Inglourious Basterds During the spring I learned of a certain plot point of this upcoming movie but I wanted to hold off until it could be confirmed and until I was sure that the plot hadn't been cut from the film. Well, its been confirmed enough to my satisfaction. Maybe you folks have heard of this movie. Its called "Inglourious Basterds" by Tarantino. One of the major storylines of the film, one you never see much in the promo, involves a Jewish woman seeking to get revenge on the Germans after the slaughter of her family. Her storyline doesn't really interact with those of Brad Pitt and his crew until the very end. But I bring all of this up is because in the film she has a black boyfriend/lover who helps puts her plan in motion. The actress playing the role is French starlet Melanie Laurent and she is considered to be the female lead of the film. She plays Shosanna. Her boyfriend, Marcel, is played by French/African actor Jacky Ido. No, I don't know how big of a part he has. I don't know how the relationship is handled. No, I don't know if there are any sex scenes but I highly doubt there are because Tarantino has never been big on sex scenes. No, I don't know if the two characters really love each other or not. I know about something major that happens but I won't spoil it for you guys, and, besides, it doesn't give me any further insight regarding their relationship. I can say that many folks who have seen the film like Shosanna's storyline best of all and are upset its not promoted more. But, heck, she speaks French throughout the entire movie so that may explain it. Also the media for the most part have been very quiet when it comes to Marcel. Most reviews don't mention him at all. Is the role too small, too lightweight? Is the actor not up to the job or is there something else going on? Well, I guess many of you will find out soon enough.
First of all let me emphasize the word POSSIBILITY. Don't get your hopes up yet about this....but let me throw out this bone anyway. There's a film coming out next year named "Salt". It got mentioned on these boards before because it stars Angelina Jolie (as the title character Evelyn Salt) and it also stars Chiwetel Ejiofor. It was quickly shot down though any possibility of Ejiofor being a love interest. He plays Salt's antagonist in the CIA, a guy named Peabody. He's not romantically involved with her. So who is? Well, first some backstory. The character of Salt was originally written as a man. Tom Cruise was supposed to play the character. Then TPTB decided to rewrite the role a bit for Jolie. But the main plot points for the character remain the same. The summary is "Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) is a CIA officer who swore an oath to duty, honor, and country. When she is accused by a defector of being a Russian sleeper spy, Salt goes on the run to clear her name and ultimately prove she is a patriot. Using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative, she must elude capture and protect her husband or the world's most powerful forces will erase any trace of her existence. " So Salt's wife now becomes, of course, a husband. And Salt has a child in the film. Reportedly a daughter. So you look at the IMDB credits and you see Liev Schreiber listed as being one of the leads and you assume he is the husband. But he's not. He plays Winter who is Salt's main ally and friend in the CIA. You think, well, maybe they changed it around and made him the husband too. However from all reports they kept the dynamic the same between Salt and Winter exactly as it was when Salt was still written as a man. So that takes Winter out of the equation. Now a question that has been asked repeatedly by folks is who plays Salt's husband, a character who has a pretty big role in the film? Call me crazy but the one guy in the credits that seems to fit the picture is Gaius Charles. He's an upcoming actor who played the black running back on the TV version of "Friday Night Lights". He plays a guy named Todd Bottoms in "Salt" and was one of the earliest people cast for this movie. If you look at the IMDB cast list it appears to be putting the main characters/actors at the top of it and sure enough Gaius Charles is right there near the top. But so far there has been no mention in the press release who his character is supposed to be. Now that's not exactly concrete evidence. However there is one more important detail. I mentioned that Salt supposedly has a daughter in the film. Well, there are only two little girls in the cast. One is playing Evelyn Salt as a child. Obviously she is white. The other though is named Yara Shahidi. And she's black. Mixed in fact (her real life mom is African American and her father is Persian). Yara played Eddie Murphy's daughter in Murphy's recent disaster of a film and she plays Cleo in "Salt." Yara was also an early casting choice and shows up high o the IMDB list to boot. Could this be Salt's daughter? If so is she adopted? The daughter of Todd Bottoms? The daughter of Salt and Todd? Truth is Yara's casting more than anything sold me on the legit possibility that Gaius could be playing Salt's husband. Now what are the possible strikes that keep popping up in my head that would give me doubt: 1) Gaius is younger than Angelina. May seem too young for the part in fact. He's about 26 so I guess he could get away with playing a guy in his early 30s (although the age of the husband is never mentioned). 2) His character's last name is Bottoms. Her last name is Salt. Of course women don't always take on their husband's last names and besides none of the other male characters have the last name Salt either so its a wash. 3) There are one or two other possible actors who are listed who could be playing the husband. These guys were late cast editions and aren't listed as major characters but that doesn't necessarily prove anything. 4) Gaius is black. And my head is telling me no way would they cast a black dude, especially an unknown one, to play Angelina' hubby. Not when her character has to spend part of the film saving him and her daughter which would mean the film would have to emphasize how much she loved them. This type of thing is almost unheard of in a manistream film when a black male and a white female are involved. So again may be really jumping the gun on this one. And I wouldn't bet the farm on it. But I had to throw it out there as a possibility.
Oh of course they aint gonna give angelina a IR romance scene with a brotha, thats too big of a leap, even thought it looks possible it wont be. And her husband can still be black though, remember hollywood is set on not giving IR love scenes to mainstream white women.
JS,I saw Inglourious Bastards this weekend and I wonder if that IR in the movie was Tarintino's homage to Fred Williamson? Without giving it away I don't like the ending. As for Salt, I will not hold my breath since it may remind me of The Bone Collector when she stars with Denzel Washington. It will be a first if there is any lovin in that flick.
The ending (and its bookend beginning) was spoiled to me a month ago in a magazine so I can guess what your feelings were about that.
In a way, I think it's a good thing that in the reviews of Inglorious Basterds there wasn't too much focus on the interracial romance between Shosanna and Marcel because the film is not about IR. The fact that it's not mentioned means that it wasn't much of a shock to anyone and is more accepted, surely. Tonytony is right though, they do love each other and there isn't any part of the script that undermines the relationship. It's very genuine and it's obvious that Marcel loves her and vice versa. Shosanna's part isn't advertised as much not because of the IR romance in my opinion, but because the main storyline has Brad Pitt in and he's a bigger actor than a French bird nobody has ever heard of. No biggie. I'd reccomend watching the film, it's good. A bit overrated though, I won't be going out to buy it. I didn't like the ending - but I won't tell you why because I don't want to ruin the film for anyone. I just think that there are a lot of stupid people in the world who will take the events of the movie and believe it to be reality.
I liked the ending but thought similarly. How many dumbasses who didn't pay attention in high school history will view it as factual?
