By Sean Knight
I can't think of a more deserving actor winning an Oscar in the past five years than Christoph Waltz (besides possibly Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight). Read on after the jump.
His performance as Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds steamrolled through awards season winning almost every single critics and guild award. Waltz attributed his winning over and over again to Tarantino's brilliant writing and he wasn't bullshitting there. The fact that Basterds failed to win the Oscar for original screenplay is dumbfounding, especially when you consider that the actual winner was The Hurt Locker. Tarantino has always been a master of dialogue, but his lines for Basterds come damn close to Shakespearean drama. Every scene is filled with suspense, dread, romance, violence, humor, terror, and talking, lots and lots of talking. The only way to make such dialogue driven scenes work on film is to have a skilled director, but possibly even more important, an extremely dedicated set of actors who are invested in every moment. You have to believe everything that is happening no matter how silly and since Basterds is revisionist history at times it can be very silly. Tarantino assembled one of the greatest ensemble casts ever put on film for Basterds. From top to bottom you have American and foreign actors working at the top of their game never once winking at the camera and always taking each scene completely serious while still playing into Tarantino's darkly comic playful style. And leading that pack is Christoph Waltz in one of the great villain performances. What makes Hans Landa so entertaining to watch is that he is an bit of an enigma. His first scene sets up exactly who he is and how proud he is of being it - The Jew Hunter. But later scenes show extra layers that contradict much of what comes before and suddenly you realize that Landa is a complicated individual. He is not pure evil. He is an opportunist. He is an imposing figure that at one moment will have you laughing hysterically and the next have you cowering in your seat as he strangles someone to death. His objectives change dramatically throughout the film. You begin to ask several questions of which you find out few answers - Why did he spare Shosanna's life? Does he know that Emmanuel is actually Shosanna? Why does he kill Bridget for her treasonous acts, but then turns right around and commits treason himself? Landa's unpredictability is ultimately what makes him such a fascinating character. And Waltz clearly has a ball playing these opposites. At one moment is the crafty showman and at the next he is the terrifying Nazi killer. Waltz goes from jovial to menacing in seconds and the transformation is the great high wire act of the film as it is always believable and always fascinating. And to top it all off Christoph speaks no fewer than four languages fluently in the film. It is true that without Tarantino's script there would have been no Hans Landa, but it is also true that without Christoph Waltz there would have been no Inglourious Basterds. It is one of my favorite performances of all time. If only acting could always be this good. Enjoy the clips below featuring Waltz from the film.
'Inglourious Basterds' A Name That Stuck en Yahoo! Video
Note: I plan on writing a post at some point dissecting the entire acting ensemble from Basterds and explaining why I think it is some of the finest acting I've ever seen. Stay tuned!
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