Death Force (1978)

aka Vengeance is Mine

aka Fighting Mad

aka The Force

Doug Russell (James Iglehart) and his war buddies Morelli (Carmen Argenziano) and McGee (Leon Isaac Kennedy) are planning on using their return trip from Vietnam via Manila to at least get something out of the war for themselves with a bit of drug smuggling.

Doug, a usually very straight guy, really only wants to do this one time and then get back to his girlfriend Maria (Jayne Kennedy) and their little son. His partners, on the other hand, are in the drug business for the long run. Because they are not just pushers but also assholes (and because McGee has the hots for Maria and has no moral compunctions against anything, ever), they decide to just murder Doug. Knifing him and throwing him into the ocean doesn’t kill our hero, however. Thanks to a twist of fate/the script gods, he washes up wounded on a small island only populated by two Japanese soldiers who have been purposefully stranded here since the end of the war. Unlike your typical Japanese army throwbacks of the movies, these two are very well aware the war is ended, but still continue defending their island against whoever goes there.

Doug, however, they help and want to keep. They are rather old by now, after all, and a young, strong helper like the American would be rather useful. After various cultural misunderstandings – turns out goading guys like these with tales of and Americanised Japan does not lead to joy and happiness and Americans of Colour don’t really hold much with slavery – the officer type of the two Japanese (played by Filipino actors, obviously) takes a bit of a shine to Doug and teaches him a weird B-movie version of the code of the Samurai, as well as some awesome sword fighting techniques.

While this is going on, we regularly pop in with Morelli and McGee, who work their way up the ladder of Los Angeles crime one burned down house and murder at a time. McGee also attempts to put his very special kind of moves on Maria, but she knows a slime ball when she sees one and repeatedly rebuffs him. Because he’s just that kind of guy, he then stealthily torpedoes her career as a singer, to somehow get her into his bed by virtue of economical pressure. Maria still doesn’t bite, and McGee becomes increasingly more of a physical danger to her.

Fortunately, Doug does eventually make his way back home and goes on a bit of vengeance rampage with his newfound sword fighting prowess.

I am as often down on the movies of Filipino low budget maestro Cirio H. Santiago as I am up. His blaxploitation (and Japaneseholdoutsploitation, and so on) epic – nearly two hours long in the complete “director’s” cut I watched – Death Force however is nothing anyone who likes 70s exploitation fare could possibly sneeze at. Sure, the movie’s structure is a bit rough, and its running time perhaps a bit too epic for its own good, yet it is also stuffed full of awesome elements that come together to form a very special kind of crazy. Santiago certainly doesn’t stint on exploitational values for a second: when you’re not watching McGee and Morelli making their violent career, you get scenes of Doug getting taught a highly dubious version of already highly dubious warrior philosophy by an actor (Jo Mari Avellana?) who puts his all into being fake-Japanese in a way that transcends the offensive so effectively, it turns beautiful.

I also found myself pleasantly surprised by the sequences concerning Maria’s suffering that take on an appropriately Catholic quality and allow her to show a strength of character you don’t usually get from The Girl in this kind of affair. That Kennedy’s portrayal of McGee is quite so perfectly vile – even Morelli seems put out by some of his behaviour - does enhance that aspect even more, for standing up to this jerk takes quite a bit of personality. All of this also provides the hope for a reunion between Maria and Doug with a certain degree of emotional heft, so much so I found myself mentally cheering at the sappy family reunion montage Santiago of course is not ashamed to provide. And good for him.

The film’s action starts out competent and relatively straightforward and increases in intensity and general weirdness once Doug hits Los Angeles, cutting his way through the gang of his former friends, Iglehart always making as good an impression in his fight scenes as he does in the rest of the film. Particularly the final battle is a bit of a paradise for the friend of decapitation, as well, so our timeless lack of good taste is well provided for as well.

Finally, there’s a “what the fuck” to end all “what the fuck” endings that left even me speechless for once.

Add all of this up, and Death Force turns out to be one of Santiago’s masterpieces.