Barry Norman, I'm not!

[colcool007]

Last weekend, I decided to have a war movie session, so I picked up what I thought was Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Bar-stewards on Friday, but it turned out to be the 1978 Enzo Castellari version, which was Tarantino's inspiration for his 2009 movie.

Now, it may have been a spaghetti war movie, but it was surprisingly good and didn't meander along as I think Tarantino's version did. It was quick-paced, surprisingly good in parts and had excellent cinematography. Needless to say, I then watched, the next night, Tarantino's bloodier version. And while it was good in parts, it suffered in comparison to the original as it was not as succinctly cut, it meandered when it should have romped and just made me feel glad that I had not wasted extra money watching it on first release. I will grant you that Tarantino's version looked miles better, but it felt like such a let-down in comparison.

Anyone else wish to comment on movies that they have watched either recently or in the past?

[stevezodiac]

I've only seen the Enzo G Castellari version. Back in the 70s I saw his "Kill Them All and Come Back Alone, being a huge Italian Western fan and found it to be an excellent example of the genre - Castellari (Enzo Giralami is his real name) always shoots several shot through a wheel or some sort of orifice. Bback in the 70s I remember BBC2 showing Sacco & Vancetti - an excellent political thriller with music by Ennio Morricone - it has never been shown since. The same goes for another Italian film called Closed Circuit. In this film a cinema is showing a Spaghetti Western (with Morricone music) and a member of the audience is shot. The following night another member of the audience is shot in the same seat - the police are called and they find a bullet hole in the screen. The cop sits in the same chair and they run the film - in the film being shown (the film within the film) two gunfighters face each other in a quick draw - they draw and then one of them turns and faces the cinema auditorium and points his gun at the cop - the cop is terrified and leaps out of seat and legs it but the character in the film within the film is following him with his pointing gun and loosing off shots. A weird film and it has never been shown since. I also like those oriental martial arts films like House of Flying Daggers and Hero and the best one ever is Zatoichi written and Directed by and starring Kateshi Kitano. A must see film. Type zatoichi tap dance into youtube and enjoy.