ROTTEN TOMATOES: Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" Not a Typo

Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" Not a Typo

New synopsis and confirmed title as production commences.

by Jen Yamato | October 14, 2008

Now that filming has begun on Quentin Tarantino's upcoming WWII-spaghetti western remake of Enzo Castellari's Inglorious Bastards, we've got a new synopsis and confirmation that QT's cheekily "misspelled" title is actually official. Mark your calendars for Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds!

When Tarantino's script made its way around the internet last summer, many simply thought he was a poor speller. Not so, according to the Weinstein Co. and Universal Pictures, who today confirmed the title after releasing a new synopsis for the 2009 film:

"Inglourious Basterds begins in German-occupied France, where Shoshanna Dreyfus (M�lanie Laurent) witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris, where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema.

Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) organizes a group of Jewish soldiers to engage in targeted acts of retribution. Known to their enemy as "The Basterds," Raine's squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) on a mission to take down the leaders of The Third Reich. Fates converge under a cinema marquee, where Shosanna is poised to carry out a revenge plan of her own..."

Tarantino's international cast includes Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Mike Myers, Eli Roth, Cloris Leachman, Rod Taylor, Daniel Br�hl (The Edukators), Samm Levine (Freaks and Geeks), Til Schweiger (King Arthur), B.J. Novak (The Office), Michael Fassbender (300), M�lanie Laurent (Days of Glory), Michael Bacall (Death Proof), Omar Doom (Death Proof), Julie Dreyfus (Kill Bill Vol. 1), August Diehl (The Counterfeiters), Richard Sammel (Casino Royale), Christian Berkel (Black Book), and more. The film reunites Tarantino with Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2 cinematographer Bob Richardson, longtime production designer David Wasco, Oscar-nominated editor Sally Menke (Pulp Fiction), and producer Lawrence Bender.

Inglourious Basterds will be released in 2009, and will possibly debut at the Cannes Film Festival.

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(1-20 of 65 posts) | Reply

vitajex writes:
on Oct 14 2008 12:09 PM

Reading that script was like reading an 8th grade English project. The title was not even close to being the only misspelled word. There were grammar errors, incomplete thoughts, and so on. It confirmed for me the fact that Tarantino cannot write, little did I know it was figuratively AND literally.

And for all of the fanboys who will no doubt pounce on this anti-Tarantino post, I hate to break it to you, but just about EVERY single thing you think that Tarantino did was cool, was stolen from other movies. From whole plots (Reservoir Dogs vs. Ringo Lam's City of Fire) to characters (Esmeralda Villalobos, the taxi-driver from Pulp Fiction is lifted whole-cloth from Curdled, even played by the same actress.)

I've said it before, and I still believe it: Tarantino is cinema's version of Girl Talk. Not to say there isn't artistic value in mash-ups, but no one will describe their production as 'song-writing'.

(Reply to this)

Vitamin M writes:
on Oct 14 2008 12:16 PM

awesome.

(Reply to this)

incredible_hulk writes:
on Oct 14 2008 12:19 PM

can't wait for this.... 2009 is going to be a great movie year

(Reply to this)

powerslayer67 writes:
on Oct 14 2008 12:28 PM

vita is 100% correct. tarantino doesn't have an original bone in his body, yet people think he's the be all, end all of cinema. he did it in for me when he bashed hitchcock's film making.

(Reply to this)

laidtowaste writes:
on Oct 14 2008 12:41 PM

First of all, anyone who uses grammar as criteria for judging a screenplay has no idea what he is reading or how to read it. You have to understand, there's a reason these people aren't novelists. Their job is to convey the action of a story in the proper visual (not textual) terms.

Second, I am no fan-boy - QT has had his missteps (Natural Born Killers, Death Proof). But to dismiss his writing as garbage and forgery is completely ridiculous. The way his characters speak and act is the result of his style (the whole verbal diarrhea thing). I am not denying that he has taken ideas and characters from previous movies (you forgot Pai Mei from the old Shaw Brothers movies), but his intent in doing so isn't forgery or plagiarism, but homage. If you have ever heard him talk about this, he explains that he loves these characters - so much so that they are a part of him. And so to him, it would seem almost sacrilegious to not acknowledge their influence on not only his own personal development as an artist, but on the development of film as a whole.

So, just as a reminder, next time you decide to judge an Academy Award winning screenwriter, make sure you at least have an idea of what you're talking about. (Dropping the names of vaguely relevant films that a lot of people have probably not seen does not count.)

Peace Homie.

(Reply to this)

mssk8erboy writes:
on Oct 14 2008 01:02 PM

Well said LaidtoWaste, I think QT is an amazing writer and i love his films as well.

-MIKE

(Reply to this)

jokerboy1991 writes:
on Oct 14 2008 01:08 PM

In reply to this comment (#2077380)
So, Tarantino has even said he was a bad writer and that he needs to people to clean up his grammar, even Roger Avary has said so. Plus u gotta remember that the script always changes during a movie, so if the script is messy I'm sure it will be fixed if not then that awesome editor will clean it up. Yeah Tarantino does steal a lot of stuff, but he still has originality in all his movies. This will be epic and awesome, I bet will get part I in the summer, June I bet.

(Reply to this)

Bruce Campbell writes:
on Oct 14 2008 01:12 PM

In reply to this comment (#2077380)
Who are you again?

(Reply to this)

cjjojay writes:
on Oct 14 2008 01:20 PM

Ok, if you think homage is bad than fine, but not a director on earth would discourage it. I go by what works, and what QT is doing works. It isn't like he is makeing mass ups like "Superhero Movie" or something.

"Esmeralda Villalobos, the taxi-driver from Pulp Fiction is lifted whole-cloth from Curdled, even played by the same actress."

Um...when did that become bad? When did using random music become uninspired? Scorsese still uses the same songs! Heck, sometimes he uses the same movie (Casino = Goodfellas 2). Oh, there is no point in getting mad over this, but dislike someone for quality, no if he uses the same actors as other people or some silly beef like that.

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Eat.Before.We.Eat.You writes:
on Oct 14 2008 01:39 PM

God, I'm so sick of intentional misspellings in today's society. From substituting z's for s's at the end of words to omitting the e's at the beginning of words that start "ex", intentional misspelling is everywhere. All I can say is, "et tu, Tarantino?"

(Reply to this)

JUDGE DREDD writes:
on Oct 14 2008 01:40 PM

I guess the spelling is so that it wont be edited out like this.. B******s. Everytime it is put on sites/news/and posters maybe. As Basterds is a word that is not technically swearing, how could it be censored?

Anyways, cant wait for this. We need more Dirty Dozen style films. I miss em.

(Reply to this)

Jen Yamato writes:
on Oct 14 2008 01:48 PM

I dunno. I love Girl Talk!

(Reply to this)

Spermian Jones writes:
on Oct 14 2008 02:08 PM

My **** is huge and veiny

(Reply to this)

bastard_guy180 writes:
on Oct 14 2008 02:12 PM

In reply to this comment (#2077380)
shatap

(Reply to this)

charlieahinds writes:
on Oct 14 2008 02:14 PM

oh no bad spelling?! what on earth shall we do? are the actors going to misspeak the lines then? who the hell cares, that's what editors are for. tarantino IS overrated BUT he brought several of peoples favorite movies (Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill) to the screen.

if yoo say thiss out loud whill it mayk a diferince? shut up.

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vitajex writes:
on Oct 14 2008 02:15 PM

I knew that comment was going to draw fire, and I don't/can't argue against, "I don't know. I like what he does." That's a matter of subjectivity. There will ALWAYS be subjectivity when it comes to art.

Another great comparison would be Tarantino vs. Shepard Fairey, the main difference being that Tarantino at least acknowledges his sources.

Reapproriation of pop culture, or cultural bricolage is not new and is unavoidable.

Tarantino can be admired as a master of bricolage, but he is not a master creator. Dr. Frankenstein did not actually create life, he created a mirror image (and we all know how that turned out).

I do have to disagree with the statement that it is the writer's job to "convey the action of a story in the proper visual (not textual) terms". That is the director's job. In fact, as someone who has studied screenplay writing, one of the rules most writers will tell you is NOT to be trying to do the director's job for them.

Granted, Tarantino directs his own scripts, so he can afford to do that more, but a "real" writer writes so that his meaning is understood. If you have to backtrack and read things multiple times just for them to make sense, it's not good writing. The reason Tarantino doesn't write novels is because novels take depth of emotion and thought. Novels require things like theme (which is severely lacking in Tarantino's works) and character development, which is also usually lacking.

(Reply to this)

dalonoman writes:
on Oct 14 2008 02:22 PM

In reply to this comment (#2077482)
Natural Born Killers is a Oliver Stone movie- not Tarantino.... Oh! And Death Proof (in my book) not a misstep

(Reply to this)

tomwaitsjr writes:
on Oct 14 2008 02:42 PM

Spermian Jones made me cry to my Mom.

(Reply to this)

blinkybrown writes:
on Oct 14 2008 02:51 PM

Tarantino never claimed to be original. He readily admits he's making homages to older genres/films. That's the entire point of what he does. It's the exact same thing Lucas used to do. Star Wars/THX-1138/American Graffiti were ALL homages (unoriginal stories/plots/concepts/characters). They never strayed from what they were supposed to be. Same as Tarantino. As long as he doesn't pretend he's being original, he can keep doing what he's doing. He's doing a great job at what he does.

(Reply to this)

knowingtoast85 writes:
on Oct 14 2008 03:12 PM

To say nothing good or bad or subjective of Tarantino as a person and filmmaker, seriously, this one particular script was totally awful.

Not talking about Death Proof, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill, Reservoir, Pulp. This, Inglourious Basterds, was a total disaster of a screenplay. The Basterds are in it for maybe fifteen pages tops, an inane subplot about a Jewish girl hiding out in a movie theater takes over the script and is nothing more than an excuse for Quentin to rattle off some little-known films. There's no "there" there. It was like reading a parody of Quentin Tarantino, except the satirist clearly got bored twenty minutes in.

Now: Back to not talking about how QT does or doesn't rip off other movies, and not even caring about whether he does.

(Reply to this)

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