It’s difficult to get a grasp on what’s going on with Quentin Tarantino’s long-mooted WWII project, “Inglorious Bastards,” not least because QT seems somewhat hazy on the subject himself. Last month, he made this rather bold claim at Cannes: “If all goes well, I will be here … in 2009 with ‘Inglorious Bastards.’” (I’d question the hubris of his assuming that Cannes will have him, but hell, they accepted “Death Proof” into competition, so I can’t.)
Now comes word that, in what’s becoming a familiar move for the director, the project will be released as two films, apparently because the story is too big for a single feature. Said story involves a group of war criminals fighting both Allied and Nazi forces on a journey to neutral Switzerland, which sounds do-able in one film to me, but what do I know? Meanwhile, the Vulture at New York Magazine is taking Tarantino’s assertions with a pinch of salt:
That gives Tarantino about ten months to finish the scripts, find himself some actors — he now says previous mentions of Michael Madsen, Adam Sandler, Christopher Walken, and others were just “conversations” — and shoot and edit two movies. It’s possible, of course, but it’s also possible that this project is but a ball of yarn for Tarantino’s mischievous-kitten tendencies, and in a year, it will be a seven-part cartoon musical.
I share their scepticism. When the first rumblings about “Inglorious Bastards” began years ago, I was excited that Tarantino was tackling fresh territory. But the announcement of the two-parter gives me concern that the man is an unfocused talent in a creative holding pattern. “Kill Bill” was a gamble that largely paid off — even if Part Two, for me, lacked the breathless dazzle of the first — but “Grindhouse” was an endeavour that only its makers really wanted to see, and rebooting it as two films didn’t help any.
I like Tarantino’s chutzpah, but he apparently hasn’t heard the phrase “diminishing returns.” Perhaps concentrating his considerable talents on a single, terrific film is the way forward.
Comments
2 responses to “Tarantino doubles up… again”
The day he’s ready to call it quits, I’ll be the first to show him to the door. I could care less about this or any other project he has on the horizon. The stench of Kill Bill: Vol. 2 overpowered the sheer love I felt for Vol. 1. Grindhouse was a tragedy and the best thing that included “Tarantino” and “film” in the same breath as of late has been this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=luneM1cit6E
[…] little doubt he will, or at least could if he wanted to. (Though he keeps stopping and starting on his latest ambitious project.) After all, he is still growing as a director. And just look at Steven Spielberg, who for my […]