Tarantino to make Nazi film

[Soln]

Enough.  Stop.  Now.  Seriously.  Stop. 


http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/aug/15/quentintarantino.secondworldwar

Cinema: Tarantino's Nazi 'reservoir dogs of war' leaked online

Quentin Tarantino, the master of bloodbath cinema, is to give his trademark comic-book treatment to the Nazis and the second world war in a film that has stirred controversy even before production has begun.

Shooting on the film, which has the working title Inglorious Bastards and which Tarantino has described as an "in-your-face movie", is due to start in the Potsdam Babelsberg studios west of Berlin on October 13.

But the film project by the US director of Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, which is a remake of a 70s war film by Enzo Castellaris, has already created a furious response from German critics. One said the effects of the "collision" between pulp fiction and Nazi barbarity were "completely unpredictable".

The film depicts scalpings, disembowelment and swastikas being engraved in foreheads as a group of American Jewish soldiers are airdropped into Nazi-occupied Europe to wreak revenge on the Germans.

Film buffs were yesterday poring over what appeared to be the Tarantino script of the film, which has apparently been leaked and posted on several internet sites. Although film experts said the 167 page "final draft" had Tarantino's handprint all over it - including his wobbly handwriting, spelling mistakes (Inglourious Basterds) and grammatical errors - it had not been confirmed as genuine last night. There was speculation that it might have been released as a publicity stunt.

What has been confirmed is that Brad Pitt is to play the starring role - Lieutenant Aldo Raine - "known to the Germans as Apache Aldo ... a hillbilly from the mountains of Tennessee", who leads the group of Nazi-hunters.

Early in the film, he tells potential recruits: "I'm putting me together a special team ... and I need me ... eight - Jewish - American - soldiers ... as a bushwackin', guerrilla army, we're gonna be doing one thing and one thing only, killin' Nazis."

He adds: "We will be cruel to the Germans and through our cruelty, they will know who we are," ordering his troops to "git me 100 Nazi scalps".

One of the group, known as "Bear Jew", has a reputation for "bashing Germans' brains in with a baseball bat". He features in at least one scene.

Other stars believed to have been signed up or up for consideration who have flown to Berlin over the past fortnight to meet Tarantino, include Natassja Kinski, Leonardo di Caprio and the German film stars Daniel Brühl and Til Schweiger.

If the script is anything to go by, even by Tarantino's blood-curdling standards the film looks likely to be a stomach-churner. Apart from baseball-bat bashing and skin engravings, we see one German officer being shot in the testicles, as well as scalps being peeled "like a banana skin" from others.

The pulp fiction treatment is even given to the killing of a Jewish family being harboured by a French dairy farmer, who are machine-gunned to death through the floorboards of their hiding place.

"This is pop culture meets Nazi Germany and the Holocaust with an unprecedented force," wrote the film critic of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Tobias Kniebe, in an attempt to sum up the explosive effect the film is likely to have in Germany.

The trouble is that little distinction is made between Nazi and German, ordinary Wehrmacht soldiers or SS officers, to the extent that if the script is anything to go by, there is no such thing as a good German and all of them have to die. The final scene shows Hitler trapped in an exploding cinema in Paris.

There was speculation last night that Tarantino was attempting to upstage Tom Cruise's controversial film Valkyrie, which tells the true story of the German count who attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler. The film has been pilloried long before its expected release in February.

[Oban]

Ah god, that is just not right.

[Paelos]

This has to be a hoax. Has to. Please. God. 

[DraconianOne]

Ah god, that is just not right.

What isn't? The facts? The content of the alleged Tarantino script? The idea of the film? The news article? Something entirely random and unrelated in any way to the original post?

[Oban]

What isn't?

The facts? The content of the alleged Tarantino script? The idea of the film?

Yes, this.  You must have a very interesting world view.

[stu]

I'm pretty sure Tarantino has had this one in the works for a while (I think I started hearing about the project last year). He even does a commentary with the original's director on a newly released DVD. From what I understand, Tarantino does all of the talking though.

[DraconianOne]

My world view is broad enough to know that any news article that relates to the content of a "sensational" script for a film means that it's a slow news day and that the journalist is likely picking up on elements that may, or may not be, as they seem.  This isn't news.  It's not even worthy of discussion until a) someone's actually read the shooting script or b) someone's actually seen the film. The various script reviews of Inglorious Bastards have been floating around the net for at least a month now and nothing in this article suggests that the journalist has actually read the script and isn't just picking up on the more seemingly controversial elements.  At this stage, it's all conjecture and rumour and, well, too many what ifs to go into at this time.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not a Tarantino apologist or fan. I'm pretty mixed on his films - some I like, some I don't. (Death Proof, for example, had its moments but overall was a waste of my time and money). I just don't think this is news. Let me put it another way: I can imagine someone in 1968 saying exactly the same thing about The Wild Bunch before it was released.

Also, your statement was very vague and provided no context for what you were actually referring to.

[Oban]

One thing I have learned from the Politics forum is that any article sensational enough to be published has to be true.

I think it was Triforcer that first said: "First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win."

[lamaros]

TEXTTEXTTEXTEXTETXTRTEXTETXTEXTEXTTEXTTXETXEXT... This isn't news.  It's not even worthy of discussion ... TEXTETXTTEXTTEXTTEXTXEXTXETXEXTEXEXTXETTEXTEXTETEXTTEXTEXTTXETTXET

As long as the fact that it isn't worthy of dicussion is worthy of discussion then it seems a bit silly to say that it itself isn't worthy of discussion.

Discuss.

[DraconianOne]

As long as the fact that it isn't worthy of dicussion is worthy of discussion then it seems a bit silly to say that it itself isn't worthy of discussion.

This isn't helping my hangover.

One thing I have learned from the Politics forum is that any article sensational enough to be published has to be true.

Nor is this. It doesn't seem to be as green as it should be.

[NiX]

But the film project by the US director of Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, which is a remake of a 70s war film by Enzo Castellaris, has already created a furious response from German critics.

Holy fuck, does he not have an original bone in his body?

[DraconianOne]

But the film project by the US director of Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, which is a remake of a 70s war film by Enzo Castellaris, has already created a furious response from German critics.

Holy fuck, does he not have an original bone in his body?

Yeah, it's a remake in so much as it has the same title and is set in World War 2 and features American soldiers.  The story and characters are entirely different. From what little I've read of it so far, it's a very, um, bizarre screenplay.

[stray]

Is this the "Inglorious Bastards" flick he's been talking about for awhile? I believe that one was supposed to be kind of Dirty Dozen-ish.

[edit] Oops! Article says it right there.

Yeah, this is old news.

[DraconianOne]

It's been touted as a Dirty Dozen film in as much as it's called Inglorious Bastards and Castellaris' film of the same name was basically an exploitative rip-off of the original Dirty Dozen and it's about a group of american soldiers who are on a mission of sorts.  They're not convicts though.

[stray]

I'm interested in it... BUT... I have some reservations. I'm one of the few here who happens to like Tarantino and all, but my reservations are limited to whether he's going to play up the "torture" angle or some shit. I mean, the way it's described seems like that may be direction he'll take. And this could be coincidence, but it seems like he's been promoting (shitty) movies with a lot of torture in them (Hostel, for instance). I don't have the stomach for that kind of thing.

[Margalis]

The idea of using Nazis as total cartoon villains sort of bothers me a little. Yeah yeah, I know, they're Nazis. But still, it just seems so lazy.

An American shooting a Nazi in the balls sounds like a cross between a jingoistic John Wayne movie and America's Funniest Home Videos.

Edit: I think Tarantino is personal friends with Eli Roth. Probably because they are both douchebags. Although as douchey as Tarantino is Roth has him beat by a country mile. And at least Tarantino has some talent.

[Murgos]

The idea of using Nazis as total cartoon villains sort of bothers me a little. Yeah yeah, I know, they're Nazis. But still, it just seems so lazy.

An American shooting a Nazi in the balls sounds like a cross between a jingoistic John Wayne movie and America's Funniest Home Videos.

And in our next collective breath we shall declare The Producers and Top Secret! two of the greatest movies ever made.

Shooting Nazi's in the balls has been a standard of American Cinema since, well, WWII.

[HaemishM]

/facepalm

Can someone please stop this assbag?

[DraconianOne]

Okay, I've now read the script that's doing the rounds (and has been sorta confirmed as being the genuine article after a number of C&D letters were put out by the Weinstein company) and, well, it highlights the fact that the Grauniad writer really hadn't read the screenplay and that it picked up on some scenes in a 165pp long script that aren't actually representative of the rest of the film.  There are scenes of torture, just like there are in Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill but that's not really what the film is about - although the article would make you think it's going to be 2 hours of non-stop nazi killing. The shooting in the balls scene? Well, yeah, it's in there but it's nothing like the ball shooting scene in, say, Robocop.  It's more like... nah, I won't ruin it.

I gather that Tarantino was heavily influenced by films like Dirty Dozen, Where Eagles Dare, Guns of Navarone and yeah, that's quite clear.  It's far closer to those in spirit than any "Nazisplotation" films like SS Experiment Camp or Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS. It will no doubt divide people and no doubt be controversial and no doubt be slammed by a lot of people who have never seen it (or read the screenplay) but make assumptions as to it's content based on what they've heard it contains.

As for the screenplay? It's better than Death Proof, that's for sure.

[Sky]

Somebody cares a lot more than I do.

[K9]

Set sail for fail

[NowhereMan]

If it's very "Dirty Dozen" I can see it being a fun film. A good ol' WWII movie (no doubt with a lot of blood but that's his thing, ripping on that would be just ripping on Tarantino) could be be enjoyable. If, as the article suggests, it really plays up the Nazis horribly torture and kill Jews and Americans extract horrible, gory revenge then frankly I don't think I'd be able to enjoy the film and making it is just tasteless.

Exploiting the battles that were fought between soldiers for a fun, yet probably occasionally poignant, film is all well and good. Either fetishising or near-comically exaggerating the treatment of Jews by Nazis crosses a line that shouldn't be crossed. I'll wait for more details to see which one this is going to be.

[Amarr HM]

I'm not really sure what peoples grief is with this is it not like Nazis have never been parodied or been movie villains before.

[Oban]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92R20ImGNCU

[Amarr HM]

GREN-ADe!!!!

[DraconianOne]

Clippety clip clip

I'll see your Top Secret and raise you a Springtime for Hitler http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K08akOt2kuo with a side order of Dr Strangelove http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD7_7SXsHU8

[Ingmar]

All this needs is Eddie Murphy in a fat suit and it will have everything wrong with it that a movie possibly can.

[schild]

Did somebody say Hitler?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rELRYZUN1kM <-- NOT SAFE FOR WORK LANGUAGE

Oh man, I've had them on my harddrive since 2000. But it's nice to have them all in one place on youtube.

[Margalis]

I enjoy straight-up parodies of Nazis, but the idea of using them as villains in an action movie and portraying them as the embodiment of evil is too easy to me.

It's like "ok now who can we put in the role of badguys that will be totally unsympathetic and allow us to do all sorts of crazy shit to them without anyone minding?" "I know - Nazis!"

I mean that's the same plot as Bionic Commando and Wolf 3D.

[Der Helm]

Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS

I do have this movie now, but I am afraid to watch it. I skipped through a few scenes and ... words fail me ...

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

[NowhereMan]

I'm not really sure what peoples grief is with this is it not like Nazis have never been parodied or been movie villains before.

To me it's more shit like having Nazi's wiping out Jewish families, the way Tarantino does stuff just makes me think this whole thing is going to smack of, "Man the Holocaust was, like, totally bitching death shit dude. Nazis used to, like, fucking tear Jewish people's eyes out and make them fight each other with knives to the death while some asshat masturbated directly onto the camera filming it." Ridiculous over the top violence works and portrayals of Nazis as horrible unsympathetic villains works but doing a movie that tackles Nazi atrocities 'ironically' as Tarantino always does isn't going to make a good film.

If the whole thing is just about a load of US soldiers ninjaing up Nazis then I downgrade it from "An affront against God" to "Probably going to be like Kill Bill with men and different Uniforms." I wonder if one of the US guys is going to be massively into Japanese culture and parachute down with a katana?

[Murgos]

If the whole thing is just about a load of US soldiers ninjaing up Nazis then I downgrade it from "An affront against God" to "Probably going to be like Kill Bill with men and different Uniforms."

This.

And:

I wonder if one of the US guys is going to be massively into Japanese culture and parachute down with a katana?

You have any doubt?  It's a given.  I will also personally guarantee one of the guys has an eye-patch.

[Amarr HM]

To me it's more shit like having Nazi's wiping out Jewish families, the way Tarantino does stuff just makes me think this whole thing is going to smack of, "Man the Holocaust was, like, totally bitching death shit dude. Nazis used to, like, fucking tear Jewish people's eyes out and make them fight each other with knives to the death while some asshat masturbated directly onto the camera filming it."

Agreed this could prove to be a problem for some people no doubt it's distasteful and QT is a goremonger, that's the way he does films. There was a scene in the Dali film Un Chien Andolou of a womans eye being sliced up by a razor blade, it was an experiment in creating mental anxiety to the viewer what could be more disturbing in 1929 than watching an eye being sliced up with a razor. Some people called it art others thought it was too shocking & distasteful, in fact it was just a cow eye and nothing more explicit than what your local butcher does on a daily basis.

[Ironwood]

I tend not to watch what my local butcher does on a daily basis.

There's also the fact that I might catch him fucking my mom or something.

[angry.bob]

Holy fuck, does he not have an original bone in his body?

No, nor does he have a talented one either. Watching anything Tardentino has done is the direct equivalent of paying a junkie $8 to spray watery, liquor-fueled shit all over your face, paying special attention to your eyes and mouth. We've had this debate everytime the fucking hack does a film, so to cut it shorter this time just accept that everything he's done is shit, and if you think it's not you're a fucking tard. That's the collective you, not Nix specifically.

Also, two really great movies with Nazis are Stalingrad and Das Boot. Most of you have probably already seen them though.