Inglorious Bastards [DVD]

One of the greatest war films of the seventies. Ok it owes one hell of a lot to Robert Aldrich's "The Dirty Dozen" but for sheer outrageous shoot outs, stunts and all out action this beats any other seventies war film into a cocked hat. The story is your typical war time yarn. A bunch of super tough soldiers who have been arrested for various crimes, escape only to find themselves caught up in a mission to attack a german train.
Bo Svenson (looking super cool) leads the men, with blaxploitation god Fred Williamson as his second in command. The transfer on offer here ain't the best but it is quite good, also extras are thin on the ground. But buy this just for the sheer scope and bravado of the production. If you love war films it's a must see. There is also a rumour going round that Tarantino loves this films and might even remake it!!!!!

Thanks to the odd impressive matte shot and a skilful marshalling of its limited resources, Enzo Castellari's Inglorious Bastards doesn't look cheap even if the same extras keep on getting killed in every action scene, but despite Quentin Tarantino's slavish devotion it's more Garrison's Guerrillas than the Dirty Half-Dozen. Castellari's heroes are a standard issue group of American military prisoners: black marketer (Michael Pergolani), would-be mobster (Peter Hooten), coward (Jackie Basehart), proud black man who got tired of taking s*** (Fred Williamson), mildly sympathetic disillusioned German deserter to avoid offending the lucrative German market (Raimund Harmstorf) and the obligatory cocky but heroic one who got busted for using his fighter plane as a taxi for dates across the English Channel in his downtime (Bo Svenson). Naturally their plan to make a break for the border when they're waylaid en route to the stockade by some Nazi planes naturally ends up with them embarking on a mission vital to the success of the war (admittedly only after inadvertently killing some of their own side), but then this is a film that exists purely to do only what's expected of it rather than offer any unwelcome surprise. Sure, there's the odd spin on some of the old favorites, but there aren't nearly enough naked women with machine guns to truly lift it above the formulaic.

Dialogue isn't exactly sparkling - "All Americans are mongrels... and your women are whores!" - and half the cast are dubbed anyway (Ian Bannen's Scottish tones are replaced by an American actor and Hooten by what sounds like John Dall), but the film does its job even if it's more supporting feature than main event. Castellari is the best kind of hack, one with a good eye for framing and who knows how to shoot action (although the sight of one German soldier being lifted up, Peter Pan-style, on a visible wire in an explosion is worthy of one of the sight gags in Top Secret! It's a minor film and one it's best not to expect too much from, but there a lot worse exploitation films out there.

Unlie the extras-free UK DVD, the three disc US Region 1 NTSC DVD comes with a decent array of extras, including Easter Egg alternate title sequences for a couple of the film's many video reissues as Deadly Mission and G.I. Bro (it's also known as Counterfeit Commandos, Hell's Heroes and Commando Bastards) a cheap-and-cheerful hour long making of, brief then and-now tour of the locations with Castellari and a CD (not included on the 2-disc set) of what little remains of the score - the composer recorded his son's school play over most of the masters! By far the most curious of the extras is an interview with Quentin Tarantino and Castellari, with the chin treating it as part confessional, part therapy, unburdening himself on the engaging director as if an unworthy disciple at the feet of a true master.

Don't expect any meaningful war is hell/flawed hero story. Expect plenty of action that never stops for a breath, done excitedly by Italian's master of the action genre Enzo G. Castellari.

As with Bronx Warriors 2, Castellari knows how to stage action wall to wall scenes that goes over the top without being silly or self-indulgent. He serves you action on a plate and knows how to keep you hooked from start to finish. The action is well choreographed that is almost balletic in tone with Germans soldiers jumping about when shot or blown up in slow motion. If you watch any John Woo film you can see he must have been influenced by this film.

Acting wise, as always, Fred Williamson is as cool as ever and Bo Svenson is equally impressive and an Italian Hippie that is a hoot (you will only get this if you have seen the classic Eastwood film Kelly's Hero's).

One last thing I have to mention is that is the animated title sequences have to be one of the most unusual yet unforgettable I have ever seen.

Forget the hype of the Tarantino remake, go out and buy this, you know it makes sense.