Hasitha Fernando takes a look at the story behind Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds fifteen years after its release…
Whatever your opinion may be Inglourious Basterds There’s no denying that the Quentin Tarantino-directed film was an entertaining, blood-soaked WWII romp with an unforgettable villain from Christoph Waltz. To mark the flick’s 15th anniversary, we take a look at what happened behind the scenes and more.
Quentin Tarantino had problems with the ending of the script
Over the course of ten films, Quentin Tarantino became something of a Hollywood legend, whose works were revered by both enthusiastic fans and serious critics. When it came to writing the script for Inglourious BasterdsTarantino spent over a decade refining the story as it continued to evolve and expand, and while he’d delivered some truly fantastic scripts in the past, the filmmaker was convinced that his latest work was among the best he’d ever written.
The early premise of Inglourious Basterds was described by Tarantino as his “bunch of guys on a mission” film and his homage to World War II action films such as The Dirty Dozen, Eagles die alone And The Guns of Navarone. Over the years, Tarantino reworked his script, constantly revising the story and adding details, but he had difficulty finding a fitting ending for the script. For this reason, he directed the two-part Kill Bill films until he could find a suitable ending for the script. At one point Tarantino even considered making a miniseries out of the script, as it was too long for a feature film. But his script for pulp Fiction As a guideline, the director trimmed the script of unnecessary ballast in order to develop a longer feature-length version.
No explanation was given for the unusual spelling of the title
Since its release, the unusual spelling of the film’s title has repeatedly caught people’s attention. Inspired by the English title of director Enzo G. Castellari’s 1978 war drama The inglorious bastardsTarantino gave the film his own twist by spelling it out as follows: “Inglourious Basterds”. And so far, the enigmatic author has not given any explanation as to why he chose this spelling of the title. During an interview on The Late Show with David Letterman Tarantino responded to this issue as follows: “That’s the thing. I’ll never explain it. You do such artistic flourishes and to explain it would just make the whole thing ridiculous and invalidate the whole point from the start.”
Michael Caine was a big fan of Colonel Hans Landa
Christoph Waltz comes from a family with strong theatrical tendencies, and so the actor first tried a career on the stage before focusing on the screen and eventually feature films. Waltz got his first big break when Tarantino cast him in the role of sophisticated, multilingual Nazi villain Colonel Hans Landa – and boy, did he deliver. The filmmakers even considered abandoning the project, as they were long unable to find the right actor to play Landa. The character’s multi-layered villainy and emotional complexity proved to be an obstacle early in the casting process, but after Waltz’s successful audition, everything finally fell into place. Tarantino and producer Lawrence Bender agreed that the relatively unknown actor aced the audition process and immediately cast Waltz in the now-iconic role.
Waltz’s linguistic ability also helped his role as Landa, who Tarantino wrote as someone fluent in many languages. In the film, the antagonist spoke four languages - English, French, German and Italian. Waltz’s performance received unanimous praise upon its release, but one actor was particularly impressed by what he saw and that was none other than Sir Michael Caine. In a 2009 interview, the Hollywood veteran revealed that Waltz’s performance was “the best performance by a villain I’ve seen in years.” Caine even correctly predicted that Waltz would win Best Supporting Actor at the 2010 Academy Awards. Another interesting detail about this role is that Tarantino had his eye on Leonardo DiCaprio from the start.
Brad Pitt and Quentin Tarantino could finally work together
Brad Pitt and Quentin Tarantino have wanted to work together for several years, but both creatives were waiting for the right project to collaborate on. Luckily for the duo Inglourious Basterds turned out to be that film. When Tarantino was halfway through writing his script, he sensed that Pitt would be a strong candidate for the role of Lieutenant Aldo Raine. And by the time the filmmaker finished the script, he knew Pitt was the perfect casting and contacted Pitt’s agent to inquire about his availability. This was also the first time Pitt had made a film as a lead actor for The Weinstein Company or its predecessor company Miramax. However, this was only because he wanted to work with Tarantino and nothing to do with the studio’s disgraced head – Harvey Weinstein. Pitt had previously even physically threatened Weinstein after learning of the producer’s unwanted sexual harassment of his then-girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow.
Michael Fassbender was also the perfect undercover agent in real life
Michael Fassbender’s meteoric rise in Hollywood is undeniable. He made his feature film debut in Zack Snyder’s 300 the talented Irish actor has amassed numerous awards and accolades over the course of 18 years, including nominations for two Oscars, four BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. He is one of those actors who has the exceptional talent to excel even in supporting roles. Such is the case here, where Fassbender delivers a small, albeit memorable, role as Lieutenant Archie Hilcox. However, many may not realize how ironic Fassbender’s portrayal is. Born in Germany to German and Irish parents, the actor grew up in Ireland. He currently lives in London and is fluent in German as his first language, Gaelic as his second language and English as his third, as well as being able to use English accents and dialects. In the film, he plays a fluent German-speaking Englishman who goes undercover as a German but has trouble hiding his British accent.
Adam Sandler was asked to play Sergeant Donny Donowitz.
Eli Roth has made a name for himself among horror fans for his ultra-brutal splatter films such as Cabin fever, hostel And The green inferno. But occasionally the horror writer/director has also taken on roles in films and Inglourious Basterds is one such example. However, before Roth came on board to play Sergeant Donny “The Bear Jew” Donowitz, Adam Sandler was approached for the role. Due to scheduling conflicts, Sandler declined and Roth nabbed the role of the baseball bat-wielding Nazi hater. At Tarantino’s request, Roth was asked to channel actor Tony Curtis for his portrayal of Donowitz. In the context of Tarantino’s own “Realer than Real Universe,” this mercurial character is also the alleged father of Lee Donowitz, who plays a film producer in the film True Romance.
The story was inspired by a secret, real-life mission from World War II.
Although the story invented by Tarantino is fictional, it was partially inspired by a secret, real-life mission conducted by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II, codenamed “Operation Greenup.” The mission involved three OSS agents, Jewish-born refugees Frederick Mayer and Hans Wijnberg, and former Wehrmacht officer and deserter Franz Weber, who parachuted into Austria in 1945 and spent several months gathering intelligence on Nazi activities to help with the liberation. After the war, Mayer and Wijnberg returned to America and reunited in 2012 for the History Channel documentary The real Inglourious Basterds.
The crew received training in the use of German weapons
In keeping with their status as a secret agent group in occupied enemy territory, none of the weapons used by the Basterds are American-made. This was because the Basterds had to make do with what was available to them: guns and weapons captured from Nazis they had killed in battle. Since the entire main cast for the film had to be able to handle German weapons from World War II, they all underwent rigorous training in the use of German weapons at a Berlin-based company that specialized in the technical presentation of German military equipment.
The film has a strange connection to a character from Kill Bill
Find a satisfying ending for Inglourious Basterds was a particular stone in Tarantino’s shoe and to fix this problem, the filmmaker moved on to other projects by making the two-part Kill Bill Movies. What many do not know, however, is that many of the attributes of the bride in Kill Bill were based on Shosanna Dreyfus’ character, who was originally conceived as a murderer who kills the Germans who wronged her family. Shosanna’s character was later changed into the version we see in the film.
Box office hits, enthusiastic reviews and numerous awards
Shot with a production budget of $70 million Inglourious Basterds grossed a respectable $321.5 million at the box office worldwide. It remained Tarantino’s most successful film until Django Unchained dethroned the film in 2012 by grossing $426 million at the box office. The film was showered with praise at the time of its release and at the time of writing, 89% of the 332 critics gave Inglourious Basterds a positive review on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. Acclaimed film critic Roger Ebert gave the film a four-star rating and wrote that “Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds is a big, brave, bold war film that will anger some, terrify others, and prove once again that he is a real director, a director of quixotic delights.” Critic James Berardinelli also gave the film his first four-star review of 2009, stating: “With Inglourious BasterdsQuentin Tarantino has made his best film since pulp Fiction“ and that it was “a damn pleasant ride.”
Although the film landed in several critics’ year-end top ten lists, there were also critics. However, there was one aspect that received consistent praise: Christoph Waltz. After winning Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival, Waltz swept the Best Supporting Actor category at the following awards ceremony, picking up the Golden Globe, SAG, BAFTA and Oscar in the aforementioned category, cementing his status as one of the finest actors of our generation.
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Hasitha Fernando is a part-time doctor and full-time cinephile. Follow him on Twitter at @DoctorCinephile for regular updates from the world of entertainment.
