For many UK movie fans in the '80s, the only way to see Antonio Margheriti's Vietnam war movie The Last Hunter was via an 'nth generation' pirated VHS, legitimate copies having been seized from most video shops thanks to the video nasty furore. Now, of course, in more enlightened times, the film is available uncut on DVD, for us to enjoy in all its unabashed violent glory without dodgy tracking, rolling picture, and static. It's definitely worth revisiting: a gory, explosive war film full of gung-ho heroics, and unfettered by pretensions, moralising or political commentary, Margheriti's film is pure entertainment.
Italian action movie/horror stalwart David Warbeck stars as Captain Henry Morris, dropped behind enemy lines on a mission to destroy a Vietnamese radio transmitter broadcasting propaganda designed to demoralise American troops. Teaming up with several other US soldiers and foreign correspondent Jane Foster (Tisa Farrow), Morris proceeds to blow up and shoot anything in a nón lá (Vietnamese conical hat). A visit to a US base inside a cave allows for some levity, an unhinged major ordering one of his men to risk death to pick a coconut, before the chaos begins once again as the cave is over-run by 'Charlie' (Morris picking up a flamethrower to roast the enemy).
Morris's mission looks set to fail when he is taken prisoner and thrown into a rat-infested 'tiger cage'. Luckily, before the rodents can eat his face, Morris is freed by Foster (who was being held captive nearby, but who managed to escape thanks to a really stupid guard) and he is able to continue his task. At this point, Margheriti throws in one hell of a contrived plot twist that beggars belief, and a silly ending that sees Morris opting to stay behind as Foster is rescued by helicopter. Yes, The Last Hunter is rather dumb at times, and yes, Margheriti shamelessly rips off other Vietnam war films of the time (namely Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter), but he makes it fun, with lots of blood and guts (bloody squibs, a bullet in the eye, a mouldy paratrooper corpse, a man impaled on a booby trap, a severed leg), loads of explosions, and a spot of topless nudity from Farrow.
6.5/10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.
Italian action movie/horror stalwart David Warbeck stars as Captain Henry Morris, dropped behind enemy lines on a mission to destroy a Vietnamese radio transmitter broadcasting propaganda designed to demoralise American troops. Teaming up with several other US soldiers and foreign correspondent Jane Foster (Tisa Farrow), Morris proceeds to blow up and shoot anything in a nón lá (Vietnamese conical hat). A visit to a US base inside a cave allows for some levity, an unhinged major ordering one of his men to risk death to pick a coconut, before the chaos begins once again as the cave is over-run by 'Charlie' (Morris picking up a flamethrower to roast the enemy).
Morris's mission looks set to fail when he is taken prisoner and thrown into a rat-infested 'tiger cage'. Luckily, before the rodents can eat his face, Morris is freed by Foster (who was being held captive nearby, but who managed to escape thanks to a really stupid guard) and he is able to continue his task. At this point, Margheriti throws in one hell of a contrived plot twist that beggars belief, and a silly ending that sees Morris opting to stay behind as Foster is rescued by helicopter. Yes, The Last Hunter is rather dumb at times, and yes, Margheriti shamelessly rips off other Vietnam war films of the time (namely Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter), but he makes it fun, with lots of blood and guts (bloody squibs, a bullet in the eye, a mouldy paratrooper corpse, a man impaled on a booby trap, a severed leg), loads of explosions, and a spot of topless nudity from Farrow.
6.5/10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.