It was quite entertaining to revisit “Inglorious Basterds” over a decade later, now watching it on 4K Ultra HD and enjoying it moreso now than before.”Inglorious Basterds” on 4K Ultra HD is recommended!
TITLE: Inglorious Basterds
DATE OF FILM RELEASE: 2009
DURATION: 2 hrs. and 33 minutes
BLU-RAY INFORMATION: UHD HDR10 (Widescreen 2:40:1), English DTS-HD MAster Audio 5.1, English, Francais, DTS Digital Surround 5.1, Subtitles: English SDH, English, Francais
COMPANY: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
RATED: R
RELEASE DATE: October 12, 2021
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Written by Quentin Tarantino
Producer: Lawrence Bender
Executive Producer: Lloyd Phillips, Erica Steinberg, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein
Associate Producer: William Paul Clark, Bruce Moriarty, Pilar Savone
Co-Producer: Christoph Fisser, Henning Molfenter, Carl L. Woebcken
Cinematography by Robert Richardson
Edited by Sally Menke
Production Design: David Wasco
Art Direction by Marco Bittner Rosser, Stephan O. Gessler, Sebastian T. Krawinkel, David Scheunemann, Steve Summersgill
Set Decoration by Sandy Reynolds-Wasco
Costume Design by Anna B. Sheppard
Starring:
Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Raine
Melanie Laurent as Shosanna
Christoph Waltz as Col. Hans Landa
Eli Roth as Sgt. Dony Donowitz
Michael Fassbender as Lt. Archie Hicox
Diane Kruger as Bridge von Hammersmark
Daniel Bruhl as Fredrick Zoller
Til Schweiger as Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz
Gedeon Burkhard as Cpl. Wilhelm Wicki
Jacky Ido as Marcel
B.J. Novak as Pfc. Smithson Utivich
Omar Doom as Pfc. Omar Ulmer
August Diehl as Major Hellstrom
Denis Menochet as Perrier LaPadite
Sylvester Groth as Joseph Goebbels
Martin Wuttke as Hitler
Mike Meyers as General Ed Fench
Julie Dreyfus as Francesca Mondino
Richard Sammel as Sgt. Rachtman
Alexander Fehling as Master Sgt. Wilhelm/Pola Negri
Rod Taylor as Winston Churchill
Brad Pitt takes no prisoners in Quentin Tarantino’s high-octane WWII revenge fantasy Inglourious Basterds. As war rages in Europe, a Nazi-scalping squad of American soldiers, known to their enemy as “The Basterds,” is on a daring mission to take down the leaders of the Third Reich. Bursting with “action, hair-trigger suspense and a machine-gun spray of killer dialogue” (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone), Inglourious Basterds is “another Tarantino masterpiece” (Jake Hamilton, CBS-TV)!
In 2009, Quentin Tartantino’s “Inglorious Basterds” was released and at the time, became his highest-grossing film in the US and worldwide, earning over $321 million.
Nominated for eight academy awards and actor Christoph Waltz winning the “Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor”.
The film’s take of an alternate history of two plots to assassinate Nazi German’s leadership, Tarantino began working on the script back in 1998 but struggled with the ending and thus shifted to work on “Kill Bill” and “Death Proof”, until returning back to the script.
Like many Tarantino films, he was able to assemble a strong cast of major talent worldwide including Brad Pitt, Melanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger, Daniel Bruhl, Til Schweiger, Mike Meyers, August Diehl, Jacky Ido, Denis Menochet, to name a few.
And while the film has been released in home media numerous times, the film will be released in 4K Ultra HD for the very first time with a Blu-ray and Digital Code included.
The film is set in 1941 and begins with SS-Standartenfuhrer Hans Landa (portrayed by Christoph Waltz) visiting the countryside and asking Perrier LaPadite (portrayed by Denis Menochet) questions about missing Jewish farmer families, including the Drefuyses.
He suspects LaPadite and tells him he will not murder his family in exchange for information of the family, who are hiding under his floorboards. LaPadite has no choice but to tell him where they are and the Nazi soldiers come in and murders the family except one, Shosanna Dreyfus, who runs and Landa allows for her to escape.
Fastforward to 1944 and Lt. Aldo Raine (portrayed by Brad Pitt) has recruited Jewish-American soldiers to his commando unit known as the Basterds. The Basterdz were formed to instill fear among Nazis by killing and scalping them. One soldier is branded with the swastika on his forehead and is released, so he can tell Adolf Hitler about them.
The film then shifts to a woman who operates a cinema in Paris named Emmanuelle Mimieux, she happens to be the young woman, Shosanna Dreyfus, now going by a different name. And a war hero named Fredrick Zoller (portrayed by Daniel Bruhl) is smitten with her, despite her not wanting to be anywhere near a Nazi. But because he becomes infatuated with her, he has his soldiers take her to a dinner with Joseph Goebbels.
Goebbels wants his Nazi propaganda film “Stolz der Nation” (Nation’s Pride) about Zoller (and starring Zoller) on how, as a German sniper, killed 250 allied soldiers in battle and wants to premiere the film at her cinema.
Emanuelle and her boyfriend, an Afro-French man named Marcel to devise a plan to set the cinema on fire during the film premiere and killing as many Nazi leaders in attendance.
Meanwhile, British Commando Lt. Archie Hicox (portrayed by Michael Fassbender) is recruited to lead a British attack at the premiere with the Basterds. But they must go to German-occupied France to meet with popular German film star, Bridget von Hammersmark (portrayed by Diane Kruger), who is an undercover Allied agent who will be attending the premiere and Hicox and his men are to be her bodyguards. But Hicox’s accent draws suspicion of Wehrmacht Sgt. Wilhelm Wicki (portrayed by Gedeon Burkhard) and Major Dieter Hellstrom (portrayed by August Diehl).
Will Shosanna or the Basterds become successful in assassinating the Nazi leaders at the film premiere?
VIDEO:
“Inglorious Basterds” is presented in 4K Ultra High Definition ala UHD HDR10 Widescreen 2:40:1.
Picture quality is excellent. This is definitely the best I have seen the film to date, the clarity and how things look in HD is incredible, especially on closeups. This is no doubt the definitive version to get. Good amount of grain and wonderful picture quality!
But it’s important to emphasize that the film was shot on film and then to 2K DI and then upscaled to 4K.
IMPORTANT TO KNOW: To watch 4K Ultra HD, you will need a 4K UHD TV with HDR and an Ultra HD Blu-ray Player + a high-speed HDMI (Category 2) Cable.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Inglorious Basterds” is presented in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English Francais DTS Digital Surround 5.1. Unfortunately, for audiophiles, the lossless soundtrack is not presented in DTS:X.
The dialogue and music are crystal clear, but during the more gun-prominent scenes, that is where you can hear the usage of the surround channels and the film become much more immersive.
Subtitles are in English SDH, Espanol, Francais.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Inglorious Basterds” comes with the following special features on the Blu-ray disc.
- Extended & Alternate Scenes
- Roundtable Discussion with Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt and Elvis Mitchell
- The New York Times Talk
- Nation’s Pride – Original Short
- The Making of Nation’s Pride
- The Original Inglourious Basterds
- A Conversation with Rod Taylor
EXTRAS:
“Inglorious Basterds 4K Ultra HD” comes with a slipcase, Blu-ray and a digital code for Movies Anywhere (and will show up on VUDU -Fandango-.
Quentin Tarantino has called his film “Inglorious Basterds” as his masterpiece and while there was not a mention of any Tarantino films ever being released in 4K Ultra HD, fans should be thrilled that “Inglorious Basterds” is the second 4K Ultra HD Tarantino film to be released (“Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” is the first).
At the time when this film was released, my first feeling was how interesting it was to see an alternate take on how the Nazi leadership would be assassinated, through cinema!
In a way, the film can be seen audacious but at the same time, what I enjoyed about the film is that it’s not a war film about soldiers trying to assassinate the Nazi leadership, but you are seeing various characters wanting to do it.
While Brad Pitt’s name is right there on the top of the poster and the cover art, Pitt’s role is just a third of the film, as the character that probably is featured prominently in my opinion is Shosanna (portrayed by Melanie Laurent), the Jewish girl, now cinema owner who’s plot to assassinate all Nazi leaders during a movie premiere. And what better way to do it, is through cinema….literally.
And I think that’s why I had so much fun watching this film because Tarantino includes several cinema references and audacious moments that you can see from other past cinema filmmakers, that cineaste can’t help but feel you are being treated with an “Ode to Cinema”.
As for those who are familiar with early cinema and knowing that many films were shot on combustible nitrate (which is why many classic silent films are considered lost, as they burned up in storing facilities), while war films are about guns and bombs, who would of thought the script would use nitrate as a weapon.
The use of Ennio Morricone (who’s music was featured in many classic Spaghetti westerns) music in the film is also fantastic. Including other songs featured from past films including David Bowie’s theme from the 1982 film “Cat People” and “The Green Leaves of Summer” from the 1960 film, “The Alamo”.
Granted, the audacity of the film through violence may not be liked by cineaste, some complaining of the Jewish-American soldiers methods of killing Nazi soldiers and of course, being an alternate universe or history of how Nazi leadership were to be assassinated, let us hope that people know the storyline is audacious and not fact. One must watch this film knowing alternate universe, not based on historic reality.
Overall, it was quite entertaining to revisit “Inglorious Basterds” over a decade later, now watching it on 4K Ultra HD and enjoying it moreso now than before.
“Inglorious Basterds” on 4K Ultra HD is recommended!