Inglorious Basterds, Tarantinos war epic, is packed with the kind of glossy, ultra violence, he had long since built his career on. However its the bar scene still manages to be one of the most tense and bloodiest in all of his works. The Basterds, a bespoke, special ops team of constructed to be Nazi hunters, rendezvous with a contact in a small basement bar in German-occupied France. It all seems fine, theres a good atmosphere and schnapps are on 241, only the bar is filled with Nazis. This scene thrives on tension, as the rendezvous between double agent Brideit von Hammersmark and the Basterds, disguised as Nazi's, plays out masterfully. Their presence attracts the attention of a German officer celebrating his sons birth, who subsequently attracts the attention of a nearby Gestapo officer, who, in turn, imposes his company and a game of "Who Am I?" on the group. It's a ludicrous image and Tarantino really draws the tension into it, creating nearly seven excruciating minutes the officer playing his own game to slowly see through the Basterds disguise. The revelation quickly escalates into a Mexican standoff, with guns pointed at crotches, the lowering of pretence and, ultimately, a blood bath with bullets flying all round the bar. It's over so fast you can barely believe it happened and, as the scene moves to the next, you're left soaking in the fact that Tarantino has just killed off several of the films main characters, including Michael Fassbender, with a heavy portion of the film left to come.
