Customer Reviews

The Inglorious Bastards

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I watched this classic on HBO as a child and loved it. I recently bought it and watched it the first day I received it. It is the best "B" class WW II movie out there. The acting is pretty good and the story, while implausible, is pretty cool. All of the actors were perfect for their role. Other than Bo Svenson, Fred Williamson, and Ian Bannen, I have not seen any of the other actors since. It's too bad. I would like to see them in something else. By the way, if any of you out there who were in the service is wondering why Bo Svenson sounds authentic calling cadence in the movie, it is because he was in the Marines for six years.The movie is relatively short by today's standards so pause it if you go to the bathroom. Anyway, a great and fun movie. I loved it as a kid and do today.

it's hard to say what I think of this film. It's, in some ways, a brilliant war film that deserves recognition, while it can simultaneously make you shudder. it has a clever plot but then you have dialogue like "hey, those are our flyboys!" (impersonates an airplane while making a machine gun noise); there are some great effects and sets that are made good use of, but you can see the ropes pulling men from an explosion more clearly than you can see the strings in an Ed Wood film; you have naked german women firing machine guns at retreating American troops, and then you have the fact that this scene only lasts a couple of seconds (this is first time that an Italian movie has skimpped out in this category, let alone not completely over do it. It should have been at least a few minutes long, if not for the sex appeal then for the pure hilariouty of it.)
It's like a movie that's so bad that it's good, but at the same time is actually good. And, like many films of this sort, it's main source of entertainment comes from it's cleverness that simply oozes from it's different aspects including plot and filmwork.
The only major problem is that I had expected it to actually go on for about two hours or so until it ended. I would've given it four stars if it were only longer (especially certain *clear throat* scenes).

Wahoo!! Let's grab some beer and go shoot our machine guns at some Nazis!

Inglorious Bastards is a campy cult war flick, high on violence and insanity but a little low on common sense. You've got a bunch of reject U.S. soldiers facing court martial for various infractions, like flying the jetplane to visit their girlfriend a few thousand miles away.
On the way to the military prison the convoy gets hit by some German artillery. This enables a few of the prisoners to escape. This ragtag group decides to head for neutral Switzerland while avoiding the American armies plus the Nazis.
Now along the way there is all sorts of unrestrained madness. The highlight has got to be when they stumble across the female German soldiers skinny dippin in the lake. Allright! Just what you expect to see when running for your life through Europe. The soldiers masquerade as Nazis and get ready for some wet-n-wild fun.

Inglorious Bastards is an entertaining thrill ride that makes war seem like a party. The acting is decent. I recognized the cigar-smokin' Fred Williamson from Rodriquez's classic From Dusk til Dawn.
I'm anxious to see QT's remake, supposedly due out in 2010. Somehow I doubt it resembles this film too much. But PLEEEEASE Quentin, keep the naked nazi chicks with the machine guns. I'm begging you!

This is a campy, B- WW2 film. For some reason misfit commando flicks were popular back in the late 60s and 70s. Probably because of the Vietnam syndrome in the US. Films like this were popular because they knocked the establishment, and made fun of the army. The premise borders on the absurd. Misfits who become Commandos and manage to do everything is fantasy pure and simple. There is a certain rough charm to this film in a crude sort of way. The directing is almost pure Italian Spagetti War film! Every dying soldier seems to jump up in the air. Bodies fly like an areial ballet at one point. Funny, but pure nonsense!

Those who want just a silly action flick with attitude will likely enjoy this epic. We even have an angry Black man to cap it all off who kills dozens of nasty white Germans. The Germans are all SS bad guys stock character types. They seem just keystone cops to get machined gunned down over and over. Everyone has machine pistols that fire unlimited rounds and never run out of ammo!

Unlike some films of this genre at least some allies get killed and the slaughter is not all one sided. Production value is what you would expect from a war film made in this time and with limited budget. Its largely indifferent in that you have US tanks and half-tracks for German vehicles with a few notable exceptions.

If you like casual violence with B acting and not too much gore then go for it. I can't believe Hollywood actually remade this clunker!

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.

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.

From Spaghetti Westerns to Post-Nuke cinema, I'll be darned if there's a genre film Enzo G. Castellari can't handle! The Inglorious Bastards is just such an exceptional example and undoubtedly the kind of film that's able to rise above the classics it so heavily borrows from. Forget The Dirty Dozen, forget Cross of Iron, The Inglorious Bastards has one thing neither of those milestones in combat cinema have...Fred "The Hammer" Williamson.

What? You were expecting something deep and profound?

There's not one single thing I disliked about The Inglorious Bastards; the action is of the non-stop, two-fisted variety and the characters are incredibly likable, despite being a motley assemblage of thieves, murderers and cowards. The film tackles topics like race, true love and self-sacrifice in the face of impending doom; some emotionally charged topics there for a film many might consider exploitation.

The production design far exceeds anything one might expect going into this film and Giovanni Bergamini's cinematography was more than adequate. The score by famed Italian film composer Francesco De Masi was good though perhaps not as memorable as some of his other work in spaghetti cinema.

While The Inglorious Bastards may not have been the last film Williamson and Svenson worked on together, this is undoubtedly the best of the lot and an absolute must-see film for cult cinema fans. Severin has really gone all out on this fantastic release and the sound, transfer and extras really set this apart from the film's previous release incarnation. This has got to be one of the top cult cinema DVD releases of 2008! Forget Tarantino...IT'S ALL ABOUT THE CASTELLARI!

Loved this movie. I will admit some of the plot was way out there. Lots of sub titles but that added to the realism. The end will "Blow your mind" I liked it better after I viewed it. If That makes any sense

An Italian World War II film, 1977, INGLORIOUS BASTARDS, action-packed from start to finish, starring Bo Svenson (walking tall) with Fred Williamson (take a hard ride). Director Enzo Castellari gives us everything you would want in a war picture, plenty of gunplay, explosions, fast moving trains, the regular genre violence, and about fifteen naked frauleins skinny dipping armed with machine guns, if you had to go in a war zone, this would be the way, with one dying lasting request...Inglorious Bastards, is one of the better war films from the past, you won't want to miss it, cause they just don't mak'em like this anymore, and this Severin dvd is brilliantly remastered, full screen, 16x9 widescreen optional, interview with Quentin Tarantino and Enzo Castellari.

My rating: 3.5 out of 5

Premise
*A mixed group of American warfighters are being transported as prisoners in the middle of WWII France. They are ambushed by enemies and are set free. They then spend the rest of their time trying to reach Switzerland, fighting bad guys and running dangerous missions for the French resistance as they go along.

The Good Things
*Video quality is good. It is very colorful, detailed, and clean.
*Includes a number of documentaries, featurettes, trailers, and a bonus CD soundtrack.
*The movie has a great deal of action (although much of it is quite over-the-top).
*The photography is interesting. Some of it is jittery and rough, but other shots are solid. There are also some cool slow-motion scenes.
*Exterior locations are excellent. It looks like they used real European settings (like the scene in the castle).
*The story is not bad. It is well-paced and easy to follow.
*The characters are not bad. They aren't too deep or complex, but they are interesting to watch. Their acting may be seen as ridiculously over-the-top, but I'd say it's good.
*Music is not bad; it's very boisterous and upbeat.

The Bad Things
*Well, you can either call this a really bad movie or a really good cult/B-movie. See below for details.
*Not for young kids; it's unrated, but contains a scene with nudity (nude girls with guns, nonetheless), some violence, and some swearing.

The Questionable Things
*The sound quality is okay; I think it had too many parts where some volume was too low and other parts were too high. Most of the dialogue can still be understood.
*The dialogue is loaded with lines that are...well...ridiculous! If you don't mind, it may not bother you much. I found myself laughing at most of it.
*The plot is riddled with historical inaccuracies. There were some nice touches, like having the guys going after the V2 rocket. But other details, like the types of uniforms, the types of vehicles, and the weapons, are way off. The portrayal of the French resistance is way off. Having a colonel parachuting into the woods is way off. You do not want to see this for any history lessons; you'll either hate it or love the absurdity.
*Even though there are a lot of neat action scenes, many of them are choreographed in a really ridiculous over-the-top fashion. Everybody shoots their guns by wildly waving them around. Everybody who is shot falls over like they're slipping on banana peels. One guy manages to kill people with a slingshot. Nobody ever runs out of ammo. Bad guys appear out of nowhere in endless hoardes. Once again, you'll either hate it, or love the absurdity.
*Some things that happen in the story makes you wonder "why did they do that?"
*The romance story for this whole movie is kind-of contrived. Once again, you'll either hate it, or love the absurdity.
*Some of the sets and props look cheap. Some special effects are obvious models or matte paintings. If you're expecting a high production value, this may dissapoint you.
*Some parts seem to be derrived from other things. Aside from "The Dirty Dozen," I thought of "Bridge on the River Kwai" as I watched the ending. My parents thought one scene resembled the old "Mission Impossible" series (gotta love it how the guy stops a self-destruct device by shoving a pencil in the gears).

I expected a rough, gritty, bloody war epic...but I guess that's what Tarantino's new film will be like. This original version is very over-the-top, with lots of absurd dialogue, action, and events that could never really happen in real life. I wound up laughing at the whole thing, because in nearly every scene, there was something absurd. I thought it was fun because of this, but if you're like my parents, you might be disgusted instead. Rent it to see what you think.

Disclaimer: I watched this film as a streaming rental, and cannot comment on the quality of the item offered on this product page. My review primarily concerns the entertainment value of the film only.

There is no mystery why this film has gotten the new release treatment that it has (not only a new DVD but a 3-Disc Special Edition and a Blu-ray version as well). Quentin Tarentino's film of almost the same name undoubtedly spurred interest in this Italian effort from 1978 (it certainly worked for me), but potential viewers need to know from the beginning that other than the similarity in name and the WWII setting, there is nothing else common to the two films. While the review format here on Amazon does not provide a sufficient venue to talk about all the things that are wrong with Tarentino's film, fortunately it works well enough to cover the pros and cons of this Enzo G. Castellari effort, which is true enough to itself, and deserves to be judged in that respect.

The film's tagline should give most film buffs a pretty good idea of what to look for - "Whatever the Dirty Dozen did, they do it dirtier!" In other words, look for a group of misfits who are cast off from the regular army to be put in a situation where they are the best fit for a secret mission. That makes 'The Dirty Dozen' the film to compare 'IB' with, and if you liked 'DD', then you'll probably find some redeeming features in this film, though I think there are some significant idealistic differences behind the film. While I wouldn't consider 'DD' to be any sort of seminal work, it does seem like part of a trend that prepared the way for American films of the seventies with it's refusal to abide by conventional characterization, it's bleak outcome, and it's oblique chiding of older film's adherence to notions of fair play. 'IB', on the other hand, comes at the war from a decidedly more passive outlook - all but one of these fatherless sons are more victim than perp, and there is a definite "why can't we all just get along" vibe shot through the story. Both films though, are extremely different in tone and message than 2009's remake. Whatever Mr. Tarentino found in this version of 'IB' that influenced his film, it probably had more to do with the film he saw in his head rather than what was actually up on the screen.

Bo Svenson plays Bo Svenson, and Fred Williamson plays Fred Williamson as they lead a ragtag group of Army prisoners who first escape from the MP's and head for Switzerland's neutral territory, and then accidentally get caught up with French partisans and their raid on a new guidance system for the Germany's V-2 rocket. Along with an atypically long-haired pack-rat, a coward, and a mobbed-up Chicago bigot, the plot toes a fairly stereotypical line as the five escapees first argue among themselves and then are forced to become a team for the sake of survival. Despite some plot holes - especially concerning the love interest between the Chicago boy and the partisan nurse, and which may have been the victim of some over zealous editor - this film isn't bad, but it isn't a classic either, not even a minor one. 3.5 stars.

While the new release and the blu-ray version are understandable (marketing) - even taking into consideration the film's status in the War film genus - what puzzles is me is the three-disc release. Scanning over the extras (which I freely admit I haven't seen), I don't see anything interesting enough to warrant that kind of hyperkinetic effort, or that justifies the added expense - the most appealing extra, the commentary by Enzo Castellari, is already available on the single disc edition. It also seems a bit fishy to me that no other extras other than the trailer could fit on this single DVD. Essentially, it looks like a money grab, with just enough extras added to make the second disc necessary (the third disc looks like a CD of an unused score). This isn't the first time I've noticed studios indulging in this kind of packaging exploitation - better to rent first and decide the level of enthusiasm you have for the film. If you are as swept away with it as the blurbs portray Tarentino to be, then you may wish there was a four-disc release. Otherwise the less expensive version may have all the 'Bastardi Senza Gloria' that anyone really needs. End rant.