INGLORIOUS BASTARDS - On DemandJanuary 13, 2010

FilmBuff

On Demand Weekly reviews films from the perspective of watching it On Demand in your home. This week, "The Inglorious Bastards."

Related only to Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film by title and period, 1978's "The Inglorious Bastards" directed by Enzo G. Castellari is (especially now) the flagship of the Euro War films genre -- aka "Macaroni War," "Macaroni Combat" -- mainly late 60's-70's knockoffs of American WWII films produced/directed by Italian filmmakers, patterned after the paradigm of "Spaghetti Westerns" from the mid-60's. Get it? Spaghetti Western? Macaroni Combat? (That's a spicy meatball!).

Unlike Leone's masterwork "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly," "The Inglorious Bastards," (a follow up to "The Dirty Dozen") is strictly a B-movie. It's cheaply shot, dubbed, anachronistic, packed with stock sound effects and has many unintentionally funny moments. But the film is entertaining and has value in its genre. Watching this film gives you bragging rights to seeing the "original" that inspired Mr. Tarantino and its place in the connected fabric of film history makes it a blast to have under your belt (the way many of us enjoyed delving into Hong Kong cinema after seeing "Reservoir Dogs.")

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