The year is 2019. Some years ago the world finally ended with a big atomic bang. Now small bands of survivors roam the European wastelands, trying to eke out a living. To make a bad situation worse, a group of men calling themselves "The Templars" try to purify the world. If I followed the mad ravings of their leader The One (George Eastman) correctly, the only way to achieve this purification is to kill every single survivor. Sounds like a plan to me. All works out well for the Templars until they cross paths with the semi-heroic wanderer Scorpion (Giancarlo Prete) and his part-time friend Nadir (Fred Williamson).
This is as good as Italian post-apocalyptic action movies get. Sure, most of the film consists of people in very silly costumes (a moment of silence for poor Fred Williamson and his disco Robin Hood outfit) driving around or killing each other in interesting ways (or both) or Eastman foaming at the mouth, but the art of making it interesting lies in the execution. And as his cop movies with people like Maurizio Merlo and Franco Nero proved, director Enzo G. Castellari was a fantastic director for action scenes, as well as a certain kind of melancholic machismo you can also find in Warriors of the Wasteland. Add to this a cheap and effective soundtrack by Claudio Simonetti, some very inspired cutting (sometimes in the rhythm of the music) and some brilliantly stupid ideas like the small child that helps Scorpion out as a mechanic and kills about a dozen bad guys in the showdown and you have a tight and mean little film that probably cost next to nothing.
Darling of the day:
"They are people from a sect. They believe in something called...[long pause] 'God'"
"Ah."
Monday, May 19, 2008
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