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A Jewish fella making a film extolling the “glory days” of the Third Reich? Yes, you read that correctly.
For Quentin Tarantino’s much-anticipated new movie “Inglourious Basterds”—a World War II farce in which a vengeful squad of Jewish-American GIs go behind enemy lines to terrorize Nazis – so-called “Splat Pack” director Eli Roth has made a short “film-within-a-film,” which is being promoted by a trailer that is now a viral video on the Internet.
“Stolz der Nation”—which translates as “Nation’s Pride” – comes across as a propaganda film in the styles of Joseph Goebbels and Leni Riefenstahl.
“Being Jewish, I wanted to make it a real propaganda film,” said Mr.Roth, 37, best known for such horror flicks as “Hostel” and “Hostel Part II.” “I was, like, I want to show what these movies are like. I don’t want to do a sanitized version.
“After `Hostel 2,’ I thought, `God, what can I make that’s more offensive and upsetting than this film?’” he said. “But somehow, I did it with `Nation’s Pride.’”
Natch, Mr. Tarantino, creator of “Pulp Fiction” and the “Kill Bill” series, just loves it. “There was something that we enjoyed immensely about the idea of a Jew making a Nazi propaganda movie,” he said. “You would have to have absolutely, positively no sense of humor at all not to get it.”
In “Basterds,” which stars Brad Pitt, Mike Myers, B.J. Novak and Cloris Leachman (uh-huh), Mr. Roth, who is also an actor, portrays Sgt. Donnie Donowitz, known by his pals in the squad as “the Bear Jew.” The role was originally slated to go to Adam Sandler, who had to back out because of other commitments.
The plot for “Stolz der Nation” revolves around the squad’s plot to assassinate Hitler at a small Paris theater, where the Nazi leadership is gathered for the premiere of a Goebbels’ film. The black-and-white film glorifies a fictional war hero played by Daniel Bruhl “and the glory of the swastika and the power of Germany,” Mr. Roth said.
Using 20 extras and five stuntmen, Mr. Roth shot the five-and-a-half-minute film in three days in the German town of Gorlitz. “The whole time we were shooting, we were, like, not only does this have to impress Quentin, this has got to impress the Fuhrer” he said. “Hitler has to see this and go, `This is your finest work.’
“The German crew were going, `God, normally, we can’t do this. This is so illegal.’ And I was, like, `This is what they did. This is what Joseph Goebbels would have done, and this has got to be honest and accurate,’” Mr. Roth said.
Mr. Roth said Mr. Tarantino will probably include “Stolz der Nation” as a bonus in the DVD edition of “Basterds.”