David Warbeck takes on Charlie in THE LAST HUNTER with only his .45 automatic, and comes pretty close to winning the entire war without the need for a helmet, combat gear, supporting troops, spare ammunition or even his shoes, for that matter.
Dispatched on a mission so secretive that even the audience isn't sure exactly what he is supposed to be doing, Warbeck prowls into the Heart of Darkness of the Philipino locales used for filming (some of which have nicely trimmed grass that reminds me of the grounds of a hotel I once stayed in) dragging Tisa Farrow out of harm's way, encountering a secret Party Bunker populated by stoned Yankee soldiers just waiting for something worth raping to come along, and finding himself in the middle of a romantic triangle sub-plot that seems like an attempt to resurrect the power of Sergio Leone's use of the same from FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE, which featured Warbeck in it's flashbacks.
The difference being, of course, that DUCK YOU SUCKER's flashbacks served an integral role in telling that movie's story. Here they are a plot device used to set up the film's gag inducing climax showdown, the least of which is said the better. No B grade war movie cliché button goes unpushed, with the added early instance of Americans killing other Americans added to the mix. There is even an over-the-top comedy sequence where a scurrilous Yankee soldier is forced to atone for his misdeeds by donning a bright red baseball hat and dodging enemy fire while running to get a coconut for his superior officer that is right out of "Gilligan's Island" imagery -- including the coconuts -- and I say that with affection.
It's also descriptive of what the whole film amounts to, which is an overtly graphic "real life" cartoon about Vietnam for grown ups that lacks any sort of sub-textural depth. The movies it plundered for material to lampoon or exploit (THE DEER HUNTER, APOCALYPSE NOW, THE BOYS IN COMPANY C) all had greater reasons to see them that went beyond what you saw on the screen. THE LAST HUNTER is, by contrast, all surface material, and about the most insightful thing you might learn is that when guys get sprayed by a flamethrower they dance around & scream for a bit before dying. But as far as seeing revolutionary images or gut wrenching social commentary, forget it. Margheriti may have gone into the project with an anti-war message in mind but quickly falls into the trap that Goddard spoke of when stating that it is difficult to make a movie about war without glorifying it. Warbeck looks like he's having a pretty damn good time, even going so far as to not board the rescue chopper flown in during the closing scene, falling back into the jungle shirtless, brandishing his .45, and none the less the wear for having ran around for a half an hour without any shoes on. My only wish is that Margheriti would have committed to what he had started by having Warbeck then shoot the chopper down, though that would have been a problem to explain come time for TIGER JOE, the unofficial 1982 made continuation of the story.
The principal weakness with THE LAST HUNTER is two pronged: It has achieved a reputation as being this sickening, exploitational parade of garbage, yet it's excesses & story ideas both have been far surpassed by the films about Vietnam which came after it (check out 84 CHARLIE MOPIC for a movie about a special ops platoon behind enemy lines that will leave you speechless). And it's weak narrative structure reduces the action into a string of moments that while having an undeniable visual power, don't really serve to tell a story populated by people that the viewer comes to care about. Unlike Marghertiti's YOR HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE, the film does not resonate on a level where one believes in the people, places and events shown, and the movie becomes a Geek Show. One waits to see the good stuff, and in 1980 the images may have been outrageous, but other than watching Warbeck club a grass snake & a bunch of rats swarming over him in a Tiger Cage scene there isn't a whole lot here that is really too offensive.
So I dunno. THE BOYS IN COMPANY C was a satirical farce meant to elicit genuine laughter at the conventions of war. Here the laughter is more at the outrageousness of Margheriti's appropriation of the same yet without the meaning. If the idea of watching David Warbeck torch a horde of Gooks with a flamethrower is your idea of a good time, the movie will deliver. On that plane of thinking, THE LAST HUNTER is a classic in every sense of the word, though it may be a classic in bad taste, and lacking the sort of joyful, stupid, gleefulness found in other Margheriti films like YOR and KILLER FISH. I worship Margheriti's work and can live with the thought that this one didn't really work for me.
But I will opine that if we'd had a couple of dozen David Warbecks running around 'Nam with their .45s and kicking ass, we probably would have won.
Dispatched on a mission so secretive that even the audience isn't sure exactly what he is supposed to be doing, Warbeck prowls into the Heart of Darkness of the Philipino locales used for filming (some of which have nicely trimmed grass that reminds me of the grounds of a hotel I once stayed in) dragging Tisa Farrow out of harm's way, encountering a secret Party Bunker populated by stoned Yankee soldiers just waiting for something worth raping to come along, and finding himself in the middle of a romantic triangle sub-plot that seems like an attempt to resurrect the power of Sergio Leone's use of the same from FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE, which featured Warbeck in it's flashbacks.
The difference being, of course, that DUCK YOU SUCKER's flashbacks served an integral role in telling that movie's story. Here they are a plot device used to set up the film's gag inducing climax showdown, the least of which is said the better. No B grade war movie cliché button goes unpushed, with the added early instance of Americans killing other Americans added to the mix. There is even an over-the-top comedy sequence where a scurrilous Yankee soldier is forced to atone for his misdeeds by donning a bright red baseball hat and dodging enemy fire while running to get a coconut for his superior officer that is right out of "Gilligan's Island" imagery -- including the coconuts -- and I say that with affection.
It's also descriptive of what the whole film amounts to, which is an overtly graphic "real life" cartoon about Vietnam for grown ups that lacks any sort of sub-textural depth. The movies it plundered for material to lampoon or exploit (THE DEER HUNTER, APOCALYPSE NOW, THE BOYS IN COMPANY C) all had greater reasons to see them that went beyond what you saw on the screen. THE LAST HUNTER is, by contrast, all surface material, and about the most insightful thing you might learn is that when guys get sprayed by a flamethrower they dance around & scream for a bit before dying. But as far as seeing revolutionary images or gut wrenching social commentary, forget it. Margheriti may have gone into the project with an anti-war message in mind but quickly falls into the trap that Goddard spoke of when stating that it is difficult to make a movie about war without glorifying it. Warbeck looks like he's having a pretty damn good time, even going so far as to not board the rescue chopper flown in during the closing scene, falling back into the jungle shirtless, brandishing his .45, and none the less the wear for having ran around for a half an hour without any shoes on. My only wish is that Margheriti would have committed to what he had started by having Warbeck then shoot the chopper down, though that would have been a problem to explain come time for TIGER JOE, the unofficial 1982 made continuation of the story.
The principal weakness with THE LAST HUNTER is two pronged: It has achieved a reputation as being this sickening, exploitational parade of garbage, yet it's excesses & story ideas both have been far surpassed by the films about Vietnam which came after it (check out 84 CHARLIE MOPIC for a movie about a special ops platoon behind enemy lines that will leave you speechless). And it's weak narrative structure reduces the action into a string of moments that while having an undeniable visual power, don't really serve to tell a story populated by people that the viewer comes to care about. Unlike Marghertiti's YOR HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE, the film does not resonate on a level where one believes in the people, places and events shown, and the movie becomes a Geek Show. One waits to see the good stuff, and in 1980 the images may have been outrageous, but other than watching Warbeck club a grass snake & a bunch of rats swarming over him in a Tiger Cage scene there isn't a whole lot here that is really too offensive.
So I dunno. THE BOYS IN COMPANY C was a satirical farce meant to elicit genuine laughter at the conventions of war. Here the laughter is more at the outrageousness of Margheriti's appropriation of the same yet without the meaning. If the idea of watching David Warbeck torch a horde of Gooks with a flamethrower is your idea of a good time, the movie will deliver. On that plane of thinking, THE LAST HUNTER is a classic in every sense of the word, though it may be a classic in bad taste, and lacking the sort of joyful, stupid, gleefulness found in other Margheriti films like YOR and KILLER FISH. I worship Margheriti's work and can live with the thought that this one didn't really work for me.
But I will opine that if we'd had a couple of dozen David Warbecks running around 'Nam with their .45s and kicking ass, we probably would have won.