The Inglorious Bastards (1978)
R1 / NTSC DVD
Severin Films / 2008
Directed by Enzo G. Castellari
Written by Sandro Continenza, Sergio Grieco, Romano Migliorini & Laura Toscano
Cast: Bo Svenson, Fred Williamson, Massimo Vanni & Peter Hooten
Review by Brian Harris

A ragtag group of U.S. military men on their way to prison are sidelined by a German air raid, gun-toting naked girls and an outrageous French Resistance plot to hijack a V2 rocket being transported on a heavily guarded Nazi train!

From Spaghetti Westerns to Post-Nuke cinema, I’ll be damned 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!

• Screen Format: 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen / Color
• Audio: English / Dolby Digital Mono
• Subtitles: N/A
• Running time: 99 mins.

• Audio Commentary w/ Director
• Featurette – “Tarantino & Castellari Interview”
• Featurette – “Train Kept-A-Rollin’”
• Featurette – Back to the Warzone”
• Theatrical Trailer
• Bonus Soundtrack CD

I love TIB from start to finish and there are just not many negatives, for me, which come to mind. I’m sure some may find the acting questionable or the premise ridiculous but that’s really going to be a taste issue. The Inglorious Bastards is entertaining and exciting with a powerhouse finale and a a testament to Enzo G. Castellari’s talent as a director. I can’t recommend this release enough.

One thing I should mention is to beware of the Tarantino/Castellari featurette as Tarantino's coked-out antics are liable to make you physically sick. He gushes, babbles, yammers, gushes, whines, derails mid-sentence and generally disrupts the entire featurette with an ADHD intensity rarely seen in sane people. "This is your brains on cult cinema?" Quite possibly.

“One of the best war films ever made!”