BIG HOLLYWOOD INTERVIEW: Quentin Tarantino, a Glorious ‘Basterd’

Editor’s Note: After the publication of this piece we made an internal discovery that this interview was not a one-on-one interview between our writer and Quentin Tarantino, and that some of the questions attributed to “Big Hollywood” were asked by other journalists in what was a roundtable interview.
 
Upon discovering this, we temporarily removed the piece from the site until all the facts were known and a proper correction could be added.

Quentin Tarantino exploded on the world film scene in 1992 with “Reservoir Dogs,” a brutally profane yet ingeniously plotted and often funny deconstruction of the heist-film genre. He took things to a whole other level in 1994 with “Pulp Fiction,” reviving the foundering careers of superstars John Travolta and Bruce Willis while launching the star careers of Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman while winning a Best Screenplay Oscar himself. 

Yet in the 15 years since that classic, Tarantino hasn’t been able to score quite as big an impact. 1997’s “Jackie Brown” made just $39 million, while the two “Kill Bill” films scored $70 million each yet were considered hyper-violent trifles compared to what he was really capable of. And he really bottomed out with 2007’s “Death Proof,” which made up half of “Grindhouse,” a three-hour homage to the trashy drive-in films of America’s past. Its 21st-century audience didn’t get the joke and largely ignored it, earning just $27 million at the US box office.  (more…)

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Tags: "Jackie Brown", "Reservoir Dogs", ("True Romance, DePalma, Diane Kruger
Posted Sep 27th 2009 at 6:54 am in Featured Story, Film, News | 22927869 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ckozlowski/2009/09/27/big-hollywood-interview-quentin-tarantino-a-glorious-basterd/BIG+HOLLYWOOD+INTERVIEW%3A+Quentin+Tarantino%2C+a+Glorious+%27Basterd%272009-09-27+13%3A54%3A36Carl+Kozlowski

What if Tarantino Had the ‘Basterds’ Take Taliban Scalps?

Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” has all the trappings of a Tarantino film – from the rich cinematography and soundtrack to the unpredictable action and character development. Tarantino has directed and written another effort that, as usual, is in a class of its own. 

“Basterds,” misspelled the way Brad Pitt’s moonshining Lt. Aldo Raine character carved it into his rifle, takes place in German-occupied France from 1941 to 1944.  Tarantino makes a point of specifying “Nazi-occupied France,” justifying to the film watcher the extreme measures needed to deal with this particular type of human evil.  That National Socialist German Workers’ Party membership never numbered more than about 20 percent of the adult German population is beside the point; the Nazi Party in the guise of Hitler (played by Martin Wuttke) controlled the Wehrmacht from the top.  

“Basterds” follows three characters.  ”Chapter 1″ introduces Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) a young Frenchwoman whose dairy farmer family is wiped out in 1941 by the Germans and Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), who directs the killing.  Landa is a member of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the intelligence service of the SS and the Nazi Party, who considers himself a detective asked by his government to find every last Jewish person in France.  In “Chapter 2″ we meet U.S. Army Lt. Aldo Raine. Raine’s crossed arrows insignia on his collar identifies him as a member of the First Special Service Force, a U.S.-Canadian commando force called the Devil’s Brigade.  Lt. Raine leads a small band of soldiers, all of whom happen to be Jewish, on a mission of retribution, mayhem and terror behind enemy lines, the goal: take 100 “Nazi scalps” each.  (more…)

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Tags: "Bodyguard of Lies", Anthony Cave Brown., brad pitt, Bush administration, Christoph Waltz
Posted Sep 1st 2009 at 1:22 pm in Featured Story, Film, Military, Politics | 21248677 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cdevore/2009/09/01/basterds/What+if+Tarantino+Had+the+%27Basterds%27+Take+Taliban+Scalps%3F2009-09-01+20%3A22%3A20Chuck+DeVore

Daily Gut: PC Hollywood Villains

So another Rambo flick is on its grimy, sweaty way and this time the villains are human traffickers and drug lords. To make them even more despicable, they’ve kidnapped a young girl and are probably ignoring her strict vegan needs.

Look, I applaud Sylvester Stallone’s heroic stance against human traffickers and kidnappers – for I know there will be quite an outcry especially from the large and very influential human trafficking and kidnapper lobby.

Of course, this movie comes on the heels of two other edgy ventures: The G.I Joe flick – which turned a gritty American icon into an airbrushed Benneton ad, and “Inglourious Basterds” a fantasy that has average Jews hacking Nazi soldiers to pieces.

These three movies have two things in common:
1) They avoid present, real danger in the world and instead choose villains that are not just safe, but politically correct to hate. You’d think it would be easy for Quentin Tarantino to find a present day enemy for the Jews (like, say, a terrorist group that denies the Holocaust and wants to wipe Israel off the map), but maybe none exist! And what of those guys who flew planes into the World Trade Center? I suppose in the era of the “unclenched fist,” we must be more sensitive to “backlash” than barbarism. (more…)

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Tags: 9/11, Benneton, box office, Drug trafficking, GI Joe
Posted Aug 31st 2009 at 1:04 pm in Daily Gut, Entertainment, Film, Media Criticism, News, Politics | 21512295 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ggutfeld/2009/08/31/daily-gut-pc-hollywood-villains/Daily+Gut%3A+PC+Hollywood+Villains2009-08-31+20%3A04%3A16Greg+Gutfeld

Nothing Inglorious About Pro-American ‘Basterds’

Remember the children’s magazine, Highlights? Its motto is “fun with a purpose.” The motto for Quentin Tarantino’s latest flick, “Inglourious Basterds,” should be “violent with a purpose.”

It’s 1944 in Nazi-occupied France. Joseph Goebbels’ (Sylvester Groth) latest film triumph starring Germany’s latest hero, Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Brühl), is set to premiere for the top brass of the Third Reich – including the big cheese himself, Adolf Hitler – and their guests. Funnily enough, the premiere is to be held in a cinema owned by Shoshanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent), a Jewish refugee with her own obvious reasons for hating the Nazis. Naturally, she plans her revenge for the fateful night.

Meanwhile the Basterds, a crack group of Jewish-American soldiers under the leadership of Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), is undercover in France and “in the business of killing Nazis, and business is booming.” Those Nazis who manage to escape death are given meaningful souvenirs of their time with the Basterds. The paths of these two groups cross in a way that only Tarantino, master of gory coincidence, could imagine.

A good ol’ boy and Jews brutally mowing down Nazis. What’s not to like? It’s probably one of the few times you’ll see a redneck positively portrayed in Hollywood. (more…)

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Tags: Adolph Hitler, brad pitt, Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds, Melanie Laurent
Posted Aug 25th 2009 at 3:40 pm in Reviews | 20981866 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/pmeister/2009/08/25/nothing-inglorious-about-inglourious-basterds/Nothing+Inglorious+About+Pro-American+%27Basterds%272009-08-25+22%3A40%3A52Pam+Meister

The Leonard-Tarantino Axis of Pulp Fiction

“Inglourious Basterds” opened this weekend. It has the potential to be satisfying for Quentin Tarantino fans. I will definitely see it. It is an “alternative history” of WWII, but despite its setting, Tarantino characterizes the movie as a “spaghetti western.” My guess is a hint of the “pulp fiction” writer Elmore Leonard will, like a super fine mist, be present in the film.

On my Facebook profile page, I dutifully filled out my personal interests. Under favorite movies I listed “anything Quentin Tarantino”; under novels I listed “anything Elmore Leonard.” What I left out under “movies” was “anything Elmore Leonard which seem like Quentin Tarantino” and vice versa. To me, they are almost indistinguishable. I have read virtually all of Leonard’s books. I just purchased today his latest, “Road Dogs.” I have seen nearly all of Tarantino’s movies. I have read or seen many of their works multiple times. I still get surprised by a Leonard movie from time to time. I recently saw “3:10 from Yuma” on TV. There was something rivetingly familiar about it. It turns out it was adapted from a 15 page short story by Leonard that I had never read. (more…)

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Tags: "3:10 from Yuma", "Freaky Deaky", "Jackie Brown", "Kill Bill: Volume 1", "Reservoir Dogs"
Posted Aug 22nd 2009 at 10:57 am in Entertainment, Film | 20843048 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mrulle/2009/08/22/the-leonard-tarantino-axis-of-pulp-fiction/The+Leonard-Tarantino+Axis+of+Pulp+Fiction2009-08-22+17%3A57%3A21Michael+S.+Rulle+Jr.

Tarantino’s Top Twenty Since 1992

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Tags: 1992, Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino, Top 20
Posted Aug 22nd 2009 at 7:52 am in Classic Hollywood, Video | 20987061 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bighollywood/2009/08/22/tarantinos-top-twenty-since-1992/Tarantino%27s+Top+Twenty+Since+19922009-08-22+14%3A52%3A11Big+Hollywood

Lee Marvin: That Glorious Bastard

Only a tiresome poseur like Quentin Tarantino could think that the Hollywood pretty boys he cast in his soon-to-be released opus The Inglorious Basterds are convincing movie tough guys. Where is Lee Marvin when we need him?

You’ve probably experienced the Basterds publicity blitz.  Brad Pitt looks like he stepped out of a Calvin Klein underwear ad. Folks I know who have been around him say he really is a pleasant and laid-back guy, and these are hardly the characteristics of a beady-eyed killer.  Creepy Eli Roth, taking some time off from directing his degenerate torture movies, is just a leering clown – he looks like he should be squatting in the back of his Ford panel van offering Tootsie Rolls to passing tweens.  And B.J. Novak?  The guy is a hilarious writer and is really funny in The Office , but I’m not buying this cat as the scourge of the Third Reich.

In contrast, Lee Marvin’s tough guy legacy lives on despite the fact that his body rests with thousands of other heroes in Arlington National Cemetery. He earned that right when he was wounded fighting the Imperial Japanese Army in the Pacific as a Marine private. His Purple Heart is 100% USDA certified proof positive of his prime badassary. Who is the Hollywood tough guy of today who can dare step up to the Lee Marvin plate and take a swing?

Nobody. (more…)

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Tags: academy award, Arlington National Cemetery, B.J. Novak, brad pitt, Cat Ballou
Posted Aug 4th 2009 at 6:55 am in Classic Hollywood, Culture, Film | 197178154 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/kschlichter/2009/08/04/lee-marvin-that-glorious-bastard/Lee+Marvin%3A+That+Glorious+Bastard2009-08-04+13%3A55%3A35Kurt+Schlichter

At 25, ‘The Karate Kid’ Still Packs a Punch

Looking back at The Karate Kid (1984), which turned twenty-five years old this week, a thought keeps recurring.

Wow. . . Avildsen made it work twice.

John G. Avildsen is, in some ways, a director of little distinction when compared with well-known marquee names like Spielberg, Scorsese, Nolan, and Tarantino. The vast majority of his movies are utterly forgotten by the average filmgoer — indeed, he’s been nominated for Worst Director at The Razzies three times. And yet, like Victor Fleming decades earlier with his twin successes The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind (both 1939 — read a great recent article on Fleming here), Avildsen has twice punched way above his weight, netting himself an Oscar for Best Director and giving birth to some of the most memorable moments in motion picture history. (more…)

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Tags: "Cruel Summer", "Sweep the Leg", Andrew Shue, Asians in Hollywood, Bananarama
Posted Jun 24th 2009 at 6:50 am in Entertainment | 1663063 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2009/06/24/at-25-the-karate-kid-still-packs-a-punch/At+25%2C+%27The+Karate+Kid%27+Still+Packs+a+Punch2009-06-24+13%3A50%3A07Leo+Grin

Haunted by the Memory of Her Song: Fifty Years of ‘Rio Bravo’

The sun is sinking in the west
The cattle go down to the stream
The redwing settles in her nest
It’s time for a cowboy to dream….

Exquisitely crafted, but never ostentatious. Pleasantly mellow, but never lazy. Thematically rich, but never preachy. Respectful of tradition, but never stolid. Deeply compassionate, but never descending into schmaltz. Five decades ago, a group of men now long-dead (and, it must be said, one smokin’-hot woman, still-living) followed an aged veteran director into the Arizona desert to make a humble, heartfelt western based firmly on quintessentially American notions of courage, decency, and good humor. The result of their collaboration, Rio Bravo (1959), remains one of the great visceral pleasures of cinema.

Howard Hawks’ masterpiece stemmed from his disgust with the joyless anti-heroics of uptight, melodramatic westerns like Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon (1952) and Delmer Daves’ 3:10 to Yuma (1957) — dark “message movies” that seemed to revel in smugly depicting small-town Americans as cynics and cowards. The man behind such classics as Scarface (1932), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), To Have and Have Not (1944), Red River (1948), and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) was in his early sixties in 1958, his career winding down after decades of constant production. He had interned for Famous Players-Lasky way back in 1916, and directed his first features in the mid-1920s. Thirty years later he was old and tired, and his last film, Land of the Pharaohs (1955), had been a disheartening flop. Since then, the previously prolific director hadn’t helmed a picture in three years, an unheard-of period of self-exile for a man who had cranked out movies regularly for decades. But the brazen slap across the face that High Noon had given America’s western mythology had bothered him. “I made Rio Bravo,” he later told an interviewer, “because I didn’t like High Noon. Neither did Duke. I didn’t think a good town marshal was going to run around town like a chicken with his head cut off asking everyone to help. And who saves him? His Quaker wife. That isn’t my idea of a good western.” (more…)

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Tags: 3:10 to Yuma (1957), academy awards, alfred hitchcock, Allen Barra, Angie Dickinson
Posted May 3rd 2009 at 5:30 am in Entertainment, Featured Story | 1221545 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2009/05/03/haunted-by-the-memory-of-her-song-fifty-years-of-rio-bravo/Haunted+by+the+Memory+of+Her+Song%3A+Fifty+Years+of+%27Rio+Bravo%272009-05-03+12%3A30%3A38Leo+Grin

Patriot Sweepstakes: Stallone or Tarantino?

Who will wreak greater havok on the enemies of America, Sylvester Stallone or Quentin Tarantino?

Each has written and is directing an action-laden ensemble piece about a group of misfits battling a foreign dictator.

Stallone flexes, fires and wreaks havok on a South American despot

In Stallone’s case, he has an all-star lineup of B-movie badasses – including Mickey Rourke, Jason Statham, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lungren, Steve Austin and Eric Roberts – playing mercenaries on a mission to overthrow a South American dictator. 

The born-again Stallone has certainly earned his patriot’s stripes with the Rambo and Rocky films.

In a leaked character still from the film, he’s also looking more badass at 62 than most of us look at 22. (On set pics have also been released, one of which is above and the rest of which can be found at Empire.com.) (more…)

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Tags: brad pitt, Inglorious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino, Sylvester stallone, The Expendables
Posted Apr 16th 2009 at 1:47 pm in Celebrity News, Entertainment, Military, Video | 1079063 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ttapp/2009/04/16/patriot-sweepstakes-stallone-or-tarantino/Patriot+Sweepstakes%3A+Stallone+or+Tarantino%3F2009-04-16+20%3A47%3A46Tom+Tapp

The All-Time Top 10 Movie Posters (one man’s opinion) – #1 JAWS, #2 CHINATOWN, #3 THE DARK KNIGHT

Over the weekend, I was pondering why the low budget, standard genre pic The Haunting in Connecticut (Lionsgate) has become a nifty little box office hit. The film added almost $9.5M over the weekend for a new 10-day cume of $37M, and the only conclusion I have been able to reach is that it’s all about the poster.

Creepy, right? I have not seen Haunting and will probably wait for DVD or pay cable, but that is a weird, startling, attention-grabbing image. As a movie junkie, I love good movie art. The best movie posters are evocative. They capture what a movie is all about without giving away the mystery. There are certain movie posters that instantly put me back in that theatre experiencing the film for the very first time. The best movie posters are not just promotional tools. They stand as a work of art on their own. These are my favorites, buit it is by no means a definitive list. Feel free to add your favorites (and subtract any of mine).

(more…)

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Tags: 2001: a space odyssey, a clockwork orange, academy award, alan ball, alfred hitchcock
Posted Apr 6th 2009 at 8:27 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Steve Mason's Box Office | 9912237 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/04/06/posters/The+All-Time+Top+10+Movie+Posters+%28one+man%27s+opinion%29+-+%231+JAWS%2C+%232+CHINATOWN%2C+%233+THE+DARK+KNIGHT2009-04-07+03%3A27%3A28Steve+Mason