You had to be there: Quentin Tarantino/Eli Roth screen Inglorious Bastards at Museum of Tolerance
I was priviledged tonight to accompany a friend of mine, another former Nebraskan and a recently transplanted Angeleno working for a prominent entertainment periodical to a screening of the 8-time Oscar Nominated film
“Inglorious Basterds”. An immense fan of Quentin Tarantino’s work of course i’d seen it before but what made the screening special was the venue and a few particular guests in attendance, namely the director himself, co-star Eli Roth (director of Cabin Fever, Hostel), producer Lawrence Bender and a few Holocaust Survivors.
After the film there was a hearty Q&A where Tarantino exlaimed that the movie was not about the Holocaust nor was it ever attempting to be much more than a WWII adventure movie in the vein of “The Great Escape”. Which isn’t to say that one couldn’t get more from it but “not every movie about WWII has to be about The Holocaust”. Some of the elderly Jews in the audience were put off by the violence as audible gasps could be heard at the films bloodier scenes.
The issue of revenge was brought up as many Jews expressed that seeing this variation of history played out appealed to their “release factor” that wishes the war could have ended earlier and with less damage to their community. Eli Roth who played Lt. Donny “The Bear Jew” Donowitz in the film talked about how great it felt during the climax of the film to be the one who got to kill Adolf Hitler telling how people come up to him on the street and congratulate him for killing the Fuhrer.
Tarantino will be screening “Inglorous Basterds” and “Pulp Fiction” at the historic Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood on Monday February 8th. I’m not sure why I’m telling you this, it is of course Sold Out.
Tags: Cabin Fever, Egyptian Theatre, Eli Roth, Hostel, Inglorious Basterds, Jews, Lawrence Bender, Museum of Tolerance, nazis, Quentin Tarantino, Rabbi, The Bear Jew
