Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Blitzkrieg: Escape From Stalag 69

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  
    Ian Jane
    Administrator

  • Blitzkrieg: Escape From Stalag 69



    Released by: Wild Eye Releasing
    Released on: 2/3/2009
    Director: Keith J. Crocker

    Cast: Tatyana Kot, Charles Esser, Steve Montague, Edward Yankus, Wayne Chang
    Year: 2008
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Movie:


    Out of all the 'genres' lumped in under the exploitation film category, the Nazisploitation genre has to stand as the most tasteless. Inspired by the atrocities committed by the Third Reich during the second world war, filmmakers tended to sexualize and fetishize the sex and violence and human suffering to such ridiculous degrees that often times these films were tough to take seriously, but when you stop and think about it, most of the established 'classics' of the genre are really pretty appalling so it was pretty surprising to see this one get revived. Sure, Rob Zombie sort of took a stab at it with his fake Grindhouse trailer for Werewolf Women Of The S.S. but that was more of a nod than an actual revival. Keith Crocker's Blitzkrieg: Escape From Stalag 69, however, is a two hour plus micro-budgeted epic that, while laced with humor of varying degrees of effectiveness and hampered by the restraints of finances, manages to hit all the requisite notes you'd expect if you're familiar with the films that inspired it.

    Set in the last days of WWII, the film follows Kommandant Helmut Schultz (Charles Esser) and his right hand man Wolfgang (Steve Montague), a pair of Nazi officers in charge of the titular prison camp, Stalag 69. Unlike most prison camps, this one houses male and female prisoners of different nationalities so there are Americans and Englishmen and Scots and Russians all running around the place. As the allied forces start closing in on the area and bringing the Nazi rule to an end, an American prisoner named Jack Jones (Edward Yankus) teams up with a Russian prisoner named Natasha (Tatyana Kot) in an attempt to escape from the camp before Schutlz and his cronies use them as guinea pigs in the horrific medical experiments that they've been conducting on the grounds.

    Shot pretty much entirely on Long Island for less than you'd pay for a good used car, Blitzkrieg, like many of its low budget brethren, has its pro's and it's con's. The pro's? Crocker's decision to use an abandoned mental hospital on Long Island as a stand in for the prison camp works fairly well, giving the film some legitimate atmosphere. The architecture doesn't always match perfectly but it's not difficult to suspend your disbelief enough to buy it and the decrepit buildings and abandoned structures lend themselves well to the story. Additionally, there are a few stand out set pieces that work well, such as Tatyana Kot's completely nude machine gun attack sequence and some of the moments where the Nazi's torture their prisoners.

    Unfortunately, the film falls prey to many of the same sort of flaws inherent in low budget filmmaking, the most obvious one being the acting. Some of the performances just flat out don't work very well and the fact that many of the actors and actresses tend to lose and regain their accents throughout the film is quite noticeable (though to her credit Kot is pretty good here). On top of that, over well over two hours in length the film suffers from some pacing problems and the humor that the story works in is only occasionally effective.

    The film is well shot and it was obviously a very ambitious project. There was some obvious attention to detail paid to the costumes that the different soldiers wear in the film and the score's not bad. There are definitely aspects of this picture that work quite well and that will likely surpass your expectations. References to I Spit On Your Grave and Crocker's earlier The Bloody Ape are amusing and the film winds up a reasonably entertaining little trash film that's worth a look for those who are into low budget/indy exploitation with no regard for political correctness anywhere in sight.

    Video/Audio/Extras:

    Blitzkrieg: Escape From Stalag 69 was shot with a low budget on digital video and there are definitely times where that's readily apparent. For the most part though, it's a well put together picture and the transfer generally reflects that even if it does show some obvious compression artifacts from time to time. Aside from that though, the image is clean and colorful.

    Likewise, the English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix on the DVD may not bring the house down but it certainly gets the job done. Dialogue is easy enough to understand, levels are usually (though not always) well balanced and there are no problems to report with any hiss or distortion.

    There are an insane amount of extras on this disc, starting with the commentary that comes courtesy of Keith Crocker, Keith Matturro, and Tatyana Kot, a lively discussion that covers the making of the film and discusses some of the inspiration for the picture along with locations, effects, story revisions and pretty much everything you'd expect from a comprehensive commentary. Complimenting this nicely is a lengthy making of featurette entitled Nazis Over Nassau that allows pretty much every member of the cast and crew to talk about their work on the picture as we learn about the effects, the casting, the writing, the directing style and the humor in the film. If you still want to know more, check out the Cast Q&A held at the movie's premier which took place at the Pioneer Theater in New York City in May of 2008.

    Rounding out the extras are a trailer for the feature, a trailer for Crocker's earlier 8mm opus The Bloody Ape, a lengthy still gallery of production photos, a blooper reel, a trailer for Schindler's Lust, a batch of deleted scenes and Crocker's short film De Sade 88. Menus and chapter stops are also included.

    The Final Word:

    Despite some budgetary restraints and awkward humor, Blitzkrieg: Escape From Stalag 69 has enough sleaze and nudity to deliver what fans would expect from a revivalist nazisploitation picture. Wild Eye's DVD looks okay and sounds just fine but where it really excels is with the ridiculous amount of extras included on the disc, making this a legitimate special edition release.

























      Posting comments is disabled.

    Latest Articles

    Collapse

    • Hot Spur (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Severin Films
      Released on: April 30th, 2024.
      Director: Lee Frost
      Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
      Year: 1969
      Purchase From Amazon

      Hot Spur – Movie Review:

      Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:53 AM
    • Death Squad (Mondo Macabro) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Mondo Macabro
      Released on: April 9th, 2024.
      Director: Max Pecas
      Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
      Year: 1985
      Purchase From Amazon

      Death Squad – Movie Review:

      Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:46 AM
    • Roommates (Quality X) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Quality X
      Released on: February 28th, 2024.
      Director: Chuck Vincent
      Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
      Year: 1982
      Purchase From Amazon

      Roommates – Movie Review:

      Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:10 PM
    • Night Of The Blood Monster (Blue Underground) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Blue Underground
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Jess Franco
      Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
      Year: 1970
      Purchase From Amazon

      Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:

      Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:07 PM
    • Phase IV (Vinegar Syndrome) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Saul Bass
      Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
      Year: 1974
      Purchase From Amazon

      Phase IV – Movie Review:

      Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:02 PM
    • The Bounty Hunter Trilogy (Radiance Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Radiance Films
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
      Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
      Year: 1969-1972
      Purchase From Amazon

      The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:

      Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this
      ...
      03-13-2024, 11:30 AM
    Working...
    X