Inglourious Basterds Single-Disc Edition

Inglourious Basterds is a cinematic masterpiece, as well as an expectation defying, genre shredding, throwback of a beast of a film that revels in not giving two shakes of a bloody bat what you think. That's precisely what's so invigorating and thrilling about the experience of watching it. Like many of Tarantino's films, one ends up feeling more of a participant as opposed to merely a spectator. Things open quietly and horrifically with one of the most understated and thoroughly evil opening flourishes ever attempted to set up a ride as wild as this... and it works almost too well. Christoph Waltz is an actor I was totally unfamiliar with before viewing this film. By the end of the first scene I wanted to jump through the screen and wring his smarmy neck. His performance only grows stronger through the entire production. While some may balk at the leisurely pace taken, it not only serves to ratchet up tension for the first act, but really sets up this character for the events in the third act nicely. Waltz is the jewel of this production. However the ensemble cast around him with Brad Pitt leading the way is not only excellent but littered with Tarantino staples, i.e. a retired actor making a triumphant return, stunt casting extraordinaire and gorgeous women who wouldn't know a second fiddle if it bit them on their torpedo brassieres. Pitt especially, is brutally effective in an unrestrained performance that works great as a foil for the cool, collected sinister moves of Waltz's character. Besides the great acting though, what really makes Basterds shine are the ideas embodied and the indeed glorious set pieces that provide perfect stages for Tarantino's tense, interlocking morality yarns. The highlight for me was not the much ballyhooed ending, but rather the tavern scene. To me this scene is not just the greatest in this film but one of the greatest in film, in quite a while. Tarantino's love of movie history really shows here, but also his mastery of dialogue, invective, foreshadowing, wordplay and ability to always SHOW rather than TELL, even while a complex conversation is in the offing. It is a thrilling scene to watch and is a nutshell version of why the whole movie works, despite its own (at times) maniacal fearlessness. Without the tavern scene, I can't imagine Basterds being as cohesive or affecting overall. In the same way the deliberate pacing of the opening scene could put some off, I can see how the occasional insistence on tapping the brakes could frustrate fans of more traditional fare, as well. As noted there are not a lot of concessions made to the viewer, but this to me comes off more as respect than lack of fan service. You will never feel spoon fed while watching Inglourious Basterds but you might at times feel like you want to stop and digest a bit. To paraphrase, you can digest when you're dead. Tarantino always has a fresh spoonful of creme ready for your strudel, no matter how you take it. With a film like this you might need a little extra willing suspension of disbelief but if you do give yourself over to it, the ride can be unforgettable. The DVD itself has a lot of great special features that fans of the film will enjoy. I would have loved a commentary, but the roundtable discussion fills in some of that information. Being able to see the film within a film was a nice touch too. Lastly, it seems that some people take exception with the barbarous acts of unremitting violence perpetrated against fictional Nazis herein. I would just like to say that you're being quite silly. Are you afraid that anti Nazi violence in the world will spiral out of control? It would be laughable if it, well... weren't. The only entity in the world that engenders rage towards fascism of all flavors, is fascism itself. Fictional representations of revenge are many times the closest victims can get to exacting the payback they have in their hearts. If you feel that the violence portrayed here against the SS rank and file is "over the top" then check again. Dachau was "over the top." Himmler was a REAL freak off the leash so cry me a Rhine. The swastika has a target on it forever now and that's just as it should be. It's called payback is a b*tch. Ask Tojo if Pearl Harbor was worth it. Now ask Michael Bay. See where I'm going here? Sure you do. Sit back and enjoy the show people. It's what you do best. Read more

I'm not sure if the spelling of "Basterds" was intentional or not, because you never learn why it was incorrectly spelled for this movie. Anyway, the movie is great if you enjoy a good comedy with a lot blood, violence, and good looking actors. Everyone wants to see Nazis suffer, even Nazis, and this movie doesn't disappoint! Just don't let grandma watch it even if she lived during that time in history. Read more

Another epic from Q. Incredible performances from actors who are known as well as those who were unknown at that time. Read more

A very dark and entertaining satirical masterpiece. The merge of history and fiction is thought provoking as well as entertaining! Bravo! Read more

Full of action and humor! Read more

Inglorious Basterds is, like some of Scorsese's, Paul Thomas Anderson's, Welles', and Sergio Leone's films, an operatic work about death -- or Death -- which is also amused about its own circling and coiling (and coiling and circling) around it. The best way to describe films like this is to compare them to Baroque art, a style of painting and sculpture that invites intense, even unbalanced emotional responses. Think of Bernini's intensely sexual sculptures against Michaelangelo's sculptures that show a balance of sensuality and intellect. Baroque films are edited so that scenes wittily push (or ram) together fear and comedy, anxiety, a dreamlike something in their preparation for violence, and humor. And characters take each other in often as pieces of theater, and perform for each other. As in opera they can be expressing themselves with a nearly cartoon exaggeration even as they unexpectedly stir emotions: I am dying, they seem to sing, with their guns, and this is my song of death. Song, and music in general, is key to any Tarantino film, from Reservoir Dogs ("Stuck in the Middle With You") to Pulp Fiction ("Flowers on the Wall") and Jackie Brown ("Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time"). In Inglorious Basterds the key is the Morricone-like soundtrack that, as in Leone's films, asks us to feel the joy of the filmmaking -- the bravura assembly of images -- as well as take in more deeply the unfolding story. In this case, it is a tall tale, with many moving parts: a group of wild American Jews are put together by the American military in World War II to kill and scalp Nazis, and as the story spins up from scenes such as the early one in the German forest with the killing of a German soldier by baseball bat, we come, perhaps naturally, to an attack on the Fuhrer himself in a movie theater which has most recently played a G.W. Pabst film starring Leni Riefenstahl. There is the leader of the Basterds (played with opera buffa joy by Brad Pitt), there is the escaped Jewish girl (played with fragility and steel by Melanie Laurent) and, among a couple of dozen other speaking parts, there is the "Jew Hunter," played by Christoph Walz with a certain kind of aesthete's lightly curtailed rage that is exciting, terrifying and nervily humorous to watch. It is a film of wrought performances, and Walz's is the best. Note: if you purchase this Blu-ray/Digital package from a third-party seller, as I did, you may find that the code for downloading the digital copy has already been redeemed. You still get the Blu-ray disk, but half of the bargain is lost. Read more

I’m 40 years old and I’ve never seen this movie. If you haven’t seen this movie, I urge you too. Read more