Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Inglourious Basterds -- Marquees and Potential for Offending People

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Topic: Inglourious Basterds -- Marquees and Potential for Offending People

Robert E. Allen
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1078
From: Checotah, Oklahoma
Registered: Jul 2002

posted 08-21-2009 03:00 PM

quote: Carey Barber
How is everyone handling this title?

While the language in the title is rather mild and not offensive to most people, there will of course be some that do not like it.

Are you putting the full title on your marquee? Or, are you using an abbreviated title like "Inglourious B-words"?

Have you been displaying the poster? The posters, beyond the word 'basterds', has some pretty violent imagery.

Have you received any complaints after you displayed this title on a poster or a marquee?

What about the mis-spelling? Has anyone thought that you were spelling the title incorrectly?

My theater caters to an older, more conservative crowd, and I can definitely imagine someone getting offended, particularly if it is displayed on the big marquee outside.

-Carey

How refreshing to see someone in this business concerned about offending some in the movie-going public. Today "Hollywood" is not the least concerned about offending anyone and many in this business don't "give a damn" about who they may offend. Good job Carey! But "Bastards" is not necessarily a swear word. It depends on how it's used.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-21-2009 05:44 PM

quote: Robert E. Allen
How refreshing to see someone in this business concerned about offending some in the movie-going public.

The vast majority of the movie-going public doesn't get offended all that easily. It's just a small vocal percentage of people who make life miserable for all of the "normal" people with all of the politically-correct nonsense.

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Robert E. Allen
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1078
From: Checotah, Oklahoma
Registered: Jul 2002

posted 08-21-2009 11:54 PM

quote: Mike Blakesley
The vast majority of the movie-going public doesn't get offended all that easily. It's just a small vocal percentage of people who make life miserable for all of the "normal" people with all of the politically-correct nonsense.

But you need to remember Mike that those people have as much right to speak as do the "Normal" people do to see and hear all the garbage "Hollywood" grinds out these days.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 08-22-2009 02:12 AM

But there is also the amazing coincidence of how most of the "easily offended" out there also just happen to be gypsies!

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Robert E. Allen
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1078
From: Checotah, Oklahoma
Registered: Jul 2002

posted 08-22-2009 02:40 AM

Sorry Brad, I don't get that one. (Of course my wife would say I don't get a lot of things.)

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 08-22-2009 11:21 AM

What I mean is that most of the people who are easily offended actually just want to complain to get refunds, free tickets, someone on their knees begging them to come back and be a pain in the ass to them again, etc.

The super sensitive people just aren't worth the hassle, as most of them are just faking and the few who are legitimately offended are in the very minority and are way outside of the target audience for the customer base theaters serve, so while the goal should be to try and take care of everyone, ultimately it becomes an issue of acceptable losses for the overall benefit of the business. Times have changed. People have toughened up. This is reality today. Its funny though because that really old phrase "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" was usually uttered back in the day by the very people popping a vein when someone says "damn" instead of "shuck-e-darn".

Sorry if I offended anyone.

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Scott D. Neff
Theatre Dork

Posts: 919
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 08-22-2009 11:57 AM

No offense here. All I ever hear from my BF is how many gypsies come into his theatre with outlandish stories in search of free movies.

I once called him to carpet about how he knew they were gypsies and he gave off a huge list of reasons, all of which I can't really remember right now. I suppose I'm being ?classist? Are gypsies a race or profession?

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 08-22-2009 12:15 PM

I don't think I've ever seen a real gypsy. Are they like female wizards? [Wink]

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Robert E. Allen
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1078
From: Checotah, Oklahoma
Registered: Jul 2002

posted 08-22-2009 01:06 PM

Thanks for the explanation Brad. I've seen the type you describe in the church community.

You've heard about the furor stirred up back in '39 by the Clark Gable line "Frankly Scarlet I don't give a damn"?

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Jonathan Althaus
Master Film Handler

Posts: 435
From: Bedford, TX
Registered: Dec 2008

posted 08-22-2009 01:45 PM

quote: Emma Tomiak
I was wondering where your theatre's marquee had gone, Jonathan. Thanks for clearing up that mystery.

Yeah that horrid wind/dust storm back in April 2008 completely ripped it out. Luckily no customers were hurt, although a piece did pierce our GM's foot. Now we just need some storm to rip out our Simplex's so we can get some Barco's

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Paul Mayer
Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under!

Posts: 3836
From: Albuquerque, NM
Registered: Feb 2000

posted 08-22-2009 02:06 PM

Here in Sin City we call 'em "fleas." Getting lots of 'em here lately what with the economy the way it is. I imagine all tourist areas are experiencing the same thing these days. The fleas fill up the rooms at giveaway rates and don't drop anything in the casinos, yet they bitch and want everything for free. Like the old local joke, they come to town with a clean shirt and a hundred-dollar bill and don't change either one.

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Aaron Mehocic
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 804
From: New Castle, PA, USA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-22-2009 03:00 PM

quote: Scott D. Neff
Are gypsies a race or profession?

Nobody is quite sure where the Gypsies originated, or indeed, who they really are. In my 20th Century World History course I briefly mention the Gypsies as they were one of the many groups targeted by the Nazis as part of the "Final Solution". Most demographers and historians believed Gypsies came out of what is now Egypt (thus the syllable gyp) via Greece a few centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire. Most settled in what is now Romania, Hungary, Moldova, and Bulgaria. Like the Jews following the destruction of ancient Israel, they shunned established European communities and imposed a self-segregation on themselves and their descendants. The Hollywood view of Gypsies as old hags with crystal balls or men with dark flowing beards was never a true reality, although many claimed to be fortune tellers during the 18th and 19th Centuries. The phrase "to gyp somebody" came from European traders attempting to do business with Gypsies only to be ripped off by their more cunning customers. Very few Gypsies survived the ravages of World War II. Today, most still live segregated lives and are very poor. And no, they do not dress like Stevie Nicks.

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Joe Elliott
Master Film Handler

Posts: 497
From: Port Orange, Fl USA
Registered: Oct 2006

posted 08-31-2009 04:12 AM

Since no one answered you yet Scott, I will.

"And while I haven't seen the movie yet, doesn't the Basterds spelling have some sort of significance? "

Not in the movie, but there QT gives two reasons why it is spelled that way. One because his friends rib him a lot about his horrible spelling when he is writing a draft script. Inglorious Basterds is the way he spelled it on the original draft, and two, it is inspired (not remade) by a 1978 film, and the misspelling will distinguish it from the earlier film.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 10-01-2009 04:00 PM

When we in Salt Lake for the Rocky Mtn convention, we had one screening at the Jordan Commons Megaplex 17. One of their elecronic marquees had the title shortened to INGLOURIOUS BASTER so I made a joke about a Thanksgiving dinner gone wrong. It cracked my wife up.

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Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 10-01-2009 04:25 PM

That reminds me that our tickets would truncate "Da Vinci Code" to "Da Vinci Cod" so I started a dumb running joke that we had some sort of strange fish movie.

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