5 Star

A Glorious Masterpiece

A fictitious wartime scenario cannot be done better than this story from modern day master of cinema, Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, From Dusk Till Dawn, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood) who takes the fight to the Nazi’s and their high command, as Jewish-American soldiers are drafted into the “Basterds,” a black ops commando unit who will instil fear into the Nazi’s.

France, 1941, and the green fields of the LaPadite farm gives their cows rich nourishment for their creamy milk. The idyllic setting is broken by the sounds of motorbikes and a car carrying the ‘Jew Hunter’ Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained, Carnage). He is here to interview Perrier LaPadite (Denis Ménochet, The Beasts, In the House) about the five Jewish families that lived in the area pre invasion.

Landa has the ability to sniff out a lie and it is not long before he gives up the Jewish family hiding under the floorboards. Who are viciously dispatched, but their eighteen-year-old daughter Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent, Beginners, Now You See Me) manages to escape without injury.

Three years later, across the pond, US Army Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt, The Lost City, Fight Club, Twelve Monkeys) is putting together “The Basterds”. They are going behind enemy lines and they are going to kill any Nazis they find with extreme prejudice, taking scalps. They will let one live to tell the tale of The Basterds by scaring them with a swastika on their forehead, so they can be identified after the war.

Meanwhile, in Paris, Shosanna is running a cinema left to her by her aunt and living under the name of Emmanuelle Mimieux. She attracts the attention of a young Private Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Brühl, Rush, Captain America: Civil War), who is the talk of Germany as he spent days picking off soldiers with his sniper rifle. He is now the hero in the film Nation’s Pride, and because of his infatuation with Emmanuelle he wants to hold the premier of his film at her cinema, where all the top brass of the German army will gather. Sounds like a bloodbath to me.

Inglourious Basterds is one of Tarantino’s finest films and now on this Arrow Film’s limited edition 4K UHD with its plethora of special features (see below) this is a must own for any of the director’s fans or just a war film fan.

Inglourious Basterds Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray is available now

 

2 DISC 4K ULTRA HD LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

• Limited edition ‘Operation Kino’ packaging with new art by Dare Creative
• 60-page ‘Films & Filmmakers’ collector’s book with writing by film critics Dennis Cozzalio and Bill Ryan
• Double-sided fold-out poster
• Replica Nation’s Pride Premiere programme booklet
• La Louisianne beermat
• 3 postcard sized double-sided art cards
• Strudel recipe card
• Reversible sleeve with original and newly commissioned artwork by Dare Creative DISC 1 – FEATURE (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)
• 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray™ presentation in High Dynamic Range
• Original lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Brand new audio commentary by film critic and author Tim Lucas

DISC 2 – EXTRAS (BLU-RAY)

• What Would Sally Do?, a new interview with editor Fred Raskin
• Blood Fiction, a new interview with special make-up effects supervisor Greg Nicotero
• Doomstruck, a new interview with actor Omar Doom
• Making it Right, a new visual essay by film critic Walter Chaw, author of A Walter Hill Film
• Film History on Fire, a new visual essay by film scholar Pamela Hutchinson, author of BFI Film Classics Pandora’s Box
• Filmmaking in Occupied France, a new interview with film scholar Christine Leteux, author of Continental Films: French Cinema Under German Control
• Extended and alternate scenes
• Nation’s Pride
• The Making of Nation’s Pride, an archival featurette
• Roundtable Discussion, an archival interview with Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt and Elvis Mitchell
• The Original Inglorious Bastards, archival featurette
• A Conversation with Rod Taylor, archival featurette
• Rod Taylor on Victoria Bitter, archival featurette
• Quentin Tarantino’s Camera Angel, archival featurette
• Hi Sallys, archival featurette
• Film Poster Gallery Tour with Elvis Mitchell, archival featurette
• Trailers