Tarantino seems to have regained his eye for dramatic action, his ear for quirky dialogue and a great deal of

his wit. Unfortunately, self-indulgence is also in evidence.
The Basterds of the title are a psychological-warfare unit of American Jewish soldiers killing Nazis as brutally as possible in occupied France.

Brad Pitt channels Lee Marvin as their leader Aldo Raines, a good ‘ole boy who carves swastikas on the foreheads of the very few Nazis he lets go (in order to spread the fear, you see).

Anyone expecting a gore-drenched version of The Dirty Dozen will be disappointed, though.

Most of the Basterds are barely characterised, and Tarantino concentrates instead on Shosanna Dreyfus (the luminous Mélanie Laurent) whose family were murdered by “Jew-hunter” Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz).