Pun Salad

As I type, Inglourious [sic] Basterds [sic] is #71 on IMDB's top 250 movies of all time. I don't know about that, but it's pretty good.

It's set in World War II France. The opening act shows SS Colonel Hans Landa visiting a remote dairy farm, on the hunt for hidden Jews. He finds the Dreyfus family huddled under the floorboards, and orders them machine-gunned. Only the older daughter, Shosanna, escapes.

We then jump to three years later: Brad Pitt leads a small gang of guerrilla soldiers, tasked with terrorizing the occupying Nazis and flouting most of the Geneva Conventions. But he's assigned a new mission: many of the German High Command will be attending the premiere of Joseph Goebbels' latest propaganda flick. Wouldn't it be great if they could spoil that little party?

And, just coincidentally, the premiere's venue is a small Parisian cinema owned and operated by Shosanna Dreyfus, under a new identity. And she has plans of her own.

It's directed by Quentin Tarantino; he uses a lot of his trademark gimmicks. Movie references out the wazoo; Mexican standoffs; great actors dug out of retirement, … But other than that, it's a straightforward story, told well. It was nominated for eight Oscars; the guy playing Col. Landa won for Best Supporting Actor.

And I did not see that ending coming.