Inglorious Basterds is a war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is worth a watch.
The film tells an alternate history story of two converging plots to assassinate Nazi Germany’s leadership at a Paris cinema, one through a British Operation largely carried out by a team of Jewish American soldiers led by First Lieutenant Aldo Raine, and another by French Jewish cinema proprietor Shosanna Dreyfus, who seeks to avenge her murdered family. Both are faced against Hans Landa, an SS colonel with a very fearsome reputation.
Inglorious Basterds has a very large cast, but to keep it as short as possible while still keeping the more important characters it goes: Brad Pitt as Lieutenant Aldo Raine, Melanie Laurent as Shosanna Dreyfus, Cristoph Waltz as Hans Landa, Eli Roth as Sergeant Donny Donowitz, Michael Fassbender as Lieutenant Archie Hicox, Diane Kruger as Bridget Von Hammersmark, And Daniel Bruhl as Fredrick Zoller.
The title (but not the story) was inspired by Italian Director Enzo G. Castellari’s 1978 Euro War film The Inglorious Bastards, but deliberately misspelled. Tarantino wrote the script in 1998, but was struggling with the ending and chose to direct the two-part film Kill Bill.
After directing Death Proof in 2007, Tarantino returned to work on Inglorious Basterds. The film began principle photography in October 2008 and was filmed in Germany and France with a $70 million production budget. It premiered on May 20th, 2009, at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival and received a wide release in theaters in the United States and Europe in August 2009 by the Weinstein Company and Universal Pictures.
Worldwide, Inglorious Basterds grossed $321 million, making it Tarantino’s highest grossing film at that point, until it was surpassed by a later film Django Unchained.
The film received a lot of critical acclaim, Waltz’s performance as SS colonel Hans Landa standing out more than the rest. Waltz’s performance as Landa was singled out for praise, Awarding him the Cannes Film Festival’s Best Actor Award, as well as the BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild, Critics’ choice, Golden globe, and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, some also Criticized him for the historical Liberties that were taken.
The film won multiple awards, among them eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best original screenplay.
If you have never seen it, it is worth watching.
