Troma's War (1988)

User Rating:

5.1/10   

Directors:

Michael Herz
Lloyd Kaufman

Writers:

Mitchell Dana (writer)
Eric Hattler (writer)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

NOT a true story but who cares!

Plot:

A small group of typical Tromaville citizens find themselves in the path of a terrorist army controlled by the power elite...

Plot Keywords:

Terror | Violence | Box Office Flop | Death | Rape

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Carolyn Beauchamp	...	Lydia
Sean Bowen	...	Taylor
Rick Washburn	...	Parker (as Michael Ryder)
Patrick Weathers	...	Kirkland
Jessica Dublin	...	Dottie
Steven Crossley	...	Marshall
Lorayn Lane Deluca	...	Maria
Charles Kay-Hune	...	Hardwick
Ara Romanoff	...	Cooney
Brenda Brock	...	Kim
Lisbeth Kaufman	...	Jingoistic baby
Lisa Petruno	...	Jennifer (as Lisa Patruno)
Alex Cserhart	...	Sean
Aleida Harris	...	Nancy
Mary Yorio	...	Laurie

Also Known As:

1,000 Ways to Die (USA)

Runtime:

Germany:91 min | USA:105 min (director's cut) | USA:87 min (R-rated version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-18 | West Germany:18 (heavily cut) | UK:18 | Netherlands:16 | USA:R | USA:Unrated (director's cut) | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Company:

Troma Entertainment

Trivia:

Film debut of Joe Fleishaker, Troma's 500 pound action hero. He was originally cast as an extra, but Lloyd Kaufman took a liking to him and gave him a bigger role.

Quotes:

[repeated line]
Parker: Airborne!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Apocalypse Soon: The Making of 'Citizen Toxie' (2002) (V)

Torma's long lost masterpiece.

Finally, on DVD, represented in the brilliant director's cut version that no one should miss!! This is Troma's answer to the Rambo kind of films that were doing well all around. This should have been as big a worldwide hit in theaters all over the world, if it weren't for the censors who always kindly cooperate with the big conglomerates, but while Rambo got it's R-rating with it's countless bullets, shot wounds, amounts of senseless violence and streams of blood, Troma's War wasn't treated with the same courtesy. While not more excessively violent or bloody than any of the drek that the big studio's poured out over the audiences, Troma's War was submitted to countless cuts, making it a rather senseless film, of which all the guts (literally and metaphorically), storyline and message were deleted, with the predictable result that no one really could care for the film anymore. A bloody shame, since it is – when seen in the original director's cut – so much better than the poor substitudes with the bid budgets spent on ridiculously overpaid mediocre actors from Hollywood. Troma's War in it's entirety is a masterpiece, a brilliant film that seems to pretend to be the Rambo-kind-of-film, and should please audiences that like that stuff, but in the meantime is so much more than that: it is an intelligent film with a layered texture, a superb story and a lot of fun. Furthermore, the film features the first appearance of Troma's soon to be Superstar Joe Fleishaker. And it is the first movie to address the aids problem, long before any of the bigger studios even dared to touch it, again proving how much ahead of it's time Troma has always been. The director's audio-commentary is, as is always the case with Lloyd Kaufman's tracks, a wonderfully insightful feature, worth the price of the disc itself, and it explains in depth the evil works with which the big guys in the film-making world go to great lengths to put the independents out of business. But Troma's War still goes on – 35 years and counting! Get this film, it is a historically significant one.