My thoughts on Quentin Tarantino’s new movie, Inglourious Basterds:

• Mr.Tarantino makes movies for himself. He tells the story he wants to tell, the way he wants to tell it. If it runs two-and-a-half hours, that’s how long it runs.
• He likes actors. He gives them lots of words to say and the time to say them. And plenty of business with their hands while they’re doing it.
• He likes shoot-outs and doesn’t sanitize them. We see the blood and gore but it doesn’t feel gratuitous to me.
• He must have a great music collection. The soundtrack for IB is fun and effective.
• He respects his audience. IB has lots of scenes that are entirely in French or German, with sub-titles. If you’re not still sounding out the syllables, you’ can keep up.

Inglourious Basterds was a smart, funny movie that reminds us what Hitler and the Nazi’s were “really” like. And Brad Pitt was very good.