
Inglourious Basterds [4K UHD]
Studio: Arrow Video
Jan 24, 2025 Web Exclusive Photography by MVD Publicity
“Kindness” is not a word I typically associate with director Quentin Tarantino’s filmography. Excessive violence and gleeful profanity, all buoyed by stylized dialogue, tend to be his trademarks, and that leaves little room for meditations on the goodness of humanity. In many ways, Tarantino’s films work best when they remain committed to focusing on the dark recesses within a human soul and find ways to invite viewers to sympathize with the presence of things they may find distasteful.
His 2009 war film Inglourious Basterds, which tells an alternate history about two different yet converging schemes to assassinate Hitler, orbits these same tendencies. Arrow has released a two-disc, 4K edition of the film. While the film’s brutality hits no less than when it first shocked Cannes (in many ways, its celebration of those who root out and combat normalized Nazism and fascism has only become more relevant), a video essay included in the film’s extras from film critic Water Chaw made me think of Tarantino’s films in a new light. Entitled “Making It Right”, Chaw explains that while Tarantino is remembered most for how “cool” his movies are (see the aforementioned stylized action scenes), Chaw finds that Inglorious Basterds is also a film that showcases a more gentle, sensitive, peaceful side to the filmmaker, one that shouldn’t be overlooked–despite the film’s subject matter. Highlighting the ways Tarantino uses color or reframes the outdoor landscape as a place of great beauty amid cruelties being enacted upon it, Chaw urges viewers to watch the film with these ideas in mind, seeing the film as not just an alternative history revenge story but a celebration of how goodness can persevere even while evil reigns. Features like this are just one of the reasons to pick up this new 4K release. Even if you’ve seen the film many times, the additional content and bonus features will almost certainly reframe your next viewing experience.
Set in Nazi-occupied France during World War II, the two groups in Inglourious Basterds could not be more disparate on the surface. Still, they’re united by their shared goal of political violence: one group, a coterie of Jewish Americans by First Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) is carving their way through Germany by killing as many Nazis as they can, hoping to instill a proper fear in the Third Reich’s rule. Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) is a French Jewish cinema projector, whose family was killed after being ruthlessly hunted down by Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), an Austrian SS Officer with a specialty in hunting down Jewish people trying to evade capture. After Hitler and many other high-ranking Nazi officials are confirmed to attend Shosanna’s theater for a premiere of a new German propaganda film, unbeknownst to each other, Shosanna and the Basterds each plan a way to kill Hitler and his company, while Landa attempts to stop the Basterds.
Having not seen the film in a while, I was struck by the ways the 4K release deepened the detail of scenes without removing any of the luster and magic that may come from something not being as high definition. Tarantino’s use of red throughout the film is of note; that color pops much more vibrantly here. Sequences like the famed Tavern scene are imbued with a new sense of tension and fear because of the way viewers can better see details. In that scene, a group of undercover Allied agents infiltrate a tavern where some Nazis are relaxing. It’s a nail biting sequence already, but it’s made more so due to the way the film’s details are more apparent. We can see lines of worry on actors’ faces, and the steely poker faces that threaten to break under pressure, in even more detail.
There are many other great video essays and behind-the-scenes videos included in Arrow’s release, but a standout is one with the film’s editor, Fred Raskin. He shares valuable insights about editing and how sometimes, the pace of a film can feel faster not just by cutting sequences, but by adding more. In the aforementioned tavern sequence, he shares how the scene prior featured the Basterds and the Allied agents discussing their next moves. To make the film shorter, they cut that sequence when the film premiered at Cannes but after Cannes, they decided to add it back in; people cited that the Tavern sequence felt more integrated into the story as a result of that added sequence and made the film go by much faster even though, ironically, it technically made the film longer.
Buyers can also expect to have a double-sided fold-out poster, a coaster/beermat from the in-universe tavern, La Louisianne, three postcard-sized double-sided art cards, a strudel recipe card, and a reversible disc sleeve with original and specifically commissioned for this release artwork by Dare Creative. The edition is currently sold out, but any fan of Tarantino’s work would find much to enjoy and celebrate with this release, if not just for the joy of seeing this satisfying revenge film get fully rendered in 4K, but also for a new perspective on the gentleness of one of cinema’s most thrill-seeking auteurs.
(www.arrowvideo.com/4k/inglourious-basterds-limited-edition-4k-uhd)
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