(1977/Italy)
(A.k.a Quel Maledetto Treno Blindato)
Review by Nick Frame Directed by Enzo Castellari Starring: Bo Svenson, Fred Williamson, Peter Hooten, Michael Pergolani, Jackie Basehart, Michael Constantin, Debra Berger, Ian Bannen Source: DEX Entertainment, (Japan) | Region 2 NTSC | 2006 | 95mins
"If he’s a Kraut, he’ll take you out!"
Wow! What a title and what an excellent Italian Dirty Dozen rip-off by Enzo Castellari. Add to this, the buzz being created by Quentin Tarantino discussing the possibility of remaking this with an all star cast and you have a movie I’ve been desperate to see.
France 1944 and Bastards begins with a group of no-good soldiers being rounded up so they can be taken to be court martialed for a variety of offences. Our band of bad boys include their self appointed leader Sgt Yeager (Bo Svenson), strong as an Ox and cigar chewing Fred (Fred Williamson), the thief Nick (Michael Pergolani), the coward Berle (Jackie Basehart) and the ladies man Tony (Peter Hooten). While en route their convoy is attacked by Germans, the military police and some of the other prisoners are killed, but they manage to take cover and after the fighting is over, they decide to try and make it to neutral Switzerland. While sheltering, they capture a Nazi run away but then later encounter a Nazi unit and send out their prisoner to talk to them. However they think he’s given them up and they end up taking out the Germans. A later encounter with the French resistance reveals that the "Germans" they dispatched were in fact US Soldiers on an undercover mission. Feeling bad for what they’ve done, the Bastards agree to carry out the secret mission in order to stop a train carrying a secret Nazi weapon.
This is such a cool movie, I mean for starters, Fred Williamson is so entertaining simply by chomping on a cigar. So popular in fact that Bastards was re-edited in the US into G.I. Bro to build upon the popularity of the Blaxploitation genre. The action too is relentless, with great action and set-pieces that totally belie its low budget. Add to this, naked German frauleins with machine guns, a hot French nurse, disaster averted with a pencil, lashings of violence and countless deaths and you have one hell of a movie.
Bo Svenson as Sgt Yeager is excellent as their cool calm leader. Also interesting is Scottish actor Ian Bannen as Colonel Buckner, who is more well known in the UK as Dr. Cameron from the "Dr Finlay" medical drama, with the elderly as its target audience. "Dr Finlay" is about as far removed from Italian genre cinema as you can get. It’s worth noting also that Nick the thief (Michael Pergolani), portrayed I believe as Italian-America, in the Italian dub speaks Italian with a Southern/Neapolitan accent! I’ve seen this happen a few times in movies, so obviously all Italian criminals are from the south of the boot! The score too, by Francesco de Masi, is awesome and really adds to the atmosphere of the film.
As far as I’m aware, this is Bastards first outing on DVD, and it’s not a bad effort. Image quality is good if a little soft a times, but for an obscure title and its first release, it’s great. Audio comes in three flavours, English, Italian and Japanese mono, with the Italian track sounding the best and containing more information. The English audio id fine as well, with Williamson and Svenson’s voices sounding the best. The only problem comes from a few scenes in German that are not subtitled, but this does not detract too much from the movie. Extras are virtually non-existent with only the original trailer and a photo gallery with the original locandinas present. No doubt if Tarantino remakes this, a Region 1 version will surely emerge to cash in.
I can only recommend this, a cracking film, good image quality with great action plus Fred Williamson. Other DVD releases must surely be on the horizon, but if you’re fan then you must track this one down straight away. Japanese DVD’s can be notoriously expensive, but I picked this up on eBay for only £15 or around $25.
Story/Film – 4/5 Bitch Slaps Picture – 3.5/5 Bitch Slaps Sound – 3.5/5 Bitch Slaps Extras - 1/5 Bitch Slaps Overall DVD – 4/5 Bitch Slaps purchase this from X-Ploited Cinema
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© 2006 cinema-nocturna.com
