Quentin Tarantino's Quirky, Highly Entertaining World War II Film
A fairy tale set in a parallel-universe version of Nazi-occupied France, Inglourious Basterds (2009) is a pulpy, darkly comic, violent thriller written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. The movie features a fine international cast, and a substantial part of the marvelous dialogue is in German and French (with English subtitles). One of the best things about the film is the brilliant, award-winning performance by Austrian-born actor Christoph Waltz.
Tarantino came up with a clever story here in which cinema plays a key role in the World War II defeat of the Germans by the Allies. One major thread involves a Jewish woman (attractive French actress Mélanie Laurent) who runs a Paris movie theater where a German war hero will be honored. The other major thread is about a commando squad of American Jews (led by Brad Pitt's character) whose mission is to kill Nazis. This squad teams up with a German actress-turned-spy (glamorous Diane Kruger), and Tarantino deftly brings everything together in a satisfying finale.
Costumes, sets and production values in general are absolutely topnotch. Tarantino makes astute use of out-of-period music, particularly that of Ennio Marricone. But the most memorable thing about the film is its enthralling villain, the superficially charming, but morally corrupt SS officer portrayed by Christoph Waltz.
In creating Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino seems to have drawn inspiration from the 1978 Italian-made film often known in the United States as The Inglorious Bastards, but there's very little similarity between the two movies.
Extended/Alternate Scenes and Film Within the Film
The Single-Disc DVD edition of Inglourious Basterds bonus materials don't amount to much. Their total runtime is less than 18 minutes.
Nation's Pride is a goofy six-minute black-and-white short, brief clips from which are present in Inglourious Basterds. It's a faux Nazi propaganda film reenacting a presumably fictional battle in Italy where a single German soldier killed 250 Americans.
There are also two extended scenes and one alternate scene, and these three together run a little over 11 minutes. The best of the three is the extended version of "Lunch With Goebbels," where you can see a little more of how Tarantino caricatures the Third Reich's number two man. Less interesting are the extended version of "La Louisiane Card Game" and an alternate version of "Nation's Pride Begins."
DVD Details
Below I have listed all the details for the Single-Disc DVD edition of Inglourious Basterds. There is also a Two-Disc DVD Special Edition that contains a number of additional bonus materials including a digital copy. Finally, there's a Two-Disc Blu-ray Edition, which provides all the extras of the Two-Disc DVD Special Edition plus BD-Live.
Release Date: December 15, 2009
Feature Film Runtime: 2 hours 33 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for Strong Graphic Violence, Language and Brief Sexuality
Aspect Ratio 2.40:1, Color
English 5.1 Dolby Digital
Spanish 2.0 Dolby Digital
French 2.0 Dolby Digital
English Captions for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Spanish Subtitles
French Subtitles
Extended and Alternate Scenes (3 scenes, total runtime = 11 min.)
Film Within the Film: Nation's Pride (6 min.)
Trailers (4)
