I found the strangest thing today–an alternate poster for the recent Tarantino release of Inglourious Basterds.  And frankly, strangely…it was better.

Everyone who compares this to the old Star Wars posters or the old Indiana Jones posters…well, they’re right.  There’s no two ways about it.  Frankly, Tarantino’s original marketing push for Inglourious Basterds was a cheap come-on by comparison.  All that nonsense with Brad Pitt smirking and bloody baseball bats…it was a joke. Especially given that this new poster manages to encompass so much of what the film offered: the explosions, the running, the subterfuge…all of the things that really made Inglourious Basterds interesting.

But then, the new poster was so very typical of Quentin Tarantino.  No subtlety…going straight for the gore factor…really, looking at it all it’s not surprising that they would have eschewed the better, somewhat more subtle look for the “go for the throat”  posture of the actual release.

Sadly, that’s all neither here nor there–the poster as-is definitely worked; people went to see the movie in huge numbers.  But oh…what might have been.