THE INGLORIOUS BASTARDS/QUEL MALEDETTO TRENO BLINDATO
Italy, 1978, 99 minutes, Colour.
Bo Svenson, Peter Hooton, Fred Williamson, Michael Pergolani, Jackie Basehart, Raimund Harmstorf, Ian Bannen.
Directed by Enzo G.Castellari.
This film had a popular cult reputation, a kind of spaghetti World War II film from Italy and director Enzo G. Castellari. One of the reasons for its fame was its being liked by Quentin Tarantino and his using it as a jumping off point for his own Inglourious Basterds that – a much more ingenious and thoughtful film than the original, though with plenty of Tarantino violent touches.
The setting is France in 1944, an American base, the rounding up of American military criminals, deserters, murder is… They are certainly an inglorious bunch. Their leader is an officer, a pilot played by Bo Svenson, who has disobeyed orders and flown to see his girlfriend in England several times. There is a racist mobster played by Peter Hooton, an African- American played by Fred Williamson. There is a conman thief, Nick, who nicks everything in sight and out of sight, played by Michael Pergolani. Jackie Basehart is fearful soldier. Raimund Harmstorf is a German soldier whom they capture but who contributes to their escape. And Ian Bannen is the Colonel in charge of the mission to recover a Nazi warhead on a train.
There are lots, lots, of shootout sequences with the inglorious group able to mow down Nazi soldiers galore – except the end when they are willing to give their lives for the cause.
They are strafed by a plane and then taken over command sending the MPs running. In various encounters, they use their wits and machine guns which seem always to become rapidly available.
In the meantime, there are racial tensions between the Chicago gangster type and the African- American, some pretty mean dialogue given to the gangster. He also is ready to kill the German soldier they take prisoner but who was able to help them along the way, deceiving groups of the Germans.
They make their way towards the Swiss border and come across a group of Resistance and pretend to be the group that they are expecting. There is a moment of romance – of all people with the American gangster.They are introduced to the Colonel, he sees through them and, reluctantly, takes them on their mission which includes their feigning being captured, moving on to a train, taking over the train, and the Colonel able to get his warhead. However, their time has run out and they are shot contributing to the cause.
A film more than 30 years after the events, memories of those old war films – and the use of the violent action conventions that characterised the spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s and 70s.
