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==Plot==
==Plot==
===Chapter One: Once upon a time... In Nazi-Occupied France===
===Chapter One: Once upon a time... In Nazi-Occupied France===
In German-occupied France in [[1941]], [[Standartenführer]] [[Hans Landa]] ([[Christoph Waltz]]) of the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] and [[Sicherheitsdienst]], nicknamed "The Jew Hunter", arrives at the home of a rural dairy farmer, Perrier LaPadite, who is suspected of hiding a local [[Jewish]] family. From inside his home, Landa eventually persuades the farmer to confess to hiding the Jewish family Dreyfus underneath his floor. Landa clandestinely summons the Waffen SS soldiers into the house from their stand-by position outside and and has them commence shooting through the floor boards in the approximate area where an overwrought LaPadite has confirmed the Dreyfus's are hiding below. The entire Dreyfus family is thus ruthlessly murdered except for the teenage girl, Shoshana who barely escapes with her life thanks to a jammed pistol in Landa's own hand. He vows to hunt her down in keeping with the cruel meanness of his nickname, and introducing us to the theme of the [[''[Danse Macabre]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danse_macabre'']], the hunter and hunted, in the rest of the film.
In German-occupied France in [[1941]], [[Standartenführer]] [[Hans Landa]] ([[Christoph Waltz]]) of the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] and [[Sicherheitsdienst]], nicknamed "The Jew Hunter", arrives at the home of a rural dairy farmer, Perrier LaPadite, who is suspected of hiding a local [[Jewish]] family. From inside his home, Landa eventually persuades the farmer to confess to hiding the Jewish family Dreyfus underneath his floor. Landa clandestinely summons the Waffen SS soldiers into the house from their stand-by position outside and and has them commence shooting through the floor boards in the approximate area where an overwrought LaPadite has confirmed the Dreyfus's are hiding below. The entire Dreyfus family is thus ruthlessly murdered except for the teenage girl, Shoshana who barely escapes with her life thanks to a jammed pistol in Landa's own hand. He vows to hunt her down in keeping with the cruel meanness of his nickname, and introducing us to the theme of the ''[[Danse Macabre]]'', the hunter and hunted, in the rest of the film.


===Chapter Two: Inglourious Basterds===
===Chapter Two: Inglourious Basterds===

Revision as of 02:32, 16 January 2010

This article is about the 2009 film. For the 1978 film, see The Inglorious Bastards.
Inglourious Basterds
Theatrical release poster
Directed byQuentin Tarantino
Written byQuentin Tarantino
Produced byLawrence Bender
StarringBrad Pitt
Christoph Waltz
Michael Fassbender
Eli Roth
Diane Krüger
Daniel Brühl
Til Schweiger
Mélanie Laurent
CinematographyRobert Richardson
Edited bySally Menke
Production
companies
Distributed byThe Weinstein Company
Universal Studios
Release dates
May 20, 2009 (2009-05-20)
(Cannes)
August 20, 2009 (Germany)
August 21, 2009
(United States)
Running time
153 minutes
CountriesTemplate:FilmUS
Template:FilmGermany
LanguagesEnglish
French
German
Italian
Budget$70,000,000[1]
Box office$319,131,050[2]

Inglourious Basterds is a Template:Fy war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino and released in August 2009 by The Weinstein Company and Universal Studios. The film, set in German-occupied France, tells the story of two plots to assassinate the Nazi political leadership, one planned by a young French Jewish cinema proprietress, the other by a team of American soldiers called the "Basterds".

Tarantino has said that despite being a war film, Inglourious Basterds is a "spaghetti western but with World War II iconography".[3] In addition to spaghetti westerns, the film also pays homage to the World War II "macaroni combat" sub-genre (itself heavily influenced by spaghetti-westerns).

Inglourious Basterds was accepted into the main selection at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival in competition for the prestigious Palme d'Or and had its world premiere there in May.[4] It was the only U.S. film to win an award at Cannes that year, earning a Best Actor award for Christoph Waltz. It also has been nominated in four categories in the 67th Golden Globe Awards: Best Picture – Drama, Best Director for Quentin Tarantino, Best Screenplay for Quentin Tarantino and Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture for Christoph Waltz.

Title

The title of the film was inspired by director Enzo Castellari's 1978 Dirty Dozen-like war film The Inglorious Bastards. Though Tarantino acknowledges that both the former and the latter were inspirations for the film, and there are noticeable similarities, he stresses that Basterds is an original work and not a remake of the 1978 film. To date, there has been little explanation of the title spelling. When asked, Tarantino would not explain the first u in Inglourious and said, "But the 'Basterds'? That's just the way you say it: Basterds."[5] He stated in an interview that the misspelled title is "a Basquiat-esque touch."[6] He further commented on the Late Show with David Letterman that "Inglourious Basterds" is the "Tarantino way of spelling it."[7]

Plot

Chapter One: Once upon a time... In Nazi-Occupied France

In German-occupied France in 1941, Standartenführer Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) of the SS and Sicherheitsdienst, nicknamed "The Jew Hunter", arrives at the home of a rural dairy farmer, Perrier LaPadite, who is suspected of hiding a local Jewish family. From inside his home, Landa eventually persuades the farmer to confess to hiding the Jewish family Dreyfus underneath his floor. Landa clandestinely summons the Waffen SS soldiers into the house from their stand-by position outside and and has them commence shooting through the floor boards in the approximate area where an overwrought LaPadite has confirmed the Dreyfus's are hiding below. The entire Dreyfus family is thus ruthlessly murdered except for the teenage girl, Shoshana who barely escapes with her life thanks to a jammed pistol in Landa's own hand. He vows to hunt her down in keeping with the cruel meanness of his nickname, and introducing us to the theme of the Danse Macabre, the hunter and hunted, in the rest of the film.

Chapter Two: Inglourious Basterds

In Italy in the spring of 1944, American 1st Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) recruits a team of eight Jewish-American soldiers to parachute into France as civilians prior to the Normandy landings. Their mission is to cause panic and havoc within the Third Reich by savagely killing as many German servicemen as possible. They operate with a "take no prisoners" attitude and scalp their victims following each ambush. "The Basterds", as they come to be known, generally leave one soldier alive to interrogate for information about further patrols, with the cover of spreading news of the terror of their attacks; one survivor of an attack is taken to Hitler personally. On one particular ambush, Raine attempts to persuade the German squad leader to reveal the position and supplement of German supplies in a nearby orchard. When the Sergeant refuses, Sgt. Donny Donowitz (Eli Roth), the Basterds' second-in-command, nicknamed "The Bear Jew", bludgeons the officer with a baseball bat. The Basterds then get another surviving German, Pvt. Butz, to reveal information about the German advance. Raine then carves a swastika onto Butz's forehead with a Bowie knife so that the survivor will be universally identifiable as a Nazi after the war.

Chapter Three: A German Night in Paris

In June 1944, three years after her family's murder, Shosanna has assumed a new identity, operating a small cinema in Paris under the alias Emmanuelle Mimieux. She meets Frederick Zoller (Daniel Brühl), a German marksman and war hero whose exploits are to be celebrated in a forthcoming propaganda film. Although she resists his advances, the smitten Zoller, who is also a film fanatic, convinces Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels to hold the new film's premiere at Shosanna's theater. She realizes that the presence of several high-ranking Nazi officials provides an opportunity for revenge, and with the help of her employee and lover Marcel, resolves to burn down the cinema during the premiere. She then has a tense encounter with the head of security for the event: Hans Landa, who thus presents both an obstacle, and a chance to make her revenge complete.

Chapter Four: Operation Kino

The British have also learned of the premiere and they dispatch former film critic Lieutenant Archie Hicox to Paris to infiltrate the event. Disguised as an SS Hauptsturmführer, Hicox joins forces with the Basterds, as well as German film actress and Allied double agent Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Krüger). Their rendezvous at a tavern goes awry when an SS Sturmbannführer realizes that Hicox is not German. The resulting standoff finally erupts into a bloodbath, leaving everyone in the tavern (including Hicox and the two German-born Basterds, Stiglitz and Wicki) dead except von Hammersmark, who is wounded in the leg. Raine interrogates von Hammersmark and learns that Adolf Hitler will be attending the film premiere. They devise a plan wherein Raine, Donny and Omar will pose as von Hammersmark's Italian escorts at the cinema. Landa, acting as head of security for the premiere, investigates the bar shootout and finds evidence of von Hammersmark's involvement.

Chapter Five: Revenge of the Giant Face

At the premiere, Landa questions von Hammersmark privately, making her try on a shoe she left behind at the tavern. Realizing that von Hammersmark is working with the Basterds, he strangles her and has Raine and Utivich detained. However, in a private meeting, Landa makes a deal with the Basterds' OSS commanding officer to be granted immunity from war crimes prosecution and credit for ending the war (among other things), in exchange for allowing Donny and Omar—still seated in the cinema—to kill the Nazi high command. During the Nazi film, Zoller goes to the projectionist's booth to see Shosanna, angrily protesting her rejections of him. She shoots him multiple times, but he manages to shoot her dead before succumbing to his own wounds. The film is soon interrupted by a pre-recorded close-up of Shosanna informing the audience that they are about to be killed by a Jew, at which time Marcel, who has previously locked and bolted all exits out of the theater, ignites 350 reels of flammable nitrate film stacked behind the screen, killing himself. Simultaneously, Donny and Omar gun Hitler and Goebbels down, subsequently firing indiscriminately into the crowd until the dynamite they brought with them detonates and destroys the theater and the two basterds entirely.

Some time later, Landa and his radio operator Hermann drive Raine and Utivich to the American lines, where Landa surrenders to Raine and hands over his weapons according to his deal, allowing Utivich to handcuff him. However, Raine then breaks his part of the deal and kills Hermann, whom Utivich scalps. Raine then carves a swastika into Landa's forehead, proclaiming it to be his "masterpiece."

Cast

Eli Roth, Mélanie Laurent, and producer Lawrence Bender at a premiere for the film in August 2009

The Allies

The Basterds

  • Brad Pitt as 1st Lieutenant Aldo Raine, "Aldo the Apache":[8] A thickly accented, vengeance-driven 1st Special Service Force officer from Maynardville, Tennessee, who puts together a team of eight soldiers for the OSS. He claims to be a descendant of mountain man Jim Bridger and bears a rope burn on his neck, which can be clearly seen in Chapter Two of the film. One of the film's protagonists, the character has been described as "a voluble, freewheeling outlaw" similar to Jules Winnfield from Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.[9] The character's name is a tribute to the character actor Aldo Ray, who appeared as a tough soldier in many war films such as Men in War, Battle Cry, and What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?
  • Eli Roth as Staff Sergeant Donny Donowitz, "The Bear Jew":[10] Second in command of the Basterds. A "baseball bat-swinging Nazi hunter" from Boston who is known as "The Bear Jew" among German servicemen.[11] Some of them fear that Donowitz is in fact a vengeful golem summoned by an angry rabbi. According to Roth, the baseball bat he wields is signed by all the Jews from his neighborhood in Boston. According to his decals, Donowitz is in the 29th Division. Tarantino reportedly wanted Adam Sandler to play the role of Donowitz, but he declined due to schedule conflicts with the film Funny People.[12]
  • Til Schweiger as Oberfeldwebel Hugo Stiglitz: A strange and quiet German psychopath, formerly an Oberfeldwebel in the Wehrmacht before he turned traitor and killed 13 SS Gestapo majors, whom Aldo recruits to kill other German troops. The character's name is a tribute to the famous 70s B-movie mexploitation actor Hugo Stiglitz.[13]
  • B. J. Novak as PFC Smithson Utivich, "The Little Man":[14] In an interview with Esquire magazine, Novak theorizes that PFC Utivich came from a family that named their son Smithson in an attempt to integrate themselves into the mainstream and that signing up to fight against the Axis powers is his attempt to reclaim his Jewish heritage. He is one of the only two Basterds to live through the war.
  • Gedeon Burkhard as Corporal Wilhelm Wicki: An Austro-German Jew[15] who immigrated to the United States, becoming a citizen as the Third Reich established itself in Europe, and was among the first to enlist. Wicki acts as the Basterds' translator.
  • Omar Doom as PFC Omar Ulmer[16]: Tarantino, who has been friends with Doom since 1998[17] and encouraged him to become an actor,[17] called Doom just two weeks before shooting was scheduled to begin to cast him in the role.[18]
  • Samm Levine as PFC Gerold Hirschberg.[19] In his interview with Esquire, Levine mentioned that Tarantino asked him to come up with a backstory for his character. Hirschberg came from "a smaller family in Connecticut." His family owned "the second-largest deli in Hartford."
  • Paul Rust as PFC Andy Kagan: A character Tarantino added in after meeting Rust.[20] In his interview with Esquire, Rust describes Kagan as a farm boy from Illinois who wants to see some action[citation needed].
  • Michael Bacall as PFC Michael Zimmerman.
  • Carlos Fidel as PFC Simon Sakowitz.[21]

The British

  • Michael Fassbender as Lt. Archie Hicox: A "snappy and handsome British lieutenant" and a film critic in his pre-war civilian life. He is described in the screenplay as a "young George Sanders type". Tarantino originally talked to Simon Pegg about portraying Lt. Archie Hicox, but the actor was forced to drop out due to scheduling difficulties[22] having already agreed to appear in Spielberg's Tintin adaptation. However, Pegg did make Tarantino promise to cast him in his next film.[23]
  • Mike Myers as General Ed Fenech: A "legendary British military mastermind" who provides a plot to kill the German leadership.[24] Myers, a fan of Tarantino, had inquired about doing a role in the movie, since Myers's parents were in the British Armed Forces. The character's name is similar to actress Edwige Fenech. In terms of the dialect, he felt that it was a version of Received Pronunciation meeting the officer class, but mostly an attitude of “I′m fed up with this war and if this dude can end it, great because my country is in ruins.”[25]
  • Rod Taylor as Winston Churchill: The then-Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.[26] Taylor, who was effectively retired from acting and no longer had a talent agent, came out of retirement when Tarantino offered him the role of Churchill in the film.[27] Tarantino contacted Taylor's business manager to offer Taylor the part.[27] Taylor initially recommended British actor Albert Finney for the role during their conversation, but agreed to take the part because of Tarantino's "passion."[27] Tarantino said he would cast Finney if Taylor had turned him down.[27] In preparation for the role, Taylor watched dozens of DVDs with footage of Churchill in order to get the Prime Minister's posture, body language, and voice, including a lisp, correct.[27] Taylor shot his scenes in Germany for ten days.[27] Tarantino, who described himself as a fan of Taylor's work, especially the 1969 film Dark of the Sun, screened many of Taylor's films for the German actors and staff before he arrived for his scenes.[27] In the event, Taylor speaks only three lines in the finished film.

The French

The German Resistance

  • Diane Krüger as Bridget von Hammersmark: A popular film star in Germany and a spy for Great Britain.[14] Tarantino originally wanted Nastassja Kinski, daughter of famed actor Klaus Kinski, to play the role of Hammersmark before going to the younger Krüger.[12]

The Nazis

Christoph Waltz at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. He received the Best Actor Award at Cannes and multiple film critics believe that his performance is worthy of an Academy Award nomination.[31]
  • Christoph Waltz as Standartenführer Hans Landa, "The Jew Hunter": Landa is the central antagonist: a romantic, yet sinister pipe-smoking Austro-German SD officer so nicknamed in reference to his keen ability to locate Jews hiding throughout France.[14] He is well-versed in languages, being able to speak fluent English, French and Italian in addition to his native German. Landa can also be a charming detective. Tarantino has said that this might be the greatest and most complex character he's ever written. Tarantino originally sought for Leonardo DiCaprio to be cast as Landa.[32] The director then decided to have the character played by an older German actor.[11] The role ultimately went to the Austrian Waltz, who, according to Tarantino, "gave me my movie back," as he felt the movie couldn't be made without Landa as a character but feared the part was "unplayable."[33] Waltz then went on to win the Best Actor Award at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival for his performance, thanking Tarantino in his acceptance speech with, "You gave me my vocation back."
  • Daniel Brühl as Oberschütze Fredrick Zoller: A young German Wehrmacht war hero starring in Joseph Goebbels' newest propaganda film entitled "Stolz der Nation" (the shown scenes were directed by Eli Roth, who plays "The Bear Jew").[26][34] Despite liking the attention his exploits have brought him, he is not exactly proud that his fame comes from killing hundreds of Allied soldiers, claiming he had done it in self-defense. He is attracted to Shosanna, unaware of her heritage or her revenge plan.
  • August Diehl as Sturmbannführer Dieter Hellstrom: A uniformed Gestapo major.[26]
  • Alexander Fehling as Oberfeldwebel Wilhelm, a German Wehrmacht master sergeant celebrating the birth of his son at a French tavern.
  • Sönke Möhring as Gefreiter Butz,[26] a lone survivor of an attack by the Basterds.
  • Richard Sammel as Hauptfeldwebel Werner Rachtman, the ill-fated Nazi Wehrmacht sergeant[26]
  • Sylvester Groth as Joseph Goebbels.[26]
  • Martin Wuttke as Adolf Hitler.[26]
  • Julie Dreyfus as Francesca Mondino: Joseph Goebbels's Italian mistress and interpreter and favorite actress to appear in his films.[35]
  • Ludger Pistor as Wolfgang:[26]
  • Enzo G. Castellari as Hauptsturmführer: A nameless Nazi SS Captain, although strangely credited as "himself" in the film. Castellari had done a German cameo in his own Inglorious Bastards and reprised the role in this movie as well, but under a different rank and SS organization.[36][37][38]
  • Christian Brückner as the voice of Kliest, as heard on the phone with Hitler.

Other roles

  • Samuel L. Jackson as the Narrator, who is heard only twice in the movie, first explaining the notoriety of Hugo Stiglitz in the German army, and second explaining how nitrate film reels are highly flammable and could be of great help to Shosanna's plans.
  • Bela B. as the left usher in the cinema. Bela B., drummer of the German punk band Die Ärzte has often admitted he is a Tarantino fan.[citation needed]
  • Harvey Keitel (voice-only) as the OSS Commander who agrees to deal and gives Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) his final orders.
  • Bo Svenson as an American colonel in Nation's Pride. Tarantino says he gave Svenson a small cameo that would be hard to recognize.[citation needed] He is seen briefly in the movie but can be seen more closely in the Nation's Pride trailer.
  • Quentin Tarantino as an unnamed Nazi footman (the first to be depicted being scalped), and also as an American sergeant in the German propaganda film-within-a-film, "Nation's Pride", with a single spoken line: "Colonel, I implore you, we must destroy that tower!". It is a recurring feature of Tarantino's movies for the director himself to appear in a cameo role.[39]

Deleted characters

  • Cloris Leachman as Mrs. Himmelstein: An elderly Jewish woman living in Boston.[26] Although filmed, the scenes featuring Mrs. Himmelstein drinking tea with Donny Donowitz (and signing his trademark baseball bat afterwards) were cut from the final film.
  • Maggie Cheung as Madame Ada Mimieux: Although her scenes were cut for length reasons,[40] Cheung played Madame Mimieux, a beautiful French woman who owned the cinema, Le Gamaar, in Paris where much of the movie is set.[41] In the final cut, the cinema is owned by Shosanna using the name "Mimieux" as her alias. Ada is mentioned several times in the film, first when Shosanna mentions how her 'Aunt Ada and Uncle' died during questioning from Landa and again as "Madame Mimieux's nitrate film collection". According to Shosanna, Ada Mimieux died the previous year of fever.

Development

Quentin Tarantino spent more than a decade writing the script because, as he told Charlie Rose in an interview, he became "too precious about the page," meaning the story kept growing and expanding. Tarantino viewed the script as his ultimate masterpiece in the making, so he felt it had to become the best thing he'd ever written. Tarantino described an early premise in October 2001: "[It's] my bunch-of-guys-on-a-mission film. [It's] my Dirty Dozen or Where Eagles Dare or Guns of Navarone kind of thing."[42] The premise had begun as a Western and evolved into a World War II version of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly set in German-occupied France. The story changed to be about two maverick units from the United States Army that had "a habit of scalping Germans".[43]

According to Tarantino, a recurring hallmark in all his movies, including 'Inglourious Basterds', is that there is a different sense of humor in all his movies, which gets the audience to laugh at things that aren′t funny.[44]

Actor Michael Madsen, who appeared in Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill, was originally reported to star in the movie, then spelled Inglorious Bastards, which had been scheduled for release in 2004.[45] Tarantino has also talked to German actress Nastassja Kinski for the role of Bridget Von Hammersmark and flew to Germany to meet the actress but a deal was not reached.[46] By 2002, Tarantino found Inglourious Basterds to be a bigger film than planned and saw that other directors were working on World War II films.[47] By this point, he had produced three nearly finished scripts, saying, "[It was] some of the best writing I've ever done. But I couldn't come up with an ending."[48] Consequently, the director held off his planned film and moved on to direct the two-part movie Kill Bill (2003–2004) with Uma Thurman in the lead role.[47]

After the completion of Kill Bill, Tarantino trimmed the length of the script, which was reportedly three films long, to 222 pages,[49] and planned to begin production of Inglourious Basterds late in 2005.[43] The revised premise focused on a group of soldiers who escape from their executions and embark on a mission to help the Allies. He described the men as "not your normal hero types that are thrown into a big deal in the Second World War".[50] He continued to describe the film as a spaghetti western set in German-occupied France, specifically around the time of D-Day (June 6, 1944) and afterward.[51] He explained his intent:

I'm going to find a place that actually resembles, in one way or another, the Spanish locales they had in spaghetti westerns – a no man's land. With US soldiers and French peasants and the French resistance and German occupation troops, it was kind of a no man's land. That will really be my spaghetti Western but with World War II iconography. But the thing is, I won't be period specific about the movie. I'm not just gonna play a lot of Édith Piaf and Andrews Sisters. I can have rap, and I can do whatever I want. It's about filling in the viscera.[52]

Tarantino described the scale of the project:

It'll be epic and have my take of the sociological battlefield at that time with the racism and barbarism on all sides – the Nazi side, the American side, the black and Jewish soldiers and the French, because it all takes place in France.

In November 2004, Tarantino decided to hold off production of Inglourious Basterds and instead take an acting role in Takashi Miike's spaghetti western movie Sukiyaki Western Django and film a kung fu movie entirely in Mandarin.[53] This project foundered too, and he ultimately directed a part of the 2007 Grindhouse instead, returning to work on what was now renamed Inglourious Basterds after finishing promotion for Grindhouse.[54]

Production

Tarantino teamed with The Weinstein Company to prepare what he planned to be his epic masterpiece for production.[55] In September 2007, The Irish Times reported the film's scheduled release for 2008, writing, "Inglourious Basterds, a war movie that may eventually resemble The Dirty Dozen merged with Cross of Iron, has been predicted more often than the second coming of the Lord."[56]

In July 2008, Tarantino and the Weinsteins set up an accelerated production schedule to be completed for release at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009. The Weinstein Company co-financed the film and distributed it in the United States.[57] The company signed a deal with Universal Pictures to finance the rest of the film and distribute it internationally.[58] Germany and France[59] were scheduled as filming locations.[60] Filming was scheduled to begin on October 13, 2008,[10] and shooting started that week.[61] Special Effects were handled by K.N.B. EFX Group with Greg Nicotero.[26] Much of the film was shot and edited primarily in the famous Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam, Germany, the oldest large-scale film studio in the world, and in Bad Schandau, a small village near the German border with the Czech Republic.[17]

Following the film's screening at Cannes, Tarantino stated that he would be re-editing the film in June before its ultimate theatrical release, allowing him time to finish assembling several scenes that weren't completed in time for the hurried Cannes premiere.[62]

Exhibition

After the final draft of the script was finished, it was leaked on the web. Several Tarantino fan sites began posting reviews and excerpts from the script.[63] Principal photography started mid-October 2008 on location in Germany.

The first trailer for the film, a teaser, premiered on Entertainment Tonight on February 10, 2009, and was shown in US theaters the following week attached to Friday the 13th. The trailer features excerpts of Lt. Aldo Raine talking to the rest of 'the basterds', informing them of the plan to ambush and kill, torture, and scalp unwitting Nazi servicemen, intercut with various other scenes from the movie. It also features the spaghetti-westernesque kickers Once Upon A Time In Nazi Occupied France (originally considered as a subtitle for the film) and A Basterd's Work is Never Done, a line not spoken in the final film.

The film was released on August 19 in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and the Republic of Ireland, two days earlier than the US release. Some European cinemas, however, showed previews starting on August 15.

Reception

Critical reception

See also, List of awards and nominations received by Inglourious Basterds.

Based on 255 reviews, the film has an overall approval rating from critics of 88% rate by Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of 7.6/10.[64] Among Rotten Tomatoes' Cream of the Crop, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television, and radio programs,[65] the film holds an overall approval rating of 75 percent.[66] By comparison, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 69, based on 36 reviews, characterized as "Generally favorable reviews".[67]

Critic James Berardinelli gave the film his first 4/4 star review of 2009, stating, "With Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino has made his best movie since Pulp Fiction," and that it was "one hell of an enjoyable ride."[68] Roger Ebert also gave the film a four-star review, writing that "Quentin Tarantino’s 'Inglourious Basterds' is a big, bold, audacious war movie that will annoy some, startle others and demonstrate once again that he’s the real thing, a director of quixotic delights."[69] Anne Thompson of Variety praised the film, but opined that it was not a masterpiece, claiming, "Inglourious Basterds is great fun to watch, but the movie isn't entirely engaging... You don't jump into the world of the film in a participatory way; you watch it from a distance, appreciating the references and the masterful mise-en-scene. This is a film that will benefit from a second viewing".[70]

Not all reviews have been positive. British critic Peter Bradshaw stated he was "struck... by how exasperatingly awful and transcendentally disappointing it is"[71]. Author and critic Daniel Mendelsohn was disturbed by the portrayal of Jewish-American soldiers mimicking German atrocities done to European Jews, stating, "In Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino indulges this taste for vengeful violence by—well, by turning Jews into Nazis".[72]

The film has met some criticism from Jewish press, as well. In Tablet, Liel Liebowitz criticizes the film as lacking moral depth. He argues that the power of film lies in its ability to impart knowledge and subtle understanding, but Inglourious Basterds serves more as an "alternative to reality, a magical and Manichean world where we needn’t worry about the complexities of morality, where violence solves everything, and where the Third Reich is always just a film reel and a lit match away from cartoonish defeat".[73] On Galus Australis, Anthony Frosh has criticised the film for failing to develop its characters sufficiently, labeling the film "Enthralling, but lacking in Jewish content".[74]

The reactions of critics at the Cannes premiere were mixed. The French newspaper Le Monde dismissed it, claiming, "Tarantino gets lost in a fictional World War II".[75] However, the movie received an eight to eleven minute standing ovation by the critics after its first screening at Cannes.[76][77] In particular, Christoph Waltz was singled out for Cannes honors, receiving the Best Leading Actor award at the end of the festival.[78] Movie critic Devin Faraci of Chud.com stated: "The cry has been raised long before this review, but let me continue it: Christoph Waltz needs not an Oscar nomination but rather an actual Oscar in his hands.... he must have gold".[79] The film received four Golden Globe nominations including Best Motion Picture (Drama), Best Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role In A Motion Picture for Christoph Waltz, Best Director (Motion Picture) for Quentin Tarantino, and Best Screenplay (Motion Picture) for Quentin Tarantino. The film also received three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations including Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, Outstanding Male Actor in a Supporting Role for Christoph Waltz, and Outstanding Female Actor in a Supporting Role for Diane Kruger.

Box office

Opening in 3,165 screens, the film took $14.3 million on the opening Friday of its North American release,[80] on the way to an opening weekend gross of $38 million, giving Quentin Tarantino a personal best weekend opening and the number one spot at the box office, ahead of District 9.[81] The film fell to number two in its second weekend, behind The Final Destination, with takings of $20 million, taking $73.8 million in its first ten days.[82] The film also opened at number one in the UK box office, taking $5.7 million (£3.5m).[83] With a current gross of $120.1 million in the United States and Canada and $194 million in other territories, its worldwide gross as of November 29, 2009 is $314.1 million.[84] Inglourious Basterds is currently Tarantino's highest grossing film, both in the United States and worldwide, and The Weinstein Company's first box-office hit since the film 1408.[85]

Censorship

Universal Pictures censored the film's German publicity site, as the display of Nazi iconography is mostly illegal in Germany. The title has the swastika removed and the Stahlhelm (steel helmet) has a bullet hole instead of the Nazi symbol.[86] The download section of the German site has been revised to exclude wallpaper downloads that feature the swastika openly.[87] Though the advertisement posters and wallpapers must not show Nazi iconography, this does not apply to "works of art" according to German law,[88] so the movie itself is not censored in Germany. Nazi iconography such as swastikas and the Runic letters of the SS logo were also removed from posters for the film in the UK, although magazine advertisements with the same layout retained them. In Poland, the artwork on all advertisements and on DVD packaging is unchanged and the title was specially translated nonliterary to Bękarty Wojny (Wartime Bastards) so that it would have an "O" to place the artwork. Despite Poland being one of the countries most destroyed by the Nazis and advertisements being placed in a lot of places there were no complaints about the artwork.

Home media

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 15, 2009 in the United States,[89] December 7, 2009[90] in the UK, and December 17, 2009 in Australia[91]. A single-disc edition and a two-disc special edition were released.

Soundtrack

Main article: Inglourious Basterds (soundtrack)

One of the more familiar tunes is the opening theme, taken from the folk ballad "The Green Leaves of Summer", composed by Dimitri Tiomkin and Paul Francis Webster for the opening of John Wayne's movie "The Alamo" (1960). As is usual for a Quentin Tarantino film, the music used in the film is eclectic, but mostly consisting of music in the spaghetti-western genre.[92] The soundtrack was released on August 18, 2009.

Tarantino originally wanted Ennio Morricone to compose the soundtrack for the film. Morricone was unable to because of the sped-up production schedule of the film conflicted with his scoring of the Giuseppe Tornatore feature Baarìa.[93] However, Tarantino did use several tracks by Morricone from previous films in the soundtrack.

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