WRITTEN and DIRECTED by Quentin Tarantino

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS is Quentin Tarantino’s World War II wish fulfillment fantasy.  He crafts the World War Two tale about a squad of Jewish American soldiers who kill Nazis and Shosanna who wants revenge against the Nazis who killed her family in such a way that only QT could pull it off.  Tarantino manages to combine action, humor, and long conversations into a full assault on the senses.   Brad Pitt sticks out like a sore thumb when impersonating an Italian stuntman, but that is exactly the point.   QT wants to make fun of the stereotypes and also make a Spaghetti Western set in World War Two.  The three characters that stand out are Shosanna (who ends up owning a small Paris movie theatre), Bridget Von Hammersmark (a German actress working as a double agent for the British and her time is too brief in the film), and Colonel Hans Landa (aka the Jew Hunter with a stellar and sometime over-the-top performance by Christoph Waltz). 

The two stories start to converge when Shosanna catches the eye of a German war hero, Fredrick Zoller, and he convinces Joseph Goebbels to hold the premiere of A Nation’s Pride (a propaganda film about how Zoller held an entire town against 300 men) at her theatre.   Shosanna starts hatching a plan involving the nitrate film to burn all the Nazis alive while watching the film.  Meanwhile, the British and Americans have Operation Kino in progress as they want to blow up the same movie theatre.   Things go wrong and you end up with quite a movie.   No else than Tarantino could use a song from the Cat People remake to start the beginning of one Chapter of the movie and use Spaghetti Western music for other scenes.  When you know who the mad director behind this World War Two film is, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS works because no one else could have pulled off a WW2 film like this one.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

DISC 1-

Three extended and alternate scenes.

The complete NATION’S PRIDE feature.

Theatrical trailers for INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

DISC 2-

ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION WITH QUENTIN TARANTINO, BRAD PITT, AND ELVIS MITCHELL-  Elvist Mitchell chats with QT and Brad Pitt about the film (and making it).

THE MAKING OF NATION’S PRIDE-  a faux promo featurette that has interviews with the characters who made and were in the film in the INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS universe.

THE ORIGINAL INGLORIOUS BASTARDS-  a look at the original film, the director and actor of the original who had cameos in QT’s film, and a trailer for INGLORIOUS BASTARDS

A CONVERSATION WITH ROD TAYLOR- Rod Taylor talks about he got to play Winston Churchhill and how it is to work with QT

ROD TAYLOR ON VICTORIA BITTER- Rod relates a story about how QT brought Victoria Bitter and the film crew was shown his films by QT

QUENTIN TARANTINO’S CAMERA ANGEL- takes of the camera clapper who starts all of the takes in the film.

HI SALLYS- QT’s way of saying hi to his editor Sally- see footage of QT. his camera angel, and cast saying hi to Sally during filming.

FILM POSTER GALLERY TOUR WITH ELVIS MITCHELL- Elvis Mitchell talks about the various posters in the film and the Nazi propaganda film industry

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS POSTER GALLERY- various US and international posters for the film.

FINAL ANALYSIS:  INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS is Tarantino’s best.  His WWII film is entertaining a second time as it is on first viewing.  The extras are entertaining even though I wish QT did an audio commentary (or the disc had a behind-the-scenes look at the production of the film).

The DVD review is (c)12-18-2009 and the movie review is (c)8-21-2009 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com