When Enzo G. Castellari – acclaimed Italian director of polizia flicks – took the helm of this DIRTY DOZEN rip-off Italian war movie, you could be forgiven for expecting clichéd slow-motion shoot-outs and machine guns aplenty. You'd be right, because that's exactly what the film delivers – and great stuff it is too! The thin plot sees a bunch of disparate soldiers deep behind enemy lines, fighting both the Allies and the Germans as they wreak havoc across a lush green landscape. Essentially, this is a string of spectacular set-pieces, from bombing raids to ambushes, vehicle chases, and more besides.
The film has a great B-movie cast with many stalwart veterans popping up. Whether it's Dr Butcher himself, Donald O'Brien, as a nasty Nazi officer or Ian Bannen as a stiff-upper-lip British officer, this is a film of familiar faces. The leading roles are taken by Bo Svenson and Fred Williamson, both playing exceptionally cool hero types who it's fun to root for.
But Castellari is the real star here. The director has a knack of injecting his action sequences with a kind of limitless energy that others – even Tarantino – just can't reach. There's not a great deal of slow motion here, but lots of cheesy machine gun battles of the kind that became popular when Stallone and Schwarzenegger did it in the 1980s. The low budget is evident in the use of repeated locations and lack of squib hits, but even so the greenery provides an attractive backdrop for the war-time hijinks. The best bit is at the end, in which our heroes attack a train, but a sequence in which they storm a Nazi-occupied castle is also a highlight. Generally this is a fun-filled and entertaining movie that aims and hits the B-movie mark.
The film has a great B-movie cast with many stalwart veterans popping up. Whether it's Dr Butcher himself, Donald O'Brien, as a nasty Nazi officer or Ian Bannen as a stiff-upper-lip British officer, this is a film of familiar faces. The leading roles are taken by Bo Svenson and Fred Williamson, both playing exceptionally cool hero types who it's fun to root for.
But Castellari is the real star here. The director has a knack of injecting his action sequences with a kind of limitless energy that others – even Tarantino – just can't reach. There's not a great deal of slow motion here, but lots of cheesy machine gun battles of the kind that became popular when Stallone and Schwarzenegger did it in the 1980s. The low budget is evident in the use of repeated locations and lack of squib hits, but even so the greenery provides an attractive backdrop for the war-time hijinks. The best bit is at the end, in which our heroes attack a train, but a sequence in which they storm a Nazi-occupied castle is also a highlight. Generally this is a fun-filled and entertaining movie that aims and hits the B-movie mark.