by Donald Lind

Created on: August 29, 2009

"Rewriting history, Tarantino-style!"

"Inglorious Basterds," the new film from director Quentin Tarantino, dares to take a look at the pest that hovers over any period piece - namely, historical facts - and throw history out to the window. It's as if Tarantino and his friends said, "You know what? Everyone knows how World War II ended. Let's have some fun!"

And, to paraphrase Brad Pitt's character, this film is in the business of having a lot of fun. And business is a-boomin'! In a lot of ways, this film represents Tarantino's most indulgent example of his unique style, that being of older genre films with modern sensibilities. And that's saying a mouthful, considering that he's the auteur behind, "Pulp Fiction," and recently made a two-part samurai revenge flick and shared credit as part of a double feature paying homage to gritty, badly acted 1970s exploitation films.

With "Inglorious Basterds," Tarantino takes all of his old quirks: the memorable dialog, the outrageous characters, his particular taste for '70s cinema, his knack for revitalizing film careers, and even his pseudo-foot fetish, and stuffs it into a crowded theater. Then, for kicks, he tosses in a few major players from Nazi-era Germany, a revenge tale and the hint of the love for older 1930s filmmaking, and then sets fire to the whole place. The resulting explosion comes forth as "Inglorious Basterds," and it is pure Tarantino all the way.

Tarantino's films seem designed to be tough to place in any category or genre. With "Basterds," Tarantino deftly moves in and out of several genres, sometimes in the same sequences, be it with a long shot, a music cue or a certain character arc. This film is fairly blatantly a walking contradiction in tone and genre, but it is never dull or confusing. It is entertaining and engaging throughout, and even just a little thoughtful at the outrageous violence depicted on screen. What it is though, is not a war film, but a fantasy epic, mixed with war trimmings and a pinch of Spaghetti Westerns. It is the ultimate What If: What if you had the chance to change history, and change the end of World War II?

Tarantino gives his deliciously twisted take on that question in (surprisingly) his most linear tale to date. It is told, like many of his features in clearly marked sections, starting "Once Upon a time, in Nazi-Occupied France," and leading his large ensemble to an explosive collision in an alternate 1944.

The main group of heroes in the story is a small group

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