and Landa may just be his best. Whereas Nazis in movies have been depicted as being vicious and exactingly evil, Landa is not so bluntly cruel as he is measured and meticulous in how he hunts down people. Waltz dominates every scene as Landa, naturally bringing to life the character's ability to walk into any room and absorb all the attention like a sinister beacon. Despite the things he's saying and the malicious intent, he is nonetheless compelling and affable, which makes his all the more a unique and distinct villain. He's made more complex when he's so ready to abandon the Nazi cause if it means getting a better deal from the Americans. Being that kind of realist makes him a different kind of evil, one who would further the Nazi cause simply because it was the smartest option he could take. Also laced throughout are numerous side baddies, like Major Hellstrom, who has cocksure villainy about him that owns the scene when he intrudes on the tavern discussion. There's also the cartoonishly despicable Goebbels and Adolf Hitler, the latter written like a manic, vicious goofball who dons a cape and has temper tantrums. Nazis are perhaps the greatest villains of both history and movies, and here Tarantino has his fun playing his both, making for his best cavalcade of on-screen baddies

Awards

Oscars:

• Won – Best Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz
• Nominated – Best Picture
• Nominated – Best Director – Quentin Tarantino
• Nominated – Best Original Screenplay – Quentin Tarantino
• Nominated – Best Cinematography
• Nominated – Best Editing 
• Nominated – Best Sound Mixing
• Nominated – Best Sound Editing

Golden Globes:

• Won – Best Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz
• Nominated – Best Picture – Drama
• Nominated – Best Director – Quentin Tarantino
• Nominated – Best Original Screenplay – Quentin Tarantino

Golden Schmoes:

• Won – Best Actress – Melanie Laurent
• Won – Best Movie
• Won – Best Director – Quentin Tarantino
• Won – Best Screenplay – Quentin Tarantino
• Won – Best Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz
• Won – Best Breakthrough Performance – Christoph Waltz
• Nominated – Best Line – “That's a bingo!”
• Nominated – Best Supporting Actress – Diane Kruger
• Nominated – Coolest Character – Hans Landa 
• Nominated – Coolest Character – Aldo Raine
• Nominated – Best Music
• Nominated – Favorite Poster
• Nominated – Best Trailer
• Nominated – Best Blu-Ray/DVD
• Nominated – Best Action Sequence – “Theater Massacre”
• Nominated – Most Memorable Scene – “Opening Scene”
• Nominated – Most Memorable Scene – “Basement Tavern”
• Nominated – Most Memorable Scene – “Theater Massacre”

**Another 123 Wins and 148 Nominations**

Praise

• Rotten Tomatoes: 88% (88% Audience)
• IMDb: 8.3 
• Metacritic: 69 (7.8 Audience)

Money:

• $120 million ($321 million globally)

A key factor in the majority of Tarantino's films is the bloody, pulpy thrills that can make his movies stand apart from any in their respective genre — almost like one big, red umbrella for all his movies to huddle under. BASTERDS may not have the excess of gore that his others might, but the moments of violence are nonetheless brutal and awesomely squeamish as every. You got some scalping, maiming, burning, and volleys of bullets, usually with Nazis on the receiving end. A lot of great bits are given to Hugo Stiglitz, who gets his montage of Nazi killing by stabbing members of the High Command in the face and shoving his fist in their mouths, and then getting to blow off Hellstrom's balls in the tavern. The final climax is a work of art, as the two Basterds fire down on the Nazi members, Shosanna's massive face laughing down on them as the theater burns. When the movie is violent, it's hard-hitting and entertaining as hell, and while plenty of Nazis have died in plenty of movies, none meet as gloriously violent deaths as they do here.