Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Inglourious Basterds is a 2009 drama movie directed by Quentin Tarantino, with a running time of 2h 33m. It stars Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent and Christoph Waltz.
Quentin Tarantino rewrites World War II as a revenge fantasy staged in movie houses and farmhouse kitchens. In Nazi-occupied France, Lieutenant Aldo Raine leads a squad of Jewish American soldiers spreading terror behind enemy lines, while cinema owner Shosanna Dreyfus nurses a private plan of her own. Circling both is Colonel Hans Landa, played by Christoph Waltz, a charming interrogator whose politeness is the scariest thing on screen. Tarantino stretches tension across long multilingual conversations where a single wrong word can turn lethal. Brutal, funny, and unashamedly a fiction, it treats the war as raw material for pulp justice.
Quick answers
What is Inglourious Basterds about?
Quentin Tarantino rewrites World War II as a revenge fantasy staged in movie houses and farmhouse kitchens. In Nazi-occupied France, Lieutenant Aldo Raine leads a squad of Jewish American soldiers spreading terror behind enemy lines, while cinema owner Shosanna Dreyfus nurses a private plan of her own. Circling both is Colonel Hans Landa, played by Christoph Waltz, a charming interrogator whose politeness is the scariest thing on screen. Tarantino stretches tension across long multilingual conversations where a single wrong word can turn lethal. Brutal, funny, and unashamedly a fiction, it treats the war as raw material for pulp justice.
When was Inglourious Basterds released?
Inglourious Basterds was released on 2 August 2009.
How long is Inglourious Basterds?
Inglourious Basterds runs 2h 33m.
Who made Inglourious Basterds?
Inglourious Basterds was directed by Quentin Tarantino.
Where can I watch Inglourious Basterds?
Inglourious Basterds is available on Peacock, Peacock Premium, Amazon, AppleTV and Fandango at Home.
Where to watch Inglourious Basterds
Stream: Peacock, Peacock Premium
Rent: Amazon, AppleTV, Fandango at Home
Official site
https://web.archive.org/web/20091213043412/http://inglouriousbasterds-movie.com/
Cast
- Brad Pitt as LT. Aldo Raine
- Mélanie Laurent as Shosanna
- Christoph Waltz as COL. Hans Landa
- Eli Roth as SGT. Donny Donowitz
- Michael Fassbender as LT. Archie Hicox
- Diane Kruger as Bridget von Hammersmark
- Daniel Brühl as Fredrick Zoller
- Til Schweiger as SGT. Hugo Stiglitz
- Gedeon Burkhard as CPL. Wilhelm Wicki
- Jacky Ido as Marcel
- B.J. Novak as PFC. Smithson Utivich
- Omar Doom as PFC. Omar Ulmer
Similar movies
Explore Inglourious Basterds guides
Inglourious Basterds in our writing
- Companion guide: Alternate History
- Companion guide: Resistance & the Underground
- Companion guide: World War II
A few thoughts on Inglourious Basterds
For more alternate-history nerve, BioShock Infinite drops you into a floating city where American myth curdles into menace. Red Dead Redemption 2 shares the slow, dialogue-heavy tension and the theme of violent men chasing a reckoning. Matahari revisits real wartime espionage and the danger of playing a role behind enemy lines. Barefoot Gen shows the same war from the ground, without the pulp.
World War II battlefields shot with grit and dread
Inglourious Basterds spends much of its runtime in occupied France, but its war is loud, dirty, and dangerous. These films and Barefoot Gen follow soldiers and civilians through the real horrors of the Second World War, trading Tarantino's revenge fantasy for mud, fear, and the cost of every advance.
Ordinary people outwitting the Nazi occupation
Shosanna hides in plain sight while the Basterds strike from the shadows, and Inglourious Basterds loves a clever plan against impossible odds. These stories follow partisans, rescuers, and one theatre troupe who fool their occupiers through nerve and disguise rather than firepower, keeping their humanity intact under a brutal regime.
Stylized crime with a mean, darkly funny streak
Tarantino laces Inglourious Basterds with sudden violence and pitch-black comedy, and these picks share that appetite. From gangster empires to quiet men pushed too far, they treat brutality as spectacle and character study at once, never flinching from the mess their antiheroes leave behind.
Slow-burn standoffs where the talking is the weapon
The basement bar and the opening farmhouse show Inglourious Basterds at its tensest, two people circling a truth that could get someone killed. These thrillers live in the same nervous space, stretching interrogations and negotiations until a single word tips everything into violence.