INTERVIEW – ENZO G. CASTELLARI talks The Bronx Warriors

Published on: 16th December, 2009

INTERVIEW - ENZO G. CASTELLARI talks The Bronx Warriors  | read this item

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Those who have been working their way through the series of obscure and cult Italian movies that the UK label Shameless have been spewing out over the last couple of years will be aware of the awesome box set that the company have just released. Coming in a sleek steel tin, The Bronx Warriors set includes three classics from filmmaker Enzo G. Castellari (who directed Inglorious Bastards back in the late ’70s): 1990: I guerrieri del Bronx/1990: The Bronx Warriors, Fuga dal Bronx/Escape from the Bronx and I nuovi barbari/The New Barbarians.

Enzo discusses his cult trilogy being re-discovered three decades…

Having initially worked on several westerns during the 1960s, did you find the transition between genres to be relatively easy and which kind of movies did you enjoy making the most?
“The transition from the western genre (a genre I adore and I grew up during my young childhood) to the ”poliziesco” is very simple. You have to substitute the horses with the cars and the Winchesters with the machine guns. The stories are very similar to each other. The bad and good guys are the same.”

The 1970s was a time when Italian cinema was at its most successful, with filmmakers such as Sergio Martino, Lucio Fulci and Umberto Lenzi enjoying international acclaim. What was it about these movies and this era in Italian history that appealed so much to foreign audiences, and what kind of freedom or restrictions did this allow you as an artist?
“Movie directors like Martino, Fulci, Lenzi and not the forget CASTELLARI were very welcomed through out the world. Their stories were acclaimed successfully. We worked without any kind of restrictions and in toral freedom. Our movies had a lot of rhythm, action, great special effects and wonderful stuntmen.”

How did The New Barbarians first come about and how different was your original vision for the story compared to the movie that was released and how difficult was it to attract attention from producers or distributors?
“The New Barbarians was just a simple challenge that the producer and myself wanted to create for the public. We wanted to tell a “Western style” story putting together a “post-atomic” genre, using the same ingredients and the same themes but with using different clothes, weapons and different cars. As you can see, the Western genre is and will be my favourite of all.”

Are you a fan of action movies and do you enjoy filming stunts and dangerous car chases? Do you find it easy to balance action scenes with a coherent plot and likeable characters?
“Obviously there is no film or characters in a story which does interests the public, I just added, to the already approved and written script, a lot of action, car chases and many special effects, using a lot of joy and facility with my stuntmen friends. For me creating and directing action scenes is very, very easy.”

One common method with Italian movies was to cast American stars in the main roles to help market the movie overseas. How did Fred Williamson become involved in the project and is it difficult having cast and crew of different nationalities working on the same set? Does the language barrier become an obstacle?
“After watching Fred in M.A.S.H. I had great sympathy towards him and I wished to have him cast in one of my movies. When the occasion arrived, with my INGLORIOUS BASTARDS, I asked the production to have him in my movie. The diversity of languages, nationalities or cultures does not involve the film crew, but only the cast and the director. Except if we go filming in foreign nations, there are mix crew members. I shot all my films in English and therefore there have not been problems in the past, even because I do speak, besides Italian, English, French and Spanish.”

One VHS release stated that ‘After Mad Max came The New Barbarian.’ Did films like Mad Max have any kind of inspiration on your movie, either with regards to the story or visuals, and what do you think cinema is so obsessed with exploring the idea of a post-apocalyptic society?
“Naturally Mad Max has influenced my realization of The New Barbarians. It has not influenced myself, but many other movie directors. Has I mentioned before, The New Barbarians has a pure “Western genre style”. Cinema is not obsessed with post apocalyptic society. It’s just another form of film making and film story. The movie directors which I adore and influenced my making of action films are Sam Peckinpah, Sidney J. Furie, Orson Welles, Sam Fuller and Steven Spielberg.”

The New Barbarians, 1990: The Bronx Warriors and Escape from the Bronx are often referred to as a trilogy. Did you intend for all three movies to have a connection or is it merely because they are of a similar genre?
“In reality the three films has one connection that links all of them – I directed them one after the other. In six months, we wrote, prepared and filmed three films in great quickness. Having the same movie editor throughout the films, I could easily move from one film to another by editing at night. It was a great stress and abnormal work, but we all, at the end, gained from the world success of the “trilogy”.”

One appealing aspect of the films is that they do not take themselves too seriously and even have a camp element to them, making them enjoyable instead of trying to be too brutal or shocking. Was it your intention to make movies that the audience could just have fun with, instead of focusing on dark themes and gritty realism?
“My main goal is direct films for the public. That means to give strong emotions, pure enjoyment mixing pure fear, shocking scenes followed by pleasant moments. If only one of the many spectators, watching my movie, can forget for just a minute, his daily problems…Well… I have reached my main target. Cinema is entertainment, is a daily escape, a pleasant break between many bad moments of our life.”

These films have been compared to the movies John Carpenter was producing at that time, most notably Assault on Precinct 13 and Escape from New York. Does this comparison bother you and were you inspired at all by these kind of movies that Hollywood was making at that time?
“The fact that my movies have been and still are compared to the ones of Carpenter… it fulfills me of joy and it does not disturb anytime… even if it is the truth!!!”

The dialogue from these movies is often memorable for being humorous and outrageous, whilst moments of the violence are almost slapstick. In some ways they resemble a comic book, did you intend for them to be over the top and even playful?
“There is a comic side on everything I shot… my natural human side would direct me to film only comic films… the humour moment gives more value to the dramatic sequenced that precedes and that which followed, is a little relaxing pause to give the spectator a fearful, agitated and painful moment.”

With the movies finally being released together in a box set, do you think the new interest in the trilogy may convince you to make a sequel and has anyone expressed interest in remaking any of them?
“I do not think that Quentin Tarantino has already thought about that…. I wish it were so.”

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