It’s quite mad to think that there was a time when Christoph Waltz wasn’t massively recognisable and basically a household name, but in reality that was just any time before late 2009.
That was when Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds hit cinemas, and instantly elevated his profile to a higher plane, his role as Hans Landa later winning him an Oscar (his first of two so far) and assuring him of lifelong fame.
Now, Inglorious Basterds is leaving Netflix here in the UK – you’ve only got until the end of 15 May to watch it, a blow for Netflix in its endless chase to be named the best streaming service out there.
It’s a typically bloody bit of work from Tarantino, a macabre imagining of what it might look like if a special unit of undercover soldiers made it into Nazi-occupied France during World War II.
With the sole aim of causing bodily harm to as many Nazis as possible, that unit is led by Brad Pitt’s Aldo Raine with a scenery-chewing accent that simply cannot wrap around any European languages.
For all that it has some unbelievably bloody and gory moments of explosive release, Inglorious Basterds is still probably best remembered for two scenes of almost unbearable tension.
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In the first, the film’s memorable opening sequence, Waltz’s SS investigator interrogates a French farmer about whether he’s harbouring any Jewish refugees, ratcheting up his presence from benevolent smiles to gleeful psychological abuse.
In the second, Michael Fassbender makes a short but brilliant appearance as Lieutenant Archie Hicox, a British commando who joins the unit undercover to help it infiltrate a bar full of Nazi officers – a scene that all hinges on a tiny detail that will have you gasping when it’s revealed.
They’re two simply unbelievable sequences, and the film that blankets them is pretty great – evidenced by its 89% Rotten Tomatoes score – so it’s more than worth your time to catch this brilliant slice of Tarantino before it’s gone from Netflix. Again, you only have until midnight on 15 May to do so.
If you want to enjoy the Nazi-killing in the best possible quality, though, you still have time to pick up a new TV to watch it with – check out our list of the best OLED TV options as a starting place.
