THE INGLORIOUS BASTARDS
Italy | 1978
Directed by Enzo G. Castellari
Starring
Bo Svenson
Peter Hooten
Fred Williamson
Color | 99 Minutes | R
Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC | 3-disc set)
Severin Films
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3-disc "Explosive Edition"
Blu-ray edition (July 2009)
Review by
Brian Lindsey
  
 
7
     10   10 = Highest Rating  
SNEAK PREVIEW | DVD Release Date: July 29, 2008
In the cult movie consciousness, the "Macaroni Combat" flick has heretofore taken a distant back seat to virtually every other kind of Italian genre film — the spaghetti western, the giallo, gothic horror, poliziotteschi, Naziploitation, even pepla. This is mainly because relatively few of these military/war-themed action-adventure pics have found their way onto North American home video. There's also the fact that — judging strictly by the admittedly small sample I've had the chance to watch — most of them are rather lame or, at best, mediocre. (See my review of The Battle of El Alamein and the Churchill's Leopards/Salt in the Wound double feature for prime examples.) This lack of visibility is bound to change with Quentin Tarantino's recent announcement about his upcoming auteur project, an epic reimagining of 1978's The Inglorious Bastards. As of this review's posting, the screenplay is finished and the money deals are being made.
    Which brings us 'round to the original movie. With exquisite timing, the Euro-Cult specialists at Severin Films are releasing it on Region 1 DVD just as the buzz about the QT version starts to build. As a fan of the director — action maestro Enzo Castellari (Kill Them All and Come Back Alone, The Big Racket) — I was certainly quite eager to see it.
    France, 1944: With the successful Allied landings in Normandy, Nazi occupation forces are falling back towards the country's eastern borders. At a U.S. Army base close to the front lines, a group of convicts — American soldiers court-martialed for such crimes as murder, theft, and desertion — is loaded aboard a truck for transport to a prison further to the rear. Shortly after setting out, the small convoy is strafed and badly shot up by a Luftwaffe fighter-bomber. Most of the prisoners are either killed in the air attack or gunned down by their guards while attempting to flee, but the five surviving convicts are able to take advantage of the confusion. They turn the tables on the MPs, killing some and disarming the rest, then take off in the still-operable truck. Prospects for escape seem mighty slim, what with the German Army in front of them and the Allies behind. Where can they possibly go?
    Assuming de facto leadership of the men is the single officer among them, disgraced Air Corps fighter pilot Lt. Yeager (Bo Svenson, Amok Train). He decides that their only option is to make a run for neutral Switzerland — which will unfortunately mean crossing German-held territory. Fighting their way through Nazi patrols almost proves less of a problem than keeping some of the convicts from each other's throats, namely Tony (Peter Hooten), a cocky Chicago hood with racist attitudes, and swaggering, cigar-chomping tough guy Canfield (Fred "The Hammer" Williamson), who's black. The group picks up a sixth member when they encounter German Army deserter Adolf (Raimund Harmstorf). Sick of the war, he agrees to guide them through the lines.
    After a series of bloody firefights and close shaves, the men run into real trouble just as they're nearing their goal. By mistake they wipe out a squad of American special forces dressed in German uniforms. The now-dead commandos were dropped behind enemy lines on a secret mission, a joint operation with the local resistance group. The French partisans show up and mistake Yaeger's motley crew for the commandos, so the escaped convicts have no choice but to play along if they're to have any chance at making it to the Swiss border. Unfortunately for them this will mean participating in the planned mission, a daring strike on a German armored train carrying a top secret weapon...
    Normally I'm something of a nit-picker when it comes to the historical veracity of war movies. Inglorious Bastards certainly has its share of nits to pick. There are the anachronistic hairstyles and 'staches, a problem common to Italian movies of the '70s and '80s set during WWII. (One of the film's 'dirty half-dozen' sports a shoulder-length mane!) Real-world infantry tactics aren't given much consideration at all — I could only shake my head while watching an American platoon, soldiers all bunched together, charge headlong down a road into German automatic weapons fire to be willingly annihilated. (Frankly, some of the action set-pieces play like Sam Peckinpah helming an episode of The A-Team.) And the whole V2 rocket warhead business is utter nonsense... Why the hell would the Nazis shuttle a secret weapons project around in a "mobile laboratory" so close to enemy lines? But all this is beside the point. The movie aims to be nothing more than a fun, fast-paced action romp that doesn't take itself too seriously. Mission accomplished.
    Castellari is the ideal type of director for such a film. Infusing even his crappiest pics with energy and humor, he usually has an interesting trick or two up his sleeve despite being hamstrung by paltry budgets. Fortunately, for Inglorious Bastards he had a halfway decent sum to work with, evident in the larger cast and numerous special effects shots. A major setback in the middle of production, a daunting, seemingly insurmountable problem which would've stopped other directors cold (see below), served only to fire Castellari's imagination and allow him to apply his considerable talent for improvisation.
    This flexibility, can-do attitude and enthusiasm for seat-of-your-pants filmmaking is reflected in the performance of Fred Williamson, the real star of the picture although third-billed behind Svenson and Hooten. Actor and director are clearly on the same wavelength: Castellari is more than content to simply let Fred be Fred (the former pro football player exudes natural screen charisma, never playing anything but himself in his movies); for his part, The Hammer tackles the physical demands with relish — performing virtually all his own stunts, even the dangerous ones — and contributes small improvisational touches here and there that enhance the spirit of testosterone-fueled fun.
    Inglorious Bastards is such an enjoyable "Guy Movie", in fact, that it overcomes the occasionally sloppy voice looping (particularly Hooton's) and dreadful miscasting of Scottish actor Ian Bannen (The Offence, From Beyond the Grave) as a supposedly tough American commando officer. Do the elaborate model effects in the spectacular climax look real? Well, no, but after almost two decades now of digitized, computer-generated movie mayhem they're actually kind of groovy. (Counterintuitively, the bigger your television set the better these Old School effects look.)

Originally scheduled for late May, Severin's release was delayed some two months for the creation of additional bonus material. Well worth the wait, y'all!
    First, though, for the movie itself: A terrific-looking 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer, taken from a pristine print; the mono English-language audio track is generally first-rate, suffering only two or three seconds of distortion during loud yelling or music blasts. All in all it's a top drawer presentation.
    The screener EC received is the "Explosive Edition" three-disc set. (A single-disc version will be simultaneously issued as well.) Disc 1 contains the film, the theatrical trailer and an English-language commentary track by the director and Severin's David Gregory. The inclusion of a 38-minute featurette entitled A Conversation with Enzo Castelleri and Quentin Tarantino was responsible for the postponement of the DVD. Taped less than a month before the street date, it's a one-on-one bull session in which the men swap (obviously genuine) compliments and have fun chatting about the 1978 film and upcoming remake. True to form, motor-mouthed movie geek Tarantino holds court for the first 25 minutes or so, with a beaming Castellari barely able to get a word in edgewise. If you're a fan of either director's work you'll enjoy it.
    On Disc 2 is the feature-length documentary Train Kept-A-Rollin' (76 min.), a well-edited assembly of interview footage, film clips and behind-the-scenes photos. Bo Svenson, Fred Williamson, special effects supervisor Gino De Rossi and, of course, Castellari (among others) look back 30 years to reminisce on the making of Inglorious Bastards. Especially interesting is Castellari's take on how he coped with the disaster that befell the production in mid-shoot — the Italian government passed a stringent anti-terrorism law (the notorious Red Brigades were very active at the time) resulting in the confiscation of all firearms used in the movie! One would think it impossible to shoot a war film without guns, but the director and his craftsmen formulated an ingenious solution... You'll just have to see the documentary to find out what they came up with. Also fascinating is a look at the highly detailed models and foreground miniatures used for the major FX sequences. (Note: Should one be disinclined to sit through the commentary track on Disc 1, this doc covers much the same ground only in greater detail.) Rounding out the second disc is the 13-minute 'then-and-now' featurette Back to the War Zone, in which Castellari takes a video tour of Italian locations used in the film.
    The set's third disc is an audio CD of four tracks from composer Francesco De Masi's score. These cuts represent the only surviving music cues from the film; the rest were accidentally recorded over (and thus lost) in the 1980s. Truth be told this is rather generic-sounding 'military adventure' music, not particularly memorable, but it's a nice little bonus feature all the same. 7/24/08

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