The Best Movie Of Each Year From 1925-2025

Honourable Mentions: Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moon, Up

Inglourious Basterds marks a transformative moment in Quentin Tarantino's filmography. Not necessarily in the sense that it's more technically astute or cuttingly scripted than his early efforts, but instead because of the themes it dwells on.

Inglourious Basterds is, like most of Tarantino's films, one that is slavishly devoted to the genre cinema the filmmaker grew up with - in this case, classic war movies, Spaghetti Westerns, and "Macaroni" combat pictures. But unlike Jackie Brown or Kill Bill, Tarantino's sixth effort as a director begins a continuing transition towards themes of historical righteousness and catharsis, effectively taking history's greatest monsters and putting them through a well-deserved meatgrinder.

With Inglourious, said monsters are of course the Nazis, and yes, that meat-grinding moment is right up there with the most satisfying in Tarantino's oeuvre. He does obviously have the historical context to wield in making that alt-history beatdown hit as hard as it does, but that's not to discount the skill and craft on display in the screenplay, direction, and casting. Christoph Waltz's Hans Landa deserves singular praise for being such a good villain, and on top of that, you have the added element of gratification that it's a cinema that becomes the Nazis' tomb, and the last thing they see is their propaganda going up in flames.

Throw in a couple of the most suspenseful scenes this side of 2000, and you have what could be Tarantino's best ever work.