When I heard Quentin Tarantino planned to make a World War II movie, I felt surprised, as Tarantino previously seemed to prefer to focus on the more recent past. For instance, neither Jackie Brown nor Death Proof took place in the 1970s, but they sure felt like they did.

So the idea of a Tarantino effort set firmly in the 1940s definitely intrigued me. The film starts in 1940 and shows infamous Nazi SS “Jew Hunter” Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) as he seeks his prey in the French countryside. Landa indeed locates hidden Jews, and he slaughters all of them – except for 18-year-old Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent), who manages to flee.

Four years later, we find Shosanna living under the assumed name of Emmanuelle Mimieux. She runs a movie house and attracts the romantic attention of German Private Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Bruhl). Shosanna doesn’t realize it, but Zoller is a Nazi legend: perched in a bell tower, he managed to hold off an Allied onslaught all on his own.

Because of this, Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels (Sylvester Groth) commissions a film about Zoller’s exploits. Entitled Nation’s Pride, Goebbels plans to premiere it in Paris. A smitten Zoller uses his influence to move the debut to Shosanna’s theater.

Burning for revenge against the Nazis, Shosanna hatches a plan. With many Nazi bigwigs in attendance – including one A. Hitler (Martin Wuttke) – she intends to seal the exits, start a raging fire, and kill the entire Nazi leadership.

In the meantime, we meet a band of US soldiers called the “Basterds”. Led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), this group seeks to cause terror among the Nazi soldiers. They attack on a personal level, take the scalps of their victims, and become the stuff of legend.

When the Allied command learns of the Nation’s Pride premiere, they intend to take advantage of it. The Basterds get orders to infiltrate the theater and kill the Nazi leaders – and anyone else they care to slaughter. This leads to much intrigue as the dueling plots unfold.

15 years after Pulp Fiction, it seemed unlikely that Tarantino would ever produce another film that made as strong an impact. Fiction was such a startling bolt out of the blue that it became a cultural icon, so I think it’ll be hard for Tarantino to ever quite stun an audience in that way,

While the 2009 Tarantino lacked the same “force of nature” brashness of the 1994 Tarantino, he boasted a greater level of maturity and he seemed to suffer from less need to impress the audience with his cleverness. Don’t get me wrong: I love Pulp Fiction and will probably always view it as Tarantino’s finest work. However, like most of his flicks, it comes with a certain preening “hipper than thou quotient”.

Granted, Fiction really was awfully hip, so Tarantino got away with his smugness, and the director’s sheer talent usually carried the day in his other works. I enjoyed all six of the flicks he created prior to Basterds.

That said, we had seen moderately diminished returns. While good, none of Tarantino’s films between 1994 and 2009 merited favorable comparison with Fiction.

And Basterds isn’t quite on that same level either, but I think it comes close. Or I believe that today – time may change my mind. Right now, however, I find myself deeply impressed by what Tarantino did with Basterds.

Some of that comes from the fact that Basterds rarely offered what I expected to find. Based on trailers and my general impressions of Tarantino, I anticipated something wild, violent and semi-campy – a 1970s exploitation flick vibe brought to WWII.

And that’s occasionally what Basterds delivers – but only occasionally, and only in a negligible manner. In Basterds, Tarantino walks a fine line.

Sure, he shows hints of his inspirations – you’ll see signs of Sergio Leone as well as WWII-based efforts like The Great Escape or The Dirty Dozen - but he doesn’t heavily indulge in these.

The director also manages to avoid stereotypical Tarantino tendencies. The movie lacks his signature flamboyant dialogue, and it comes without much of the self-conscious showiness that usually appears in his flicks.

Again, aspects of these traits remain, but they don’t overwhelming. Tarantino seems content to evoke them rather than force them on us.

Which helps make Basterds a more fulfilling, complete film than the violent goof I expected. Tarantino seems truly self-assured here, especially during the flick’s opening scene.

Basterds didn’t boast a huge budget, but it wasn’t inexpensive, either. Given the way the studio promoted it, I expected it to launch with a big action scene and lots of Pitt.

Instead, the first 21 minutes focuses on Landa’s mostly low-key search for the hidden Jewish family. Viewer befuddlement must’ve run rampant, as this scene seemed to come from an entirely different movie than the one anyone would’ve anticipated.

And it’s absolutely brilliant. The subsequent 130 minutes or so could’ve been awful, but Basterds would deserve attention for the taut, masterful telling of the search.

This all evolves over a dining room conversation between Landa and the homeowner. It’s shockingly civilized and completely fascinating.

After that, Tarantino does indulge our desire to finally see the titular Basterds, but even then, he rarely gives in to expectations. As I mentioned, this isn’t the uber-violent “B”-movie it seemed destined to be.

Heck, Pitt’s Raine isn’t even the main character. I don’t think we really have a lead role here, but I’d take Shosanna or Landa over Raine.

It’s a true ensemble piece, which you wouldn’t have guessed from the movie’s trailers. Those focused almost entirely on Pitt and the flick’s action.

Trailers are often deceptive, but these promos seem even more misleading than usual. They offer very brief glimpses of Shosanna but offer no hints at her role in the film.

Instead, it’s all Basterds and all violence. Well, except for the Japanese clip shown on the disc, as it gives a little more attention to Shosanna and hints at a Kill Bill feel.

If the ad campaign got butts in the seats, then I guess I can forgive it in the end. Basterds did fairly well at the box office, and it deserved that success.

I have no idea how many of those patrons liked what they saw, though. The film promised by the trailers wasn’t the one that ended up screen.

In any case, I know that I really like it. Basterds manages to have its camp and eat it too. There are just enough signature Tarantino moments to satisfy, but not so many that the movie becomes another glib hipster-fest.

Even when Tarantino takes anachronistic risks, it works. For instance, when Shosanna prepares herself to execute her mission, the film uses David Bowie’s “Cat People” as the soundtrack.

On the face of it, this seems like a bizarre choice, but it really soars. The tune’s moody intensity gives the sequence zing.

Like the opening chapter, it’s a dazzling sequence, though for nearly opposite reasons. The former impresses due to its simplicity, while the latter succeeds because of its saucy implausibility.

Pitt and the Basterds may get all the attention, but Shosanna’s story becomes the film’s heart. In truth, the flick could’ve only told her tale and it still would’ve been good.

Actually, the same goes for the Basterds. This is really two films combined into one, and either would succeed if separated.

But the combination turns the experience into something special, and the treatment of Shosanna’s plot becomes especially satisfying. She’s not some poor tragic figure who suffers from overt PTSD or anything.

Shosanna is a warrior who feels the pain of her loss but is damn determined to get her revenge. She’s a Jewish Ripley!

Usually when a movie doesn’t deliver what I anticipate, I view that as a bad thing. In the case of Inglourious Basterds, it became a positive. The film surpasses expectations and turns into something genuinely special.

Inglourious Basterds appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Expect a solid presentation.

Overall sharpness looked good. Virtually no softness occurred, so I found positive clarity and accuracy.

Neither jagged edges nor moiré effects became an issue. Both edge haloes and source flaws remained absent.

The film’s exploration of war made it an unusual choice for big, bold hues, so we got a somewhat earthy palette that leaned toward amber and orange, with occasional splashes of teal as well as some bold reds at key moments. These choices suited it and the colors looked positive.

Blacks seemed dark and deep, while shadows looked clean and clear. I felt pleased with this appealing image.

Given the film’s war setting, I expected a slambang DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack. To my moderate surprise, though, Basterds went with a mix that often lacked much punch.

I didn’t see that as a real problem, though. The track did what it needed to do when it needed to do it.

This meant the soundscape remained somewhat restrained for long stretches. In fact, at times the film came across as nearly monaural. Music showed good stereo presence – depending on the source, that is, as some of the cues focused on the center.

Effects tended to be subdued much of the time. The vast majority of the film kept things quiet, and even general ambience was minimal.

The track came to life during the occasional battle scenes, however. Those used the five channels well and created a full sense of the settings.

Indeed, the fact that so much of the movie remained quiet accentuated the impact of the louder scenes. They didn’t pop up often, but they worked well.

Audio quality was positive. Music depended on the source materials. The film featured a lot of older recordings, so those could be scratchy at times. Nonetheless, the music was generally fine given the limitations of the elements chosen.

Speech sounded concise and natural, so no edginess or other problems materialized. As I noted, effects didn’t often have much to do, but they were always accurate, and they boasted good impact when necessary.

The general lack of ambition made this a “B” soundtrack, but I was fine with it. I don’t think it needed to be super-active to succeed.

How did this 2025 Arrow Blu-ray compare to the movie’s original BD edition? Both came with apparently identical audio.

Because Universal supplied the master to Arrow, I suspect both came from the same scan. Nonetheless, I felt the 2025 disc delivered superior visuals.

The 2009 Universal BD included a bunch of extras along with the 153-minute movie, whereas the Arrow disc only provided the film itself. This “breathing room” coupled with improved encoding procedures over the last 15 years meant the Arrow edition brought a small but noticeable upgrade in visuals.

The 2025 Arrow release mixes old and new extras, only one of which appears on the movie disc: a fresh audio commentary from film historian Tim Lucas. He offers a running, screen-specific discussion of inspirations and influences, story/character domains and themes, cast and crew, various production topics and his thoughts about the flick.

Lucas digs into a good array of subjects across his chat. He covers these topics in a lively manner and ensures we find a nice array of insights.

All the remaining extras appear on a bonus disc, where we find three Extended and Alternate Scenes. These include “Lunch With Goebbels (Extended)” (7:12), “La Louisiane Card Game (Extended)” (2:09) and “Nation’s Pride Begins (Alternate)” (2:06).

“Lunch” may be extended, but it doesn’t add anything substantial. The clip is interesting mostly because of consists of one long, uninterrupted take.

Similar feelings greet “Game”, which really goes on too long. The tidbits of the game already in the film are fun, but they’re more than enough to convey what we need.

“Begins” is the only one that’s really different. In the final film, we launch right into Pride, but this clip gives it much more of a buildup and I kind of like it.

The set also features Nation’s Pride: Full Feature. It runs six minutes, 13 seconds and shows all the parts of the bogus movie presented in Basterds.

Of course, if the Nazis had actually made Pride, it would’ve been longer than six minutes, so it’s a little misleading to call this the “full feature”. I also think it doesn’t really play like a Nazi propaganda film, as it just doesn’t reflect the style especially well.

Still, it’s fun to see. This becomes especially true since we get to check out parts of Pride that we can’t observe in the final cut.

The disc presents Pride with two separate Dolby Digital 2.0 audio tracks. The first presents the “film” without score and the second shows it with music.

We move to a Roundtable Discussion with writer/director Quentin Tarantino, actor Brad Pitt and film critic Elvis Mitchell. It lasts 30 minutes, 47 seconds and looks at Tarantino’s work on the set, characters and performances, screening the film in Germany, research and historical liberties, storytelling and the movie’s structure.

Pitt and Tarantino don’t give us a complete overview of the film, but they offer a lot of interesting notes. They’re certainly chatty and gregarious, and they manage to deliver a good array of information here.

For more about the film within the film, we go to The Making of Nation’s Pride. In this four-minute, one-second clip, we hear from director Alois von Eichberg, Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, actress Francesca Mondino, and war hero/actor Fredrick Zoller.

Yes, “Making” is a fake documentary, as it features actors in character to discuss the non-existent Pride. (Von Eichberg is the only character who doesn’t appear in Basterds and Eli Roth – who directed the actual Pride clips – plays him.). It’s silly but fun.

Next comes the seven-minute, 41-second The Original Inglourious Basterds. It features Roth, filmmaker/actor Enzo G. Castellari and actor Bo Svenson.

We get notes about Castellari’s 1978 Inglourious Bastards and how its star (Svenson) and director (Castellari) appeared in Basterds. We also see a few minutes of the prior flick.

Prior to the Tarantino flick, I didn’t know there was an earlier film with almost the same name, though they don’t offer the same story, so Basterds clearly isn’t a remake. Nonetheless, I like this opportunity to check out a bit of Tarantino’s inspiration.

To hear more from one of the film’s actors, we go to A Conversation with Rod Taylor. During this six-minute, 45-second clip, the veteran performer chats about how he came onto the film, his performance as Winston Churchill and working with Tarantino. The clip’s too short to have much substance, but it proves enjoyable.

More comments from the actor show up in Rod Taylor on Victoria Bitter. This one fills three minutes, 21 seconds with Taylor’s story about Tarantino and how the director provided him with an exotic beer. I’m not sure why this didn’t appear in “Conversation”, but it’s entertaining.

Quentin Tarantino’s Camera Angel goes for two minutes, 44 seconds. We see a reel of clapboard clicks and hear the amusing terms used for abbreviations.

For instance, take 48N becomes “48 Nazis”. This is a strange and amusing compilation.

Something unusual arrives via Hi Sallys. In the two-minute, 11-second reel, we see filmed greetings to editor Sally Menke; cast and crew throw these out at various times. Like “Angel”, we find a cute collection.

Glimpses of movie ads show up in the final two components. We get a Film Poster Gallery Tour with Elvis Mitchell. It runs 11 minutes, two seconds as Mitchell discusses the fake movie ads created for Basterds as well as real posters we see.

This means close-ups of promos for Nation’s Pride and whatnot. He refers to other films/ads and places the Basterds images in perspective. Mitchell makes this a quality program.

From there we head to extras new to the 2025 Arrow release. What Would Sally Do? runs 11 minutes, eight seconds and offers notes from assistant editor Fred Raskin.

After Basterds editor Sally Menke died in 2010, Raskin became the primary editor of Tarantino’s subsequent films. Raskin discusses his career and work with the filmmaker in this engaging chat.

Doomstruck lasts 11 minutes, 24 seconds. Here we find notes from actor Omar Doom.

The performer looks at aspects of his life and career as well as his relationship with Tarantino and his work on Basterds. Doom offers some interesting thoughts.

Next comes Blood Fiction. In this 22-minute, 14-second reel, we hear from special makeup effects supervisor Greg Nicotero.

As expected, “Fiction” examines the various physical effects created for the film. Nicotero covers these domains well.

Making It Right spans 22 minutes, four seconds. It offers a visual essay from film critic Walter Chaw.

With “Right”, Chaw talks about Tarantino’s themes and influences, especially as displayed in Basterds. Chaw delivers a mix of insights.

Another visual essay, Film History On Fire goes for 19 minutes, 49 seconds. This one features film historian/curator/critic Pamela Hutchinson.

“Fire” covers genre domains and connections to other films. Some of this repeats from the audio commentary but Hutchinson nonetheless offers some worthwhile notes.

Filmmaking in Occupied France runs 15 minutes, 42 seconds. It features French film scholar Christine Leteux.

In this reel, Leteux takes the titular topic literally and relates info about how the French film industry operated during the 1940s German occupation. Leteux provides a fine history lesson about this domain.

Finally, the disc provides some trailers. This gives us four Basterds ads: the US teaser and trailer as well as international and Japanese trailers.

It took him 15 years, but Quentin Tarantino finally made a movie that might just live up to the expectations he set with Pulp Fiction. I hesitate to put Inglourious Basterds on the same level, but it’s a darned fine flick that succeeds on many levels. The Blu-ray delivers positive picture and audio along with a solid set of supplements. I recommend this terrific movie, and the Blu-ray represents it well.

To rate this film visit the original review of INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS