INGLORIOUS BASTARDS

Inglourious Basterds is a 2009 war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino and starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth and Mélanie Laurent. The film tells the story of two plots to assassinate the Nazi Germany political leadership, one planned by a young French Jewish cinema proprietor (Laurent), and the other by a team of Jewish Allied soldiers led by Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Pitt).
Development on Inglourious Basterds began in 1998, when Tarantino wrote the script for the film. Tarantino struggled with the ending and chose to hold off filming and moved on to direct the two-part movie Kill Bill. After directing a part of the 2007 film, Grindhouse, Tarantino returned to work on Inglourious Basterds. The film went into production in October 2008 and was filmed in Germany with a production budget of $70 million. Inglourious Basterds premiered on May 20, 2009 at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the prestigious Palme d'Or. It was widely released in theaters in the United States and Europe in August 2009 by The Weinstein Company and Universal Studios.
The film was successful at the box office, grossing $320,351,773 in theaters worldwide, making it Tarantino's highest-grossing film to date. It has received multiple awards and nominations, including eight Academy Award nominations. For his portrayal of Hans Landa, Christoph Waltz won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival, the BAFTA Award and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

PLOT

In 1941, SS Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) arrives at a dairy farm in France to interrogate Perrier LaPadite (Denis Menochet) about rumors he is hiding the Jewish Dreyfus family. Landa persuades the farmer to confess to hiding the family underneath his floor. Landa orders the SS soldiers into the house to shoot the floorboards where they are hiding. The entire family is killed, with the exception of the teenage Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent), whom Landa allows to escape.
In the spring of 1944, Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) recruits a team of eight Jewish-American soldiers in Italy for a mission to get behind enemy lines and bring fear to all German servicemen. He tells the soldiers that they each owe him a hundred Nazi scalps. They operate with a "take no prisoners" attitude and come to be known as the 'Basterds'. One survivor of an attack by the 'Basterds', Private Butz (Sönke Möhring), is interviewed by Adolf Hitler (Martin Wuttke). Butz's account of the attack is shown in flashback: his squad was ambushed and his Sergeant was beaten to death with a baseball bat by Sgt. Donny Donowitz (Eli Roth), known by the Germans as "The Bear Jew". Butz then reveals that Raine carved a swastika onto his forehead with a knife.
In June 1944, Shosanna has assumed a new identity as 'Emmanuelle Mimieux' and is operating a cinema in Paris. She meets Frederick Zoller (Daniel Brühl), a German sniper whose exploits are to be celebrated in a Nazi propaganda film, Stolz der Nation (Nation's Pride). Zoller is attracted to Shosanna and convinces Joseph Goebbels (Sylvester Groth) to hold the premiere of his film at Shosanna's cinema. Shosanna realizes that the presence of several high-ranking Nazi officials provides an opportunity for revenge and resolves to burn down the cinema during the premiere by using a large quantity of flammable nitrate film. The British also learn of the premiere and dispatch Lt. Archie Hicox (Michael Fassbender) to infiltrate the event aided by the 'Basterds' and German film actress and double agent, Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Krüger). Hicox and two of the 'Basterds' meet with von Hammersmark at a tavern where a Gestapo Major (August Diehl) notices Hicox's odd accent and that he gives the wrong three-fingered order for drinks. The resulting standoff erupts into a firefight, leaving everyone dead except von Hammersmark. Raine interrogates von Hammersmark, and upon learning that Hitler will be attending the premiere, devises a plan where he, along with Donny and Omar (Omar Doom), will pose as von Hammersmark's Italian escorts at the premiere. Landa later investigates the tavern, retrieving von Hammersmark's shoe and an autographed napkin.
At the premiere, Landa asks to see von Hammersmark privately, where he makes her try on the shoe. He violently strangles her to death after proving that she is in league with the 'Basterds'. He then orders Raine and Private Utivich (B. J. Novak) to be arrested. Landa makes a lucrative deal with Raine's commanding officer to be granted a full military pension, immunity from his war crimes and American citizenship, in exchange for allowing Donny and Omar—still seated in the cinema—to kill the Nazi high command. During the film, Zoller goes to the projection room to see Shosanna and angrily protests about her rejecting him. When his back is turned, she shoots him multiple times, but he manages to shoot her dead before succumbing to his wounds. The film is then interrupted by an inserted close-up of Shosanna informing the audience that they are going to be killed by a Jew. At the same time, Shosanna's employee and lover, Marcel (Jacky Ido), who has locked and bolted all the exits of the cinema, ignites the nitrate film stacked behind the screen. Omar and Donowitz begin to shoot the Nazis, with Hitler and Goebbels among the casualties, until the timers on their bombs go off and destroy the cinema, killing everyone inside.
Landa and his radio operator drive Raine and Utivich to the American lines, and according to the deal, surrenders to Raine and hands over his weapons, allowing Utivich to handcuff him. To Landa's dismay Raine then shoots the German driver dead and carves a swastika into Landa's forehead, proclaiming that "I think this just might be my masterpiece".

Inglourious Basterds


Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Produced by Lawrence Bender
Written by Quentin Tarantino
Starring Brad Pitt
Christoph Waltz
Michael Fassbender
Eli Roth
Diane Kruger
Daniel Brühl
Til Schweiger
Mélanie Laurent
Cinematography Robert Richardson
Editing by Sally Menke
Studio A Band Apart
Zehnte Babelsberg
Distributed by The Weinstein Company
Universal Studios
Release date(s) May 20, 2009
(Cannes)
August 20, 2009 (Germany)
August 21, 2009
(United States)
Running time 153 minutes
Country United States
Germany[1]
Language English
French
German
Italian
Budget $70 million[2]
Gross revenue $320,351,773[3]