All language subtitles for Icons.Unearthed.S13E05.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-Kitsune_track3_[eng]

After the
success of "Reservoir Dogs."

I used to work minimum wage.

The mega
success, "Pulp Fiction."

I know, unbelievable.

The slow burn
that earned,

"Jackie Brown."

And the whole

bloody spectacle of "Kill Bill."

It seemed Quentin Tarantino
could do no wrong.

The woman's voice.

- Quentin Tarantino.
- Quentin Tarantino.

Quentin Tarantino.

- We happy?
- Yeah, we happy.

Until he did.

Not quite a box
office success.

This is the story
of how Hollywood's wunderkind

rewrote his own mythology.

And would succeed despite
controversial associations.

He goes,
"Who's that on the phone?"

She goes, "Oh, it's
Michael Madsen."

Footsteps.
Right out the door, he went.

And a
World War II epic

12 years in the making,

"Inglourious Basterds."

The Germans call
them,

- The Basterds.
- Basterds?

We're gonna be
dropped into France.

Through our cruelty, they
will know who we are.

But the road
to Tarantino's audacious

genre blending blockbuster

would be littered with
unexploded risk factors.

Could Quentin
get his band back together?

He likes to keep things close.

How did he resolve
the most difficult casting

problem of his career?

In his words, the best
character he's ever created.

He thought that
actor might not exist.

Would
the fans even laugh

at a Nazi black comedy?

How was
Tarantino's magnum opus born?

Shot.

It was a very hostile
environment to step into.

And how did it
avoid being completely blown up?

This nearly killed the film.

It was 2006,

and despite riding a wave

of cinematic triumphs,

Quentin Tarantino broke away

from his long time collaborator,

producer, and friend,
Lawrence Bender,

to see
other people.

"Kill Bill" was tough.

It was 154 days of shooting.

He and Lawrence had a
little bit of a struggle

during and after "Kill Bill."

Are you gonna be nice?

I've never been
nice my whole life.

So
Quentin headed to Texas

where Robert Rodriguez's
Troublemaker Studios

turned low budgets
into genre gold.

That's what I love about
Austin, it's just so damn small.

The pair
conceived two one-hour movies

made for no frills
and nonstop thrills

known as Grindhouse films.

Bob and Harvey Weinstein
put up 40 million

using their Dimension
Films company,

assuming by now Tarantino
was a pretty safe bet.

So let's do it.

And in the
thick of it was Steve Joyner.

Robert Rodriguez and Quentin
Tarantino built my career.

They wanted to do

two Grindhouse movies
and run them back to back.

Two creatives
at their peak teamed up

to make a classic
double feature.

Rodriguez's contribution
would be "Planet Terror."

a zombie horror
comedy screened first.

After a brief intermission,
audiences would be treated

to Tarantino's film starring
Rosario Dawson, Zoe Bell,

Mary Elizabeth Winsted, Vanessa
Ferlito, and Kurt Russell.

Is it safe?

Aw, it's better than safe.

It's death proof.

There's a stunt man.

He's death-proofed his car

and he uses it as a
weapon to kill women.

Death Proof was
designed to be an homage

to the great
car chase "Bullitt."

"Vanishing Point."

It's a fucking classic.

And once again,

Quentin would reach
back into his grab bag

of inspirations and references.

But this time...

I can remember
just saying to him,

"Just cast one woman in that
movie that I could look like

because I have to
work on that movie."

He was like,
"You'll work on it."

And it wasn't until he
brought me the script

and my name is in it

and I was like, "Yo,
whoever you cast as Zoe,

I have to look like them

because I have to
be my own double."

And he was like, "Yes, you
will be your own double

because you're
playing the role."

And I was like, "Eh, oh, uh."

Fucking hell, how
does that happen?

Unchecked filmmakers

and a three-hour runtime pushed

the budget past 53
million dollars.

Originally, they were
both supposed to be

about 65, 70 minutes.

I'm just gonna have
to make this quick.

So they could run.
But of course,

being the prolific
auteurs that they are,

both of them made
feature length films,

if not a little bit more.

But were double
features a thing of the past?

The exploitation genre
and duration were too much

for Tarantino's
normally loyal audience.

And "Death Proof,"
because it's combined

as the Grindhouse experience,

does not land with audiences
here, especially overseas.

I admit that sounds bad.

It is bad.

Grindhouse
was more poor house.

The film grossed 25 million
dollars in its initial release.

Less than half its
budget of 67 million.

Where to now for
the cult of Quentin?

People think
that he has a misstep

when you get to "Death Proof."
How does he respond?

You get "Inglourious Basterds."

It was
back to the real world,

but 1944, and a refocused
Quentin Tarantino.

"Inglourious Basterds"
was actually the title

of a 1978 Italian war movie.

The concept of it was
like "The Dirty Dozen,"

but even dirtier.

You prefer to be
captured or destroyed?

And if
there was one director

who could reimagine this...

Tarantino loved that.

The kind of fun,
upbeat war movie.

While
these films and TV shows

like "Hogan's Heroes"

allowed the
World War II generation

to finally laugh at
the bad old days--

I know nothing, nothing.

the 1990s and 2000s
saw cinema return

to a more serious tone.

This Ryan better be worth it.

And right in the
middle of this era, in 1998,

Quentin would finally
start a project

he thought up long ago.

Known for films that
didn't take the safe route,

this would be no different.

Right
after "Jackie Brown,"

I came up with the idea,

a bunch of Jewish American
soldiers are behind enemy lines

and they're doing
an Apache resistance

against the Third Reich.

The concept
began expanding rapidly,

so Tarantino consulted
a producer friend

to review a proposal that made

"Gone with the Wind"
read like a pamphlet.

Frankly, my dear,
I don't give a damn.

I'd
never read a script,

but he did a reading for me.

And he read a couple of
scenes, which

were great,

I mean truly great.

And there are gonna be two
platoons, a Jewish platoon--

Known
as the Basterds.

And
a Black Platoon.

Known
as the Killer Crows,

a respectful nod to all
African American regiments

that served in World War II.

An all-black unit, they have
been sent in to do a mission.

The
fictional Killer Crows

would travel across Europe
hunting down Nazi scourge.

Killing all of them,

scattering throughout
Europe and hiding out there.

They would cross paths with
the Basterds in some form,

maybe a mission, but they
weren't gonna be like

opposing forces
with one another.

The
disruptive troops

would be hunted down in turn
by a Nazi named Hans Landa.

Tarantino would find
Hans's solo mission

a 10-year ticking time bomb
when it came to casting.

And I was like ,
yes, make that movie.

Yes.

He worked on that for
like years ,

but couldn't get
it over the line.

He couldn't finish it.

It just ended up getting
bigger and bigger and bigger.

The size of three movies.

It was just too big.

I had the opposite
of writer's block.

I couldn't stop
writing, basically.

And at a certain
point I realized,

okay, this isn't even a movie.

I mean, this might be
a 12-hour mini-series,

but it's not a movie.

He never found a way
to tie it all together

and say, there, that's done.

He happens to go to
this fortuitous dinner

with French director,
Luc Besson.

And while they're at dinner,
he's telling Luc Besson,

"I've got this great script.

It's gonna be this 16-hour

World War II epic."

And Luc Besson very
calmly just looks at him

and goes, "Tarantino, you're
one of the few directors

I leave the house to go to the
cinema to watch their movies."

"So you're telling me
that with this big epic,

I now am gonna have to
wait another five years

to see one of your movies?"

And that sticks with Tarantino.

And he starts to
strip down things

that he doesn't
feel are necessary.

The Killer
Crows would be written out,

but the Basterds would stay in.

Eight Jewish-American
soldiers.

And I realize it was the
story that was the problem

that made me not be able
to finish it way back when.

So I took the same characters

and a couple of the
introduction scenes

of some of the characters,

and then I came up with
a whole new storyline

and that I figured I
could do as a movie.

10 years of
scripts had to be rewritten

but Tarantino's classic
Rubik's cube method

of switching themes
between multiple scripts

came to the rescue.

Eventually he found
a way to end it.

And part of the reason for that
was one of the plot strands

that he had had for
"Inglourious Basterds"

was the character of

Shosanna.

She had like a kill list.

So she was gonna
sort of hunt down

and kill the Nazis that
she saw as responsible

for the death of her family,

which of course

was the idea for "Kill Bill."

So it was almost like that

went into "Inglourious
Basterds,"

then came out of "Inglourious
Basterds," went back

to "Kill Bill," and now
he couldn't have that

in "Inglourious Basterds."

So the kill list
idea

had been gifted to "Kill Bill."

Meaning when he returned
to the Basterds in 2008,

Quentin would need a fresh
storyline for the protagonist.

He instead came up with
this idea of Shosanna

running a cinema
in Vichy, Paris.

And then that led to
the idea of the premiere

for the German propaganda movie.

And Tarantino went down a
whole rabbit hole of Goebbels

and his film studio and
German propaganda movies.

This sort of became a
fascination for him.

Now,
Tarantino was seeing

a storyline opportunity about
cinema still in its infancy

as seen through the
eyes of a PR genius.

Having as part
of "Inglourious Basterds"

a German propaganda film,

which would involve a
character that he based on

the American soldier,
Audie Murphy,

who was an American soldier

who ended up starring
in movies about himself

in adventures based
on his own exploits.

Audie Murphy,

the kid who
on the field of battle

won every decoration for
valor his country had to give.

So he came up with the idea of

having the Nazi German
soldier version of this,

which is the character played
by Daniel Bruhl in the film.

But he realizes
in this moment,

he's got Hitler trapped
in this theater.

And history says that Hitler
doesn't get killed by fire

or a gun in a theater in France.

He commits suicide in Berlin
before the allies get there.

So Tarantino starts to
think about, "What do I do?"

All of a sudden in a late
night writing session,

it comes to his mind
and he goes,

"Well, what if I just
fucking kill Hitler?"

And he sits there
for a little bit

and it starts to
germinate in his head.

And the more he thinks about
it, the more he's kind of like,

"I think I'm gonna just
fucking kill Hitler."

But he's not 100% sold on it,

and he's not sure if it's late
night fatigue or what, so...

So what he does is he
grabs a piece of paper,

he writes down on the
paper, "Just kill Hitler."

Puts it on his bedside
table, goes to bed.

The
sun is about to rise

on one of Quentin Tarantino's
greatest writing achievements.

When he wakes up in the
morning, he sees the note

and he agrees, "Yeah, we're
gonna just fucking kill Hitler."

Well, he
did have it coming.

Tarantino's script
had the version

everyone would like to see,
except The Fuhrer, of course.

I literally read the
script and I text him,

"Quentin, this is
your masterpiece."

It was shocking to me.

It was like a real life
"Raiders of the Lost Ark."

Which is exactly what
the Nazis are looking for.

I remember reading it

and just being like...

Prop masters
Steve and Caylah

had a similar reaction

and then a bit of a lie down.

And Caylah's sobbing and
it absolutely wiped her out.

In fact, we stopped working
for the rest of the day.

But
Tarantino couldn't.

Next came Hans Landa,
the uncastable role

that nearly killed the film.

He had Leonardo
DiCaprio in mind.

Tarantino hadn't
worked with DiCaprio,

but the character of Landa
was fluent in German,

English, Italian, and French.

Where to, Miss?

DiCaprio
could sure pull off

upper-class English,
but foreign languages?

So he had to move
away from that concept

and he had to find someone

who could not only be
Landa as he imagined him,

but also pull off
being quadrilingual.

Buongiorno.

A time
bomb called Hans Landa

was now ticking under
Quentin Tarantino.

Other roles were easier to cast.

The role of Aldo Raine,
the leader of the Basterds,

was not written for
Brad Pitt at all.

But as the writing process
went on and went on,

he more and more came to
see Pitt in that role.

And he has said categorically,

not because Pitt was a star.
It was just simply, again,

the same as Pam Grier
for Jackie Brown

or Robert Foster for Max Cherry,

or John Travolta
for Vincent Vega.

He just went, it's got to be
Brad Pitt and fortunately...

Sound good?

Yes sir.

Brad Pitt was very
amenable to the idea.

I sent
him the script.

I had heard that
he really liked it

so I flew up to his home
in the south of France.

He lives on a vineyard.

I know that he had tried
to talk to Brad's agent

about casting him before
in something and--

He
wasn't available.

So we open up
a bottle of rosé.

We're pouring some glasses,

having a bit of a
chat about the movie,

and ultimately decided
to do the movie

and decided that we were
in love with each other.

We just want to say we're
a big fan of your work.

Like Bruce Willis,

when Quentin cast
him in "Pulp Fiction,"

Pitt was now a heavyweight
Hollywood champion.

And I think Quentin was
like, yes, it's just perfect.

And you have to go quickly

because he might
have something else.

Now's your chance to do it now.

It's a different kind
of a role for Pitt.

It is more of a supporting
role than a lead role

if we're honest in that movie,

and it's more of a character
actor's performance

than you'd expect
from a lead actor.

Once
Pitt was locked in,

a name was needed to
play the British spy.

Who better than an old
friend and Tarantino regular?

The role of Archie
Hicox was originally

supposed to be Tim Roth.

Michael Fassbender
gets that role,

helps launch Michael
Fassbender's career,

at least here in America.

Lieutenant Archie
Hicox, reporting, sir.

But amid
all that firepower,

one comic actor
wouldn't be clocking in.

Eddie Murphy
started popping out there

and Adam Sandler
was supposed to play

Donny Donowitz, The Bear Jew.

Well,
he certainly knew

how to put a hole in one,

but Sandler was already batting

for Jud Apatow's
"Funny People" team.

He shoots, he scores.

Instead of Sandler,
Quentin's friend Eli Roth--

would
step up to the plate.

Big fucking Williams knocks it
out of the park.

Roth could
speak French and Italian.

- English?
- Nein.

But his
famous European co-stars

would need genuine fluency.

Can I assume you
know who we are?

Fuck you.

French
actress, Melanie Laurent.

And Denis Ménochet.

Representing
the fatherland,

actress Diane Kruger could--

Speak German better
than your friends.

Alongside Daniel
Bruhl and other locals.

All sharing a
sense of humor and history.

When I read the script
and I read about Bridget,

it just blew me away.

I thought, wow, he wrote
this obviously for me.

Getting
Mike Myers is easy.

He asked to be in the film.

Tarantino answered.

He said, "Listen...

Are you familiar
with German cinema?

...would you like to
play a British General?"

And I said, "Sure, yeah, just
tell me when and what to wear."

Got the gist?

If Tarantino had asked
me to read the phone book,

I would've done it.

Myers's comedy

would find its way
into the movie.

I suspect that wouldn't
be too much trouble for you.

But that
old Hans Landa landmine

was about to blow up.

And after many,
many casting chances,

he really felt that he wasn't
gonna be able to find him

and he felt that Hans Landa
was such a good character,

in his words, the best
character he's ever created,

that he would rather
not do the movie

than cast the wrong person.

This nearly killed the film.

They'd got to a point where
they were a few days out

from the studio
locking in to make it.

And they still hadn't
found Hans Landa.

And Tarantino realized
at this point,

he couldn't realistically
commit to making the movie

unless he had Hans Landa.

He'd pull the plug
on the whole film.

It wouldn't happen.

Tarantino's
"Inglourious Basterds" film

is only months away
from starting shooting.

But if he couldn't
cast Hans Landa,

Quentin's sixth movie
might not survive.

I've heard that
straight from Quentin.

He was about to pull up stakes.

He thought that actor
might not exist.

So they just auditioned
and auditioned.

About a day before that
plug had to be pulled

that Christoph Waltz walked in.

Surely
he waltzed in.

I have
no way of knowing

if you are familiar
with who I am.

Well,
no, nobody was.

Now, Christoph
Waltz, Austrian actor,

almost totally unknown
outside his country,

has hardly done any English
language speaking stuff,

primarily a TV actor,

and he can speak fluent French,
Italian, German, English.

He did his audition as Landa.

Tarantino just looked at him...

...and went, yeah,
we've got our movie.

It's this guy.

Bingo, how fun.

Inglourious
Basterds is saved,

and Christoph Waltz does
a little bit of lying.

He tells Tarantino that
he's fluent in Italian.

Tarantino doesn't know
any of the language,

so he believes him.

Christoph Waltz taught
himself Italian to speak it

at the end of that film.

Si.

Correcto.

He had to find a very,
very, very specific actor.

The Fuhrer couldn't have
said it better himself.

Now, Tarantino
could start piecing together

his World War II black comedy.

First he'd need to
approach an old friend.

But did this come with risks?

Allegations of Harvey
Weinstein's misconduct

were surfacing in Hollywood
with increased frequency.

This happened to a lot
of women and happened to me

and I was afraid.

As were several
other women at the time,

such as Daryl Hannah.

Actor Michael
Madsen was in Cannes

to promote their movie, "Vice"

I don't know if I
should tell this story.

when his
phone rang. It was Daryl.

Weinstein was in her
apartment and wouldn't leave,

so she locked herself
in the bathroom.

I said, here's what you do.

Walk out there with
your phone in your hand.

And so I heard the door open

and she came out and
she goes, yeah, Mike,

well, you know, she's
making up some stuff,

but I was still on the line.

He goes, "Who's
that on the phone?"

And she goes, "Oh,
it's Michael Madsen."

He goes, "Michael Madsen?
He's on the phone with you?"

And she goes, "Yeah."

And then I heard
like footsteps,

right out the door he went.

Harvey didn't like me
because he knew that I knew

that he was a pig.

In the interim,

there would be no
consequences for Harvey

or any business associate,
but that was going to change.

And I think that he
stayed with Quentin

because whatever they
did together worked.

Principal
photography would
begin in Germany

in October, 2008.

Despite a budget

more than eight
times "Pulp Fiction's"

Tarantino set the same 10-week

production schedule
for "Basterds"

to recapture his
old sense of energy.

What's going on here?

If we had three
days to do a scene,

there was no manana, manana
which happens all the time.

Along with K.N.B,
his long-term effects crew,

he also pulled back
DP, Bob Richardson,

past "Kill Bill" clashes
and all.

So that's when I was like,
hey, okay fellas, okay,

we're a little semantic here,

let's just take a deep breath.

Would
lightning strike twice?

It was completely different.

They had more respect
for each other.

They could understand
each other.

Bob knew the creature
he was dealing with.

Meanwhile,
another former lieutenant

was showing up
for front line duty.

Lawrence Bender was back

after narrowly
avoiding Tarantino's
unpopular "Death Proof."

Quentin and Lawrence have
not always seen eye to eye.

They definitely have had
times apart and friction,

and they've had times
together and great joy.

I think it's like
any relationship.

I think, you know, Lawrence
just believed in Quentin.

On "Pulp Fiction"
and "Jackie Brown,"

he was remarkably supportive

and always protecting
Quentin's vision.

He certainly had it on
"Inglourious Basterds."

With his
soldiers at attention,

Tarantino's vision became
reality in Altendorf, Germany,

when cameras rolled
in October, 2008.

We get to this farmhouse,
Quentin has written

that these hills are
littered with cows.

The city boy
would come face to face

with rural reality.

And it's this beautiful
French peaceful place

and up drive the Nazis.

And there's this stoic French
farmer out chopping wood.

Well, they've told
the animal wranglers

that these cows have
to be here and here

and here on these hills

and they can't have
these fences around them.

So they've got the fences around
them, we're ready to shoot,

and they're like,
"Okay, lose the fences."

and they're like, "These cows
will last here for two seconds

and you're gonna be
filming here for days."

So well, let's just try it.

They remove the fences
and the cows disappear.

So Quentin has to abandon
the pastoral scene

of cows munching quietly
on the French hillside.

So Quentin's not
happy about that.

Three cows
edged into the frame,

but Waltz was now
front and center.

Would he be everything
Quentin hoped for?

You're anticipating
this for months and months

as you're building up to it.

That you realize
you're gonna shoot

those 10 pages that
have terrified you.

Quentin
needn't have worried.

Waltz's performance took
everyone's breath away.

One of
the great discoveries

in motion picture history

is Christoph in
"Inglourious Basterds."

Please tell me
what you've heard.

If you want to see what's
the definition of suspense?

Just go, here's the opening
scene of "Inglourious Basterds."

I was like, holy shit,
I didn't know someone

could take it
to a whole other...

I didn't know there
was another level

that scene could get to.

But a great
performance needs a great,

but also unorthodox director.

Hans Landa looks at him
and says,

"You're hiding Jews,
aren't you?"

And there's this closeup
shot of LaPadite.

Quentin got Shosanna
to set that day,

although she wasn't shooting
and he had her covered in blood

and he got the three
sisters to set that day,

although they weren't shooting

and he had them hidden on set.

And so when LaPadite is looking,

they stepped out behind camera
and he wasn't expecting that.

I'd never seen a
director do that before.

You are sheltering enemies
of the state, are you not?

Ménochet's
glance to his right

is when he sees his costars.

Has Tarantino created a magic
moment in cinema yet again?

Yes.

Not all the
tension was scripted.

Crew disputes kept the
European shoot on edge.

Bruce Moriarty was,
he's like, da da da da da,

he was like a drill sergeant.

It was unpleasant.

Nobody was having a good time.

Quentin wasn't
having a good time,

so nobody was
having a good time.

The
first days of shooting

Tarantino's
"Inglourious Basterds"

are not going as
smoothly as expected.

As the cows cleared out,

so did First AD Carlos Fidel.

Tarantino felt the pull
of a familiar face.

Within the first week of
shooting, I got the call.

And Bill Clark
was Berlin bound.

Well, like Quentin needs me?

What the fuck could
he need me for?

But yeah, I'll come.

Quentin needed Bill

because he was
his go-to First AD

as far back as "Jackie Brown."

There was an obvious
shift in the mood

and also in the actors
when the AD changed.

But now this
apparently welcomed change

would make the director upset.

His mood
changed completely.

He had had a miserable
first week of shooting,

and the second he heard
I was able to come

and was gonna be
coming to Berlin,

his mood changed immediately.

And he's like, "And I
was very upset with you.

Why you would have that
much control over my mood,

I have no idea and it
made me very upset."

The film shifted in
tone when Bill arrived

because Quentin was doing
a hell of a lot better.

He'd do even
better when Steve Joyner flew in

to replace European prop
master, Simon Boucherie,

who made a name in
France and Germany

for sourcing period correct
World War II artifacts,

but wasn't marching in
step with Tarantino.

He was French and they
just didn't communicate.

They weren't hitting it off,

so they replaced him
with basically me.

Would Steve be welcomed by
his new European colleagues?

Who are you?
British, American?

It was a very hostile
environment to step into.

We're American.

I'm here to
facilitate communication

between Quentin and
this department.

And after three days, we
were the best friends.

With
trust flying around,

it was time to get
the basterds out

and into the German countryside,

an historical military
fortification just
outside Berlin.

Fort Hahneberg is the location
for Eli Roth's brutal scene.

Somewhat simplified,
when Tarantino noticed

something only he would notice.

And there were shots

that Quentin had
designed inside there,

so you show him
listening to this thing.

We never shot those shots.

Quentin heard the
first...

of the clack of the bat back
in that tunnel echoing out.

It's like, we don't
need to go in there.

But something
was bothering bat man, Eli,

and it wasn't the fact this fort

is actually a
registered bat colony.

Go.

The man was
getting bored in there.

Eli said, "Can you give
me a, like a bar back here

inside the tunnel?"

Like, what?

Not
that sort of bar.

And he said, "I want to like
do some pull-ups back there."

All right.

So they built it for him.

Ever
the prankster,

Eli planned a hair
raising fright for Miguel.

When we were setting
up for that scene,

everyone's like,
Miguel, where's Eli?

And I'm like, yeah,
where is the guy?

And the dark tunnel he
comes out of in the film,

I hear grunting and
pounding and hitting

and I'm like, go have a look.

So I walk down this
tunnel with my flashlight

and the grunting and
the hitting gets louder

and there's no light in there.
It's dark, right?

And I come up to the
end of this tunnel,

or at some room at the back
and I shine the light on Eli

and he turns around
and he looks at me

and he was full on in character.

But the weirdness

was about to get even weirder.

Had the ghosts of World War II
turned up for a cameo?

There is a continuity mistake

where Gedeon
Burkhard's character,

a leaf landed during
the shot on his chest

and Quentin left it there.

And Gideon didn't wipe
it off during the shoot.

He just left it there
and played his scene.

Quentin said, oh my God, that
looked like the Jewish star.

And you know, I'm sure there
are directors out there

were like, oh,
rotoscope, cut him out.

But he was like,
no, leave it there.

It's the Jewish star.

But while the shoot

was now firing on all cylinders,

Tarantino began pushing his
luck with the next location.

You said it was in a tavern.

It is a tavern.

Yeah, in a basement.

An actual basement

instead of a
sensible sound stage.

Whose idea was it for
the death trap rendezvous?

Quentin's like, "I
will shoot it there."

And I went into it scared.

We managed to bring
down the floor joists

enough to be able
to hang our parkins

so that we can have light
bouncing off of the tables.

Come up with some windows
that let in some light,

false entrance areas

so that we could put some
light down the stairs.

Achtung.

It was definitely the most
exhausting scene to shoot.

Quentin's famous
for doing really long takes,

sometimes 10 minutes,

and I had about 15 pages
of dialogue in that scene.

We rehearsed the
scene for two weeks

and then shot it over
the course of two weeks.

So it was a lot.

And
Quentin's language barrier

wouldn't help either.

I hope you don't mind if
I go out speaking the King's.

Half the direction would be,

"So you come over
here, German, German,

German, German, German,

and then you sit over here
and I want this from you.

I want to feel that.
I want to feel this."

Inglourious
Basterds fused

old school practical effects

with razor sharp editing,
locking its tension in place.

After a grueling month
in the stuffy basement,

the epic scene was completed,

but approaching the
Christmas break...

He kind of felt like we got

so much great stuff
getting to this story,

we want to get to the climax

and we want the
climax to happen.

We don't need to
build it up anymore.

Quentin
would stay in Berlin

to rewrite the ending,

most notably cutting scenes
with actresses, Maggie Chung

and Cloris Leachman
to tighten the pace

and clarify the narrative.

It wasn't a big dramatic
change, it was just condensed.

Getting to the
finish of the movie.

The
film within the film

had already been directed

and shot by Eli Roth in October.

So he got to direct
a German war movie.

Who wants to send
a message to Germany?

No downside for Eli.

Quentin, he wanted
the propaganda film
to be its own entity.

47.

But now
the question was...

48.

...how to shoehorn
Nation's Pride

into "Inglourious Basterds"
seamlessly and chronologically.

There wasn't a
Tarantino movie.

The propaganda
film was something

that Leni Riefenstahl would've
come up with or Goebbels.

I think he chose Eli also

because Eli has a
horror background.

With the
film's ending worked out

and everyone back on set,

the final explosive
scenes would be easy.

And I remember going, oh fuck.

Or would they?

Viola.

That's about to
crush a thing I need.

In early 2009,

after a festive
German Christmas,

Quentin Tarantino
was about to film

the final dramatic scenes
of "Inglourious Basterds."

The whole way through

it felt Shakespearean, it
felt like witnessing opera.

Another
terrifying Christoph Waltz

performance took place

as his Hans Landa
character laid his hands

on Bridget von Hammersmark.

And I'm doubling Diane,

so I've got the cast on my leg

and Christoph and I are sitting

opposite each other in chairs.

Despite a trademark
Tarantino foot closeup,

Zoe wasn't about to
get hers massaged.

So I had this
conversation with Christoph

and I was like, on an emotional
level, just be in character,

think of me as my character,

know that if you feel
me doing this to you,

that means I need to stop.

He was like, okay.

Quentin was like, roll camera.
We rolled cameras.

And the minute we
rolled cameras,

Christoph went from
like, okay, okay, okay,

and he just went.

Viola.

And I remember going, oh fuck.

Christoph
went full throttle.

And we went for
it and he went for it.

And I think we did
it like four times.

I think take three was

the only time I may
have had a little...

because he got a
little bit on my...

I was like, that's about
to crush a thing I need,

so let me, you know.

And then they'd call cut

and he'd go straight
back to like,

"You okay? Is everything...

And I was like, "Hey, I'm
good, that was fucking awesome."

While
Christoph would switch

from psycho to
softy in a second...

Well, let's just say
she got what she deserved.

...not so Brad Pitt.

Brad stayed in
character the entire time.

You got a good "How I broke my
leg mountain climbing" story.

That's German, ain't it?

Y'all like climbing
mountains, don't you?

So he was Lieutenant Aldo
Raine through and through.

Like when I would talk to him

or when anyone would talk
to him, he was always...

...your little ass up
that rouge carpet.

...always had his accent,
he was always in character.

I'm a slave to appearances.

Putting Brad Pitt,
sexiest man in the world,

putting him in a bag for like

a couple of weeks
worth of filming,

nobody else is gonna do that.

While Brad Pitt
was in the bag, so to speak,

the final scene still wasn't.

Ending just completed
the whole thing.

So we're gonna establish
this elegant theater.

How the hell are we
gonna burn it down?

By using a match.

After the first fiery
scene nearly took the set

and the cast with it,
everything had to be rebuilt.

We shot that in a theater.

We shot that in a build.

We shot that in a
cement compound where
they make cement.

Everything has to be
replicated in all places.

And yet the requirements
for us filming it in a stage

are greatly different
than the requirements

for us shooting in a burn box.

And
a burn box is...

It's just like a big, like
almost like a cool store,

like a big concrete, massive
concrete bunker. I walked in,

it was decked out as this
beautiful old school cinema,

red velvet, balconies
and shit everywhere.

As ever, Tarantino
would strive to dress sets

and actors with
maximum authenticity,

and that meant going to
trade fairs and garage sales.

We had a lot of
real Nazi memorabilia,

which you are allowed
to sell and possess.

You just can't display it.

I think it was Lawrence that
knew a collector in Texas

that had Hitler's pocket watch

and a pair of his eyeglasses

that were verified really
his from the bunker.

And he contacted that guy
and that guy got on a plane

and flew out for the scene.

These are
all little tidbits

that sort of keep
Quentin entertained

watching his own movies.

For Quentin specifically,
what a great resource.

I mean, you don't get
more real than that.

But the props
just didn't feel "reich."

Lawrence was there
and he took the glasses

and he put them on
to look through them

and he immediately
handed them back.

It actually shook him visibly.

The scene with
Hitler's watch and glasses

would be cut, but for
the next spectacle...

We burned the cinema down.

Burn it down.

Oui, Shosanna.

And filming
a fire bombed cinema

would be no laughing matter.

It felt like every stunt man

and woman in Germany was in
that building at the time.

Some 300 stunt people.

And then it gets insanely
hot really quick.

Like really hot.

Real flames
in a closed concrete box

can do that.

Heat rises so they're
feeling even more heat

and it's kind of suffocating

when you're above
flames like that,

everybody in there
at some point,

whether you were crew or cast,

had a "switch out
of character" moment.

Filming
for "Inglourious Basterds"

would wrap in December, 2008.

Over and out.

Let's cut. Why?

Because
we love making movies.

For his most
anticipated movie yet,

Quentin would bring back
his trusted post team

headed by editor Sally Menke.

Quentin always made sure that

the crew was aware of Sally.

At least once a day he
would grab the camera

and tell everyone
to say, "Hi, Sally."

Hi, Sally.

Bonjour, Sally.

Sally, I am not dead.

We all did the "Hi, Sally."

Sally, how are you?

Good?
Little lonely, are you?

Mike says hello.

Sally wasn't alone.

She was in Berlin the whole time

getting ready for
a fast turnaround.

We wound up wrapping the
whole production in mid-February

and the Cannes film
festival's in May.

So he and Sally posted that
picture in breakneck time.

But it
would be the last movie

Quentin and Sally would
ever make together.

"Inglourious Basterds" premiered
at the Cannes Film Festival

on May 20th, 2009.

Can you still get
us in that premiere?

Yes.

The film
received a standing ovation

normally reserved for dictators.

It went on for 11 minutes.

While the top award

would go to German
thriller, "The White Ribbon,"

"Basterds" was about to top all
of Tarantino's other films.

This ain't any war film.

This is not like
your dad's war film.

This is Quentin's war film,
so it has all that humor...

The Germans' nickname
for me is The Little Man?

...violence

and great dialogue.

You'll be shot for this.

Nah, I don't think so.

More like chewed out.

I've been chewed out before.

Character and music that
Quentin normally does.

It made over $300 million
at the box office.

From a relatively
modest budget of 70 million.

By this point,
it does seem

to be like Tarantino
can do no wrong.

He's become a genre in himself.

I just remember watching
the movie and losing it.

By the time they shot
Hitler's face off.

Think about the hundreds

and maybe thousands of
World War II movies

that have been made, but
no one's ever gave us

what we really wanted,

which is to see
Hitler's face shot off.

Four
Golden Globe nominations

and eight Oscar nods later,

Tarantino was back on top after
his dabble with "Death Proof."

Well, it's just a
really, really lovely thing

to be nominated, to be
chosen to be one of the five.

I came up with a story,
and I thought

it was a humdinger
of a story,

and I thought,
"I'd go see that."

But the victory
of "Basterds" was somewhat muted

when the fog of war lifted.

Quentin and his
extended film family

lost their beloved
editor, Sally Menke.

And I remember
getting the call

that Sally had passed away.

She was 54 years old, just
went hiking with a friend

and passed out
because of the heat.

Sally was just a beautiful,
beautiful person.

When we heard that she had
passed, it was just like...

You know, she had a
nurturing quality to her.

She cared about people.

I think she took
Quentin very seriously

and recognized his genius

when I'm not sure he
felt like everybody was.

I can imagine her being like,

"This scene is the dopest
shit ever as a standalone,

it doesn't serve the story."

And she might be one of the
few people at that point

that he would've heard
that from comfortably.

Tarantino named
her his closest collaborator

and said he would struggle

to envision making
films without her.

They were a match
made in heaven.

From
inspiration to ideas,

to surrounding himself
with the best of the best

remains Tarantino's
winning formula.

He continues to show us

he can do almost
anything he wants.

He's not pigeonholed
as a director.

The writing
was so next level,

he achieved what he
wanted to achieve.

It was a magnum opus for
sure, and I think he knew that

and he wanted it to be that way.

But his
next historical epic

would see Tarantino on
the run from critics

in a way he'd never experienced.

Tarantino has said
he was trying to show

the Holocaust in America.

Heated conversations
to do with the N word.

Who this n-----
on that nag?

But never
this close to home.

Spike Lee
didn't see it that way.

He says that the
American slave experience

was not a Sergio Leone
spaghetti western.

It was some upset people,

who were probably
just feeling fucking terrified.