The first wave of Inglourious Basterds promotional posters featured weapons, the second is featuring characters. After the break you’ll be able to see full versions of the first two sheets - one featuring Brad Pitt and the second, courtesy of The Quentin Tarantino Archives, featuring Eli Roth.

The friendship and collaborations between Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth have drawn a lot of fire - heck, I thought they got enough flack individually - but absolutely nothing so far has dampened the enthusiasm I’ve had for Inglourious Basterds since I first read the screenplay. Indeed, quite the opposite is true. What with Gilliam, Tarantino and Chan Wook Park films screening at Cannes this month, I must admit that if I actually had a grandmother I might right now be researching her market value.

As premiered on Aint it Cool, here’s the first Basterd, Mr. Pitt himself:

And here’s another, the one and only Eli Roth Esq.:

Roth’s batting (ahem) three for three with me now with Cabin Fever being one of my favourite cabin-in-the-woods pictures and Hostel and Hostel 2 being my favourite horror films of the last ten years or so. There’s been a real hateful reaction to all mentions of those films in my posts before, which I find regrettable. I think the Hostel pictures are smart, angry, politically motivated films that address some very key ideas and social images of these times. The 60s had an awful lot of protest songs up born of the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam situation but we had relatively little from our big music acts regarding the Iraq war, supposed war on terror and the transgressions of the Bush era. Rushing into the gap, I think, were the Hostel films. I only wish we’d seen more of their ilk.

Footnote: I think George Romero did a good job with his two most recent Dead films, but they’re possibly even less popular. I don’t really get it.