The Big Racket

Enzo G. Castellari (born July 29, 1938) is an Italian film director. He became famous during the 1960s by directing several spaghetti westerns with such titles as Go Kill and Come Back (Vado… l’ammazzo e torno, 1967) , One Dollar Too Many (1968), Seven Winchesters for a Massacre (Sette winchester per un massacro, 1967) and Go Kill Everybody and Come Back Alone (Ammazzali tutti e torna solo, 1968). His films exhibited a flair for violent action and gunfights, often using slow-motion to spectacular effect. His film Keoma (1976) is considered the last great film of the genre.

Castellari was born in Rome as Enzo Girolami. He is the son of director Marino Girolami, aka Franco Martinelli. Castellari was a pioneer in the early Italian crime film genre, with High Crime (La polizia incrimina la legge assolve, 1973) and Big Racket (Il grande racket, 1976). In the 1980s, his career suffered somewhat from the drop of quality in Italian genre films, and he found himself churning out financially successful B-movies like The New Barbarians (I nuovi barbari, 1982) or 1990: The Bronx Warriors (1990: I guerrieri del Bronx, 1982). His film Great White (L’ultimo squalo, 1981) was pulled from theaters following a successful lawsuit from Universal Pictures, who accused the filmmakers of plagiarizing Steven Spielberg’s Jaws. As Italian cinema declined, Castellari found work in television and as an action scene consultant.

On the German DVD of Johnny Hamlet (Quella sporca storia nel west, 1968), Castellari states that he’s working on a new western (called The Badlanders), starring his favorite actor Franco Nero in the lead again, also revealing that Liam Neeson and Ethan Hawke were eager to play a part in it. Later rumors had Mickey Rourke and Quentin Tarantino being involved. It has been quiet around the project for a while now.

Castellari is mainly known for his westerns, war and crime films, and has been called the “european Sam Peckinpah” and the “action master”. He also directed two very successful war films: Inglorious Bastards (Quel maledetto treno blindato, 1977) and Eagles Over London (La battaglia d’Inghilterra, 1969), and made another shark film called The Shark Hunter (Il cacciatore di squali, 1979).

Castellari cameoed as a Nazi general in his film Inglorious Bastards; Quentin Tarantino had him reprise the role in his film Inglourious Basterds (2009) which was inspired by it. —Wikipedia