Brimborium- Florian Schroiff’s Blog

The scene is one long suspense beat, a pattern that will be repeated throughout the movie. Over and over, Tarantino slowly ratchets up the tension until it is almost a relief when the tension explodes into violence. Which is, as it turns out, one of the things that elevates Basterds to the level of high art — Tarantino repeatedly uses the audience’s desire for release against it.

Well written piece by screenwriter Todd Alcott on Inglourious Basterds.

When I saw Basterds about a month ago I was surprised at how thoroughly it defied the expectations I’d had. I thought “hyper-violent Nazi bashing fun”, but I got “hyper-intelligent super-suspenseful reflection on violence in cinema and society (with genius acting and luscious set-pieces thrown in for good measure)”.