Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds arrived in 2009 as one of the most anticipated films of that year, and one of the more unusual war films you are likely to see. Set in Nazi-occupied France during the Second World War, it follows two parallel storylines: a squad of Jewish-American soldiers tasked with spreading terror through the ranks of the Third Reich, and a young French-Jewish woman running a Parisian cinema who finds herself with an extraordinary opportunity for revenge. The film takes the bones of a pulpy 1978 Italian war picture by Enzo Castellari and transforms them into something thoroughly Tarantino's own, a film that wears its genre influences on its sleeve while doing whatever it likes with the actual history. The tagline, "Once upon a time in Nazi-occupied France," tells you everything you need to know about the relationship between this film and factual record. It is a fairy tale with rifles.

Tarantino, who wrote and directed the film, had been developing the script for roughly a decade before cameras rolled. Produced across Germany and France with backing from Universal Pictures, The Weinstein Company, and Tarantino's own A Band Apart banner, it ran to a two-and-a-half-hour runtime, which for Tarantino is almost restrained. By 2009 he had built a filmography of films that people argue about endlessly, from the sun-drenched crime rhythms of Jackie Brown to the split-screen revenge epic of Kill Bill: Vol. 2, and Inglourious Basterds sits comfortably among the more ambitious entries in that catalogue. It premiered at Cannes, where it competed for the Palme d'Or, and went on to become a significant commercial success. The film's dialogue is a good deal of the point: long, slow-burning exchanges that are more about the pressure building beneath the surface than whatever is being said out loud.

The cast is a strong one, mixing established Hollywood names with European talent that, in some cases, became considerably better known as a result. Brad Pitt, whose range across the 2000s included everything from the anxious ensemble work of Burn After Reading to the ensemble chaos of Babel, plays Lieutenant Aldo Raine with a broad Tennessee drawl and an almost comic swagger that gives the Basterds storyline much of its energy. Mélanie Laurent, a French actress who had worked primarily in European productions before this, brings a quieter, more controlled intensity to Shosanna, the cinema owner at the centre of the film's other thread. Michael Fassbender, still in the early stages of building his profile with international audiences, appears as a British officer whose cover story depends on his ability to pass for German. And then there is Christoph Waltz, the Austrian actor who plays SS Colonel Hans Landa, a polyglot detective known as "The Jew Hunter." Waltz had spent years working in Austrian and German television before this role, and the performance, all courtly manners and barely concealed malice, won him the Best Actor prize at Cannes and, later, an Academy Award. It is the kind of performance that tends to define a film in people's memories.

Business is good. That farmhouse intro scene is one of the greatest opening sequences in cinema history. Tension so thick you could cut it with a butter knife. Christoph Waltz delivers the most terrifyingly charming villain performance of his career. Every word dripping with menace, every smile a veiled threat. From the moment he drinks that milk, you know you’re in for something special. The film barrels forward with incredible set pieces, sharp dialogue, and a cast of characters that are all dialled up to 11. Brad Pitt’s Lieutenant Aldo Raine is endlessly quotable ("we’re in the killin’ Nazi business, and cousin... business is a-boomin’"), Mélanie Laurent’s Shosanna is captivating, and the underground tavern scene is one of Tarantino’s finest. How he writes scenes like this I'll never understand but they're SO Tarantino. But it does lose a little steam in the middle. Some scenes feel like they revel in the self-indulgence a bit too much, slowing the momentum before it punches back with that explosive, operatic finale. And while Tarantino’s love for messing with history makes for an undeniably entertaining climax, I can’t help but feel like the real-life story of the Basterds was already amazing enough. The film didn’t need to go full "alternate history spectacle" with Hitler getting obliterated in a hail of gunfire (as nice as that is to imagine). Still, minor gripes aside, this is Tarantino firing on all cylinders. Violent, stylish, witty, and powered by a career-best performance from Waltz. Not quite his magnum opus, but it's up there.

For me, that is really where this film sits in the Tarantino canon: not the untouchable top, but close enough that it barely matters. Waltz's Landa is the sort of screen villain you find yourself thinking about days later, which is no small thing. I do think the middle stretch is where your patience gets tested if you are not already fully on board with Tarantino's particular mode of self-aware, drawn-out tension, and I have had that conversation with more than one person who bounced off the film for exactly that reason. But the highs here are very high. I'm curious to see how it sits against The Hateful Eight, which leans even further into that same chamber-piece, slow-burn pressure cooker approach. Sometimes the meal is worth the wait. Sometimes you just want them to get on with it.

Rating: ★★★★  | Year: 2009  | Watched: 2025-04-02

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Trailer

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Quentin Tarantino: Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019) · Pulp Fiction (1994) · Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) · Reservoir Dogs (1992)
More with Brad Pitt: Babel (2006) · Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) · Burn After Reading (2008) · Twelve Monkeys (1995)
More from Germany: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Cemetery Man (1994) · The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) · Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)
More thriller: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Angst (1983) · The Long Walk (2025) · Punishment Park (1971)