Just in defense of my claim -- the fact that he made it a Jewish fairy tale is just incredible. And the fact that he plucked weird no-name nobodies for the major roles. The Jew Hunter is astounding. He steals every scene. He owns the movie. He is Satan incarnate. And yet he's just some German TV actor.
Tarantino's attention to detail is lovely, as well. He's updating all the old WWII films, where the Nazi's are either stoic soldiers or dangerous madmen. Probably the only weak points are Hitler and Goebbels. They're comically over the top (and that would be just fine for a generation who hasn't seen them so ably portrayed in movies like Downfall).
Where Inglorious Basterds excels is that Tarantino finally went full-on fantasy. Pulp Fiction is a great example of storytelling, Jackie Brown is a loving and cool adaptation and homage to Tarantino's favorite films and stars, but Basterds is something of a Grimm's story circa 2009 as told by a film geek. And, in fact, pulls that punch. Which may be my only complaint. You can see where he was afraid to fully go with it, so we get the Dirty Dozen-style plotline with the Basterds themselves. The movie is really Shoshanna's story. And, there, Tarantino steps out of his comfort zone...which is what makes this a great movie. With her story, it's no longer an homage to B-movies. Even the sub-plots of her story are way above the usual Tarantino thing. And tell me that Cat People scene with Bowie wasn't a stand-out moment of his filmmaking ability. The way he lined up those shots, and using the window from The Crow. The full on tale of vengeance (and tipping the hat to all the great tales of vengeance), the mysterious reel 4 (so wonderfully revealed as we go fully into that fairy tale finale -- Shoshanna is the golem that Hitler was ranting about) and, most daring of all, Tarantino throws out conventional storytelling and changes history. Creates an absolute fantasy world. Tarantino has never left the boundaries of reality before. And Kill Bill doesn't count because that's just an intensely introspective homage to the Shaw Brothers. It's not actually stepping out of the movie reference artillery barrage and telling a story.
