Fuga dall'archipelago maledetto (1982)

User Rating:

5.1/10   

Director:

Antonio Margheriti

Writers:

Tito Carpi (writer)
Gianfranco Couyoumdjian (writer)

Release Date:

16 September 1982 (Netherlands)

Genre:

Action | War

Plot Keywords:

Violence | Vietnam | Soldier

Cast

David Warbeck	...	Tiger Joe
Annie Belle	...	Kia
Tony King	...	Midnight
Luciano Pigozzi	...	Lenny (as Alan Collins)
Giancarlo Badessi	...	Bronski
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Rene Abadeza

Also Known As:

Tiger Joe

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Norway:18 | Hong Kong:IIB | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Company:

Flora Film

Quotes:

Midnight: [to a child that he is giving a piggyback to] Don't go and wet on me now.

Movie Connections:

Edited from L'ultimo cacciatore (1980)

a big mess of a sporadically fun action movie

This is about as typical as you can get for an Antonio Margheriti movie from the early 80's. It's an action movie which takes place somewhere in Indo-China (I'm assuming Vietnam) with David Warbeck, Tony King, and Luciano Pigozzi marching around the jungle mowing down waves of black pajama-wearing enemy soldiers. Lots of miniatures exploding in slow motion, really loud gunshot and punch sound effects, footage recycled from earlier Margheriti films, Rene Abadeza, and lack of any real plot establish this among Margheriti's other films from the period such as THE LAST HUNTER, JUNGLE RAIDERS, and CODE NAME: WILDGEESE.

Besides all the typicality, this film actually is pretty good when it tries to be, especially the nearer it gets to the end. There's some bang-up action sequences, such as a huge toy train explosion (a la BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI) and a great scene where Warbeck and King use gunboat to mow down an entire army on a beach. However, at times this film really, really drags as it's never exactly entirely clear just what's going on.

Margheriti and co. were unfortunately struck by tragedy while making this film when a plane carrying several crew members crashed in the Philippines, which resulted in the death of Riccardo Pallotini, one of Italy's greatest cinematographers of the time. Hence, it's probably understandable why the film doesn't have the "heart" that a lot of Margheriti's previous films had, but it's hard to enjoy a film with so much "baggage". Anyway, if you loved TORNADO and THE LAST HUNTER, then definitely give this a try, as it's more of the same. Expect nothing less and nothing more.