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Inglorious Bastards
[Severin]
1978; color
Directed by Enzo G. Castellari
Starring: Bo Svenson, Peter Hooten, Fred Williamson, Michael Pergolani & Jackie Basehart
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There's been a lot of talk about this movie as of late, mostly because Quentin Tarantino is either about to or has already begun shooting a remake. (That should keep him from attempting to re-do Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!… for now.) The original version, which has apparently been around for years under a couple different titles, most notably G.I. Bro. This time around it's received a three-disc treatment, with not only a fine quality print, but an extensive conversation between director Enzo Castellari and Tarantino (which is, of course, more QT than EC; as the former just won't shut up); a second disc with a featurette on the locations, as they're revisited by Castellari; and a very well done and highly informative documentary on the making of the film with most of it's stars and key crew members. (There's also a third disc with about 15 or 20 minutes of soundtrack music, but that disc is essentially a throwaway in comparison to everything else.) While comparisons to The Dirty Dozen, and Peckinpah in general, are obvious what really stuck out in my mind was how this movie pretty much sets the direct blueprint for The A-Team - a group of semi-outlaw misfits out to save someone or something, lotsa action and shooting, and make-you-smirk humor. Starring Bo Svenson and a perpetually cigar chomping Fred Williamson (which is where the G.I. Bro title comes from, even though he's the second lead in the film) along with other Italian and American unknowns (at least to me), the story is about a group of US Army deserters and criminals being transported from an Army prison to a headquarters for Court Marshall hearings during the waning days of World War II. Their convoy is attacked by Germans and the men who survive escape and decide to try and make it through Northern France to Switzerland. (They can't be prosecuted in a neutral country.) Along the way they periodically disguise themselves as German officers, inadvertently kill US soldiers disguised as German army men, become involved with the French Resistance for a secret mission in cooperation with the US Army, shoot a helluva lot of people, and seem to have a good time doing most of it. Additionally, we get a great motorcycle chase scene, a train with a bomb lab that becomes a battleground and, most interestingly, a takeover of an SS headquarters without a single shot being fired. (That's because at a certain point during the making of the film, the Italian government outlawed all guns on movie sets for fear they'd fall into terrorist hands. Castellari's unique way of getting around this obstacle makes for one of the best extended sequences ion the film.) Despite the somewhat convoluted plot, The Inglorious Bastards is one of the more entertaining war movies I've seen in long while. A must for Fred Williamson fans and definitely worth a look for fans of action flicks.
—the Kommandant
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