Quel maledetto treno blindato, by Enzo G. Castellari, was distributed in English as The Inglorious Bastards. Tarantino drew on that reference for the title of his film, but developed a different story and a different structure.
The documented connection begins with the title
Enzo G. Castellari's film was released in 1978 and is known in Spain as Aquel maldito tren blindado. Its English release title, The Inglorious Bastards, is the most obvious point of contact with Inglourious Basterds, released by Quentin Tarantino in 2009. The spelling variation in the second title helps distinguish two works that do not tell the same story.
The production notes for Tarantino's film include a statement from Castellari describing it as a different work, not a remake of its plot. Tarantino also explained in a discussion that he was drawn to the title and to the tradition of a group of men on a mission. That documentation makes it possible to talk about inspiration without presenting the 1978 film as a scene-by-scene adapted screenplay.
The word remake can be used informally to refer to a tribute-like relationship, but here it is imprecise if understood as a repetition of the plot. Shosanna, Landa, and Aldo do not directly replace equivalents from Castellari's film. Their conflicts and functions belong to a new construction.
The connection with Enzo G. Castellari includes Tarantino's admiration for his cinema and the appearance of the Italian director in a small role in the 2009 film. That visible acknowledgment confirms a dialogue between filmmakers, but it does not automatically turn every genre similarity into a specific borrowing.
From the group of fugitives to several converging stories
Aquel maldito tren blindado follows a group of imprisoned American soldiers who, in the middle of the war, manage to escape and become involved in a mission. Its core is a war adventure about men outside conventional discipline. The action, changes in situation, and the objective involving a train organize the arc of the whole film.
Inglourious Basterds also presents a commando of unconventional fighters, but it does not keep that group as the sole center of the story. It devotes an opening block to a persecuted family and develops an extended line around Shosanna, her identity in Paris, and her cinema. Aldo's unit shares the feature film with a story of survival and revenge that does not come from Castellari's film.
The chapter structure reinforces that difference. Tarantino can leave the Basterds for a while to follow a meeting between Shosanna and Zoller or a negotiation with Landa. The promise of a military mission remains, but the film distributes attention among characters who do not always know one another's plans. The viewer has to piece together lines that move forward in partially independent ways.
The settings also express different priorities. The train reference points to a material wartime objective. In Tarantino's film, a farm, a tavern, and a cinema become settings for long conversations where identity can be uncovered. Weapons still matter, but the danger often grows before they are used.
Shared genre, different ending and methods
Both films engage with a military adventure tradition starring characters who do not fit the disciplined ideal of the exemplary soldier. That shared foundation helps explain why a title could appeal to Tarantino. The affinity does not require the progression of events or the way war is represented to match.
The 2009 film organizes much of its suspense around languages, accents, and social performance. A person can be armed and still depend on a gesture or a word to maintain a disguise. That emphasis on performance introduces a link with cinema within the plot itself: actors, critics, and viewers take part directly in the operation.
Tarantino's ending introduces an explicit historical alteration by destroying the Nazi leadership during a screening. Real history becomes material for a revenge fantasy. Castellari's film belongs to another kind of adventure and does not stage that same attack on Hitler's history. Presenting both films as equivalent stories would erase one of their most visible differences.
The violence also follows different rhythms. Tarantino stretches out conversations and waiting so that a brief explosion can reorganize the scene. Castellari's adventure relies on a continuity of military incidents and group action. These are useful tendencies for comparing them, not rules that force every shot in one work and the other to be classified in opposite ways.
The shared title works better as an invitation to look at a tradition than as a promise of finding the same movie with different actors. Anyone looking in the 1978 film for the literal origin of Landa, the Dreyfus family, or Shosanna's face projected on the screen will not find it. What links the two works is a dialogue of taste and genre, acknowledged by their creators; what separates them is the specific story each one chooses to tell.
More context in the Inglourious Basterds guide.