Enzo Castellari's 'Bastards' Good Fun, While Quentin Tarantino Is Apparently Diseased

Enzo Castellari's [The Inglorious Bastards] (1978) is a grindhouse nostalgist's delight. It's cheaply made, derivative of preceding genre films-apart from ripping off, er, paying homage to The Wild Bunch, Bastards' poster proudly exclaims, "Whatever the Dirty Dozen did, they do it dirtier!"-and full of ridiculous racial stereotypes-see one of the film's alternate titles, [G.I. Bro](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518M2FKYHDL._SL500_AA280_.jpg), whose tagline is "If you're a Kraut, he'll take you out"-Nazis, cheesy one-liners and exploding model sets. Oh and there's a nude bathing scene. However, like most cult films, it is inventive in a few small ways and high on its own campy energy. Though concessions must be made lest one expect Peckinpah or Aldrich quality filmmaking, they are made with the expectation of getting in return a cheap but mindlessly fun time.

As soon as the bar is lowered, these guys look great. It may be impossible to relate to any of the film's motley crew of cutthroat deserters and murderers as flesh-and-blood characters, but they are perfectly entertaining as sound bites with guns. They have attitude and some appreciably cornball zingers. Considering how lifeless most spaghetti genre films, that's saying a lot.

And if you try really hard, you may be able to see the film in the same light of grindhouse poster-child Quentin Tarantino, who for years has threatened the public with a remake of Castellari's cheese explosion and is now finally ready to begin pre-production. I doubt hearing Fred Williamson talk jive while chomping on a cigar will do it for that many people, but hey, stranger things have happened.

And if you're really a masochist, you can sit through Tarantino's 38-minute long interview with Castellari, which is also featured on the first disc of the three-disc set Severin Films releases next week. Tarantino is as much of a train wreck in the interview as he is in his worst [Rolling Thunder Pictures] introductions--see the above embedded trailer for proof--but he is genuinely enthusiastic, something that Castellari clearly appreciates and radiates back in spades.

If you tough it out, you might even get to some interesting little anecdotes, like Castellari's desription of how he had to shoot certain scenes without prop guns in the film or his story about working with B-movie kings Bo Svenson and Fred Williamson. You'll laugh like mad at Tarantino as he goes bugfuck crazy over his story about how he met Williamson at a gas station but hey, if Castellari can be infected by his energy after being trapped just a few feet away from him while cameras recorded his every reaction, perhaps Tarantino's chutzpah is more contagious than I thought.