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Inside The Twisted Young Mind of Eli Roth

by Rachel Sklar | 2:02 pm, November 20th, 2009

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This next one introduces the concept of money into the equation — there’s a guy yelling “Help! My money!” even though the blood gushing from his face suggests he might have other more pressing concerns. Actually, he looks injured but alive; he seems to be jamming the head of another guy into a chainsaw. Elsewhere, the young Roth seems to have mastered the art of rendering furtive surprise (the smaller dude next to “help”) and determined ferocity (“Varoom vroom” chainsaw dude up top). Note the pointillism on the BZZZZZZ lettering, suggesting even more activity and sound. That combined with the money case in the upper-right and neat stacks of bills in the lower left suggest a rollicking, high-octane thriller, perhaps with some hijinks.
Eli Roth Drawing 3

Here we have the notebook cover — “Warning: This Contains Tohture” — dated almost exactly 25 years ago. How he’s…grown? I like the juxtaposition of the scary guy in the mask next to the smaller, less foreboding character over his shoulder, who seems to be staring pensively into the future. Alas, that future will probably contain evisceration. p.s. I am pretty sure I was drawing pictures of unicorns in grade six.

Eli Roth Tohture

All these pictures make you think, What did his mother think? (p.s. That’s his mother below, posing with him and Hitler. Also his dad and Goebbels.)

Screen shot 2009-11-09 at 12.02.31 AM

For those of you film geeks interested in process, this next interview with Roth will be of interest — it’s about Tarantino’s process, not Roth’s (some of us are picky about our movie violence!) — but it’s a fascinating look at the backstory to how Tarantino worked through the Jewish element of Basterds in terms of history and tradition and inclination. Roth invited Tarantino to join his family for Passover seder — a tradition, incidentally, that arises directly out of the history of Jewish persecution. Interesting stuff.