If period drama fans are in need of another war film to watch, then look no further. The 2009 film Inglourious Basterds is set during the Second World War, shortly after the D-Day landing. It begins in the first year of Germany's occupation of France. Allied officer Lt. Aldo Raine (played by Brad Pitt) assembles a team of Jewish soldiers to commit violent acts of retribution against the Nazis, including the taking of their scalps. He and his men join forces with Bridger von Hammersmark, a German actress and undercover agent, to bring down the leaders of the Third Reich.
Their fates converge with theatre owner Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent), who seeks to avenge the Nazis' execution of her family. The black comedy tells an alternate history of two converging plots to assassinate Nazi Germany's leadership at a Paris cinema.
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It is understood that director Quentin Tarantino spent just over a decade creating the film's script because he became "too precious about the page", meaning that the story kept growing and expanding.
At the time, he viewed the script as his masterpiece in the making, but put it on the back burner to shoot the two-part film, Kill Bill, before it was released in theaters in 2009. The film has since been described as "insanely OTT" with "tension ramped up to almost unbearable levels in a volley of standout scenes".
It has been ranked among the 100 best films of all time, with only four war films ranking above it in a list compiled by world-renowned film magazine Empire. Those films are Lawrence of Arabia, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, and Apocalypse Now.
Despite the 2009 film from Quentin Tarantino leaving Netflix at the start of this month, viewers can still stream the blockbuster film on a rival streaming platform. Now residing on Amazon Prime Video, viewers can be sure that the two and a half long film is worth every second.
The film now boasts an impressive score of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes and a score of 8.4 out of 10 on IMDb. Following its release and overwhelming praise, actor Christoph Waltz won the Best Supporting Actor prize at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, abd BAFTAs for his portrayal of Nazi SS officer, Hans Landa.
In fact, Tarantino said he might never have made the film if he had not "found someone as good as Christoph". Despite hitting theatres more than a decade ago, viewers are still lauding it with praise online.
One user gushed: "Inglorious Basterds is quintessentially Tarantino and a masterpiece that will be considered a classic fifty years from now." Another agreed: "Inglorious Basterds is glorious!!!!!!! The film is so enjoyable, so entertaining, so smartly written, so well-crafted, so beautifully lensed, and so well-acted that I didn't want it to end."
A third chimed in with: "It all makes for one bloody, nasty, funny film. And despite its indulgences, one that will rightly be hailed as a comeback for its rockstar director."
2025-12-12T14:34:40Z