Review: Inglorious Basterds 4K UHD
4K UHD Blu-ray: Inglorious Basterds (2009)
Inglourious Basterds is a 2009 black comedy war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger and Mélanie Laurent.
The film tells an alternate history story of two converging plots to assassinate Nazi Germany’s leadership at a Paris cinema—one through a British operation largely carried out by a team of Jewish American soldiers led by First Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Pitt), and another by French Jewish cinema proprietor Shosanna Dreyfus (Laurent) who seeks to avenge her murdered family. Both are faced against Hans Landa (Waltz), an SS colonel with a fearsome reputation for hunting Jews.
In 1941, SS officer Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) interrogates a French farmer about a hiding Jewish family. Landa urges the farmer, a father of 4 daughters, to give up the Jewish family for the safety of his own. The Farmer indicates they are hiding under his floorboards, and Landa directs his soldiers to shoot the floorboards and massacre them. However, one member of the hidden family escapes, Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent).
Three years later, U.S. Army Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) recruits Jewish-American soldiers to the ‘Basterds’ a black ops commando unit tasked with instilling terror amongst the Nazi troops, scalping, killing and carving swastikas in their foreheads.
Shosanna is now Emmanuelle Mimieux, and she runs a cinema. Is that enough of the plot? Yep, because it’s likely anyone reading this has seen all of Tarantino’s films. After all, he is one of our greatest modern filmmakers.
This has a stellar cast who all chew up the scenery, none so much as Pitt who at once is comical and dark with his good ole boy southern accent.
Much like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Tarantino does what all storytellers would love to do, rewrite history, and he does so with panache, humour and gore.
Yet again Arrow give us a beautiful 4K UHD release of a classic film and a full package of extras with a very enjoyable interview with Greg Nicotero.
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
Release Date: 13th January 2025.
Review by Tina from discs kindly supplied by Arrow Films via Fetch Publicity.