Brad Pitt isn’t the sexiest guy in Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie
I recently saw the movie written and directed by Quentin Tarantino Inglorious Bastards (The bad spelling is Tarantino’s, not mine!) For the first time. It was pretty good, if you don’t mind a lot of gory violence. (Hey, they’re Nazis so they deserve it, right?) I’m a fan of Tarantino anyway, although I must admit I’m a bit disappointed that he didn’t find a way to get Uma Thurman involved in this one.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this piece of film, however, is that heartthrob Brad Pitt isn’t the most interesting thing to watch. He was at the peak of his tenderness in Thelma and LouiseIn fact, and then everything has gone downhill since he hooked up with Angelina Jolie. However, his Tennessee accent on this, like Lieutenant Aldo Raine, is quite charming. He’s still Brad Pitt. It only has competition.
The guys to watch out for in Basterds are Daniel Bruhl, Eli Roth, and Michael Fassbender.
Daniel Bruhl (whose name should have an umlat) plays Private Fredrick Zoller, a German soldier. The Germans consider him a war hero because he only defended one tower against 300 allied troops. Hitler’s propagandist Joseph Goebbels made a film about and starring Private Zoller. It will premiere in a small French movie theater where Zoller is in love with the owner, Emmanuele Mimieux. He does not know that Emmanuele is actually Shoshana Dreyfus, a Jewish woman whose family was killed by the Nazis. Zoller is a combination of innocent and nazi, sweet and arrogant. Bruhl, however, is totally cute.
Where you may have seen Daniel Bruhl before: The Bourne Ultimatum.
Eli Roth plays Sgt. Donny Donowitz, known throughout the Third Reich as “The Bear Jew.” His modus operandi is to kill Nazis with a baseball bat. Roth is tall and muscular and has beautiful brown eyes like a hot Israeli soldier. This movie requires his character to pretend to be Italian, which reminds me that he looks a bit like Italian-Irish hottie Zachary Quinto.
Where You May Have Seen Eli Roth Before: Quentin Tarantino’s Previous Movie Grindhouse
Michael Fassbender plays English Lieutenant Archie Hicox, recruited to help the Bastards because of his knowledge of German cinema. Speaking English, he is very British and very correct. His accent and mannerisms are adorable. Speaking German, however, Lieutenant Hicox gets his associates into trouble by indicating three shot glasses to the bartender with his index, middle, and ring fingers. Wow – that’s the way you speak English to point to “3”; Germans use the thumb, index and middle fingers. Bloody chaos ensues.
Although his character in this movie has a tragic ending (all of these characters do, in fact), Michael Fassbender is an actor to be reckoned with. He will play Magneto in the upcoming X-Men movie.
Where you may have seen Michael Fassbender before: Jonah hex, or (coincidentally) the UK paranormal television series Hex.