I Came, I Saw, I Shot: “The Inglorious Bastards” (1978)

As a devotee of Italian cinema, I've never known what to make of Rome-born action maestro Enzo G. Castalleri. Among his over forty films, one can find a small handful of near masterpieces - the fascinating western/art film hybrid "Keoma" comes to mind - and literally dozens of spectacularly cheap mafia, sci-fi, and fantasy pastiches with lurid titles like "Go Kill Everyone And Come Back Alone," "I Came I Saw, I Shot," and "Seven Winchesters For A Massacre."

"The Inglorious Bastards" (AKA "Bastardi Senza Gloria," 1978) falls somewhere between these  two extremes in the director's work. The story is nothing new - this is pure WW2 "men on a mission" hokum that finds the filmmaker cribbing shamelessly from "The Dirty Dozen" while paying homage to everything from Steve McQueen's classic motorcycle stunt from "The Great Escape" to the bridge demolition from "The Bridge Over The River Kwai."

But while the story may be stock, the characters - and especially some of their oddly paced banter - are not.  He may be third-billed here, but Fred Williamson is the real star, an iconic cigar-chomping badass who's as comfortable with delivering a perfectly-timed one-liner as he is with mowing down scores of Nazis. Bo Svenson is all business as the cool-as-ice, in-control leader of the group, and Michael Pergolani is oddly affecting as an Italian pickpocket caught up in the action.

Castalleri puts his "bastards" in peril from the opening credits to the final frames, staging a near-constant procession of thrilling machine battles, air raids, and a spectacular showdown in a Nazi-occupied chateau with equal aplomb. And if we've seen much of this before in earlier, better films, who cares? The director's oddly absudist stylistic flourishes (at one point, Williamson stumbles upon a group of skinnydipping - yet machine gun-toting - German girls) helps make it play out more like an homage than a mere rip-off.

I suspect this very quality is what attracted Quentin Tarantino to not only produce a contemporary version of the film (although it borrows only the title and the movie's basic premise), but to personally collaborate with Castalleri and the fine folks at Severin to create a new, three-disc DVD release of the original. Fans are treated to a beautiful widescreen transfer of the film, a second disc featuring  "Quention Tarantino and Enzo Castalleri In Conversation," and a third disc featuring the previously unreleased score. 

Tense and terrific, "The Inglorious Bastards" - from its bizarrely animated opening credits to its slow-motion action sequences and oddly moving characterizations - is vintage Enzo G. Castalleri.

Whether that's a good or bad thing is entirely up to you...

http://severin-films.com/