Watch the full version of Inglourious Basterds film-within-a-film Nation's Pride. Inglorious Basterds promised to be Quentin Tarantino's unique take on classic World War 2 ensemble movies like The Dirty Dozen or Where Eagles Dare - and it more than lived up to that promise. In place of lengthy battle scenes, however, the most dynamic sequences often involved characters sitting at a table talking, such as the introduction with Hans Landa interrogating a farmer or the famous "Who Am I?" card game midway through the movie.
Inglourious Basterds kicked off a run of Quentin Tarantino movies that featured him rewriting history. He followed the movie with Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, which all drew from real life in some form. Inglourious Basterds also featured a prominent supporting role for director Eli Roth as the "Bear Jew," who becomes feared amongst the Nazis for his habit of beating soldiers to death with a baseball bat.
A key Inglourious Basterds' storyline centers around a Nazi propaganda movie titled Stolz der Nation, AKA Nation's Pride. The film is based on German sniper Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Brühl) - who plays himself, of course - who killed 250 enemy soldiers while defending a tower. The climax of Inglourious Basterds is set in a cinema hosting the premiere of Nation's Pride, where glimpses of it are shown. The Nation's Pride short itself later arrived on home video releases of Inglourious Basterds (where Hans Landa had a detective career after the movie's story ended).
Eli Roth Directed Movie Within A Movie Nation's Pride
The Nation's Pride short - which can be viewed here - was helmed by Roth and filmed over three days. The film, in true propaganda style, depicts Zoller effortlessly taking down Allied soldiers, who are depicted as buffoonish or cowardly in their attempts to seize the tower. Nation's Pride also features a cameo from Bo Svenson - star of the original The Inglorious Bastards from 1978 - as the American Colonel leading the assault. If the short feels a little choppy, that's because it was always intended to feel like pieces of a much larger movie, instead of telling a complete story in its own right.
Taking the fake film-within-a-film structure one step further, there's a making-of Nation's Pride featurette including on Inglourious Basterds DVD and Blu-ray releases. This includes interviews with director Alois von Eichberg - played by Eli Roth - in addition to Joseph Goebbels (Sylvester Groth) and Zoller himself. This covers the intent behind the production and the characters' belief that Nation's Pride is a true masterpiece. For the cinephile viewers, Nation's Pride also features some nods to Battleship Potemkin, including a soldier holding his bloody eye or the scene involving the baby carriage.