In recent years the addition of Quentin Tarantino’s name to a film’s marketing has been a bit hit or miss, especially when it came to Hostel 2 and I am a bit weary of the upcoming Hell Ride. However, with the 1978 Italian World War II feature Inglorious Bastards it means something a little different, at least to me it does.
Just imagine if you could pick the brain of your favorite directors and discuss what films inspired them and made them ever want to become directors in the first place. If you could sit down with Hitchcock, Scorsese, Fellini, Bergman or Spielberg, just imagine the lists of films you could obtain just by listening to the films that inspired their careers. While sitting down with Tarantino may seem to be a daunting thought, considering when you are talking about film this guy is a wild man, Inglorious Bastards is an example of one of those films he obviously loves and that alone made it a must watch for me.
Directed by Enzo Castellari, a man I had never heard of, Inglorious Bastards carries the tagline, “Whatever the Dirty Dozen did, they do it better.” While The Dirty Dozen may take itself far more seriously, there are certainly parallels to be drawn. However, Inglorious Bastards has some fantastic tongue in cheek humor laced throughout, which exceeds any of the subtle humor of Dirty Dozen, making it a film all its own. It has gone by many names including Deadly Mission and even G.I. Bro as it tried to make money on the star status of African American actor Fred Williamson, who I will say is a fucking blast in this flick.
Set during World War II, the story, much like The Dirty Dozen, revolves around a group of war prisoners who, while being moved from an Allied prison camp, escape after their convoy is attacked. With prison on one side and the Germans on the other, the group led by Lieutenant Robert Yeager (Bo Svenson) decides to make a break for neutral Switzerland. Of course that’s no easy task. Filled with plenty of guns, bullets, missiles, blood, guts and even a swimming hole filled with naked women toting machine guns it is not hard to say this film has it all, because it truly feels like nothing was left out.
Svenson and Williamson offer up entertaining lead personas as they counter one another with Svenson’s Yeager playing the hardnosed leader while Williamson is a cigar chomping ass kicker named Canfield. Williamson is especially fun to watch with his wide grin and his machine gun in one hand and a cigar in the other. He truly seems to enjoy killing Nazis and you love him for it. However, the two leads aren’t all that make this film action candy it is, the supporting cast is a wild bunch of characters and Castellari shows some real talent in being able to manage what basically is a truly zany story and put it together in a way that it asks you to respect the story while also allowing room for laughter. This isn’t to say this film is some sort of masterpiece, but it is a hell of a lot of fun.
This 3-disc DVD set comes with just about everything anyone could ever ask for from a movie I hadn’t heard of until only a year or so ago and didn’t even have the option of seeing until now. First off, the picture is damned impressive, something I didn’t especially expect considering I had no idea what kind of prints of the film existed and what kind of condition they would be in. As with the majority of Italian films from that era (and most any era) the film is virtually 100% redubbed so you will notice the words being spoken and the mouths won’t be matching up the majority of the time.
Then come the special features, which include a moderated audio commentary with Enzo Castellari and a sit down with Castellari and Tarantino on the first disc. The commentary isn’t that bad, but as I will soon tell you, the near-feature length documentary on the second disc should suffice. However, the chat between Tarantino and Castellari isn’t all that bad once you get beyond the first 5-10 minutes and Quentin has basically calmed down and is no longer dominating the conversation. The two discuss just about every aspect of the film and if you get nothing else out of it, at least you will get a little insight into how Tarantino watches movies and what he notices; something I always think is interesting to learn.
The second disc is dominated by the near-feature length documentary that includes all new interviews with all the major players behind the film including Williamson, Svenson and Castellari. It is a good look at the film, but I personally got a little tired of watching it since I wasn’t that interested in learning much more about it (even though the information on the matte painting work is exceptional). The only other disc two feature is a short featurette as Castellari returns to the locations where the film was shot, not exactly a barn burning experience. The third disc is a CD containing the only surviving original music from the film, something I wasn’t interested in, but I am sure some of you will be.
Overall, this is a really fun flick, and it would certainly satisfy your mood if you are looking to fill a weekend with films the likes of The Wild Bunch, The Dirty Dozen and The Guns of Navarone. Consider Inglorious Bastards something of an amalgamation of those films with a strong dusting of humor and you should be right at home. It’s a definite recommendation to watch this flick and you may find yourself interested enough to own it for yourself.
