This actually had, dare I say a bit of substance for a Mattei movie. The banter between Brent Huff and Mary Stavin is actually quite funny at times and I laughed at some of Huff's lines. The conflict of the story is between government cover up of POWs, a defected soldier who killed all the other prisoners so he could live, and the relationship between Brent Huff's character and the General. A general he had previously threatened because he refused to help his friends who were taken prisoner. Now he knows what it is like to be a prisoner himself. That being said this is also Bruno Mattei ripping off The African Queen and Crocodile Dundee with an Apocalypse Now story somewhere in there. Plenty of exploding huts, gratuitous ammo wasting from M60s and M16s, blood squibs, and slow motion. I really think Claudio Fragasso actually made a decent script for this one though.
The movie starts with reporter Maryline Kane (Mary Stavin) showing up in restaurant near the water to meet with former soldier Sam Wood (Brent Huff). Wood escaped a notorious prisoner of war camp that Kane wants to take him to so she can do a feature story on him. He agrees, but only after being paid $50,000. Once they get to the area Sam refuses to cooperate but a random dying POW eventually encounters both of them. Maryline asks about the General, revealing more motives than meet the eye. Meanwhile, Vietcong show up and destroy their boat and take them prisoner. They escape and the film transitions to a nearby POW camp where General Weber, (John Van Dreelan) Maryline's father and other soldiers are held captive. A CIA operative named Bross (Romano Puppo) is secretly collaborating with Maryline and goes to the prisoner of war camp to negotiate.
Mary Stavin as Maryline and Brent Huff as Sam
Maryline and Sam meet with Bross. Sam eventually spies on him talking with Duan Loc (Werner Pochath) who is revealed to have defected to the opposition after killing Sam's other men while a POW. Sam had also escaped a POW camp and General Weber prevented him from getting more men to go back and save his friends. They torture Sam in the water but he finds a way to escape to the other side of the river and leaves one soldier alive to tell Duan Loc (Kurt) that he will kill him. While the prisoners are being escorted Bross and his men show up in a helicopter and kill the Vietnamese soldiers with them. They eventually are surrounded by more men and it is revealed the guns they got fired blanks and that the Vietnamese soldiers they had "killed" are alive as Bross wants to disavow any knowledge and eliminate evidence of any POW camps. Sam shows up and kills all of the soldiers. He then turns his attention do Kurt and goes to destroy his camp. He reconciles with General Weber who apologizes for not helping him before. They destroy the camp and Sam kills Duan Loc. Meanwhile, Bross has killed the last of the prisoners and taken Maryline. Sam and Weber kill Bross's men and Weber kills Bross. Sam stays on the Island but Maryline goes to see him the next day staying back to be with him.
I like how right away Sam is seen as a tough guy in a bar by grabbing a snake by the throat and having it spit the venom in his glass. He wears a cowboy hat and leather clothes to look like Indiana Jones or Crocodile Dundee and even says the Bogart line "Here's looking at you kid." So that is some of the things they are going for. I enjoy the rapport between Huff and Stavin. You can hear they still have chemistry by listening to the commentary. Also Stavin has some of the most piercing eyes I've ever seen. She gives Meg Foster a run for her money in that category. I enjoy the part where she distracts the guards by throwing money and she says something about how money actually buys happiness. Since she only got to play small roles in Bond movies she comes closer to playing a full fledged Bond girl in this and Strike Commando 2.
Let's get to the typical Mattei stuff though. There is some awesome shootouts in this and some really good blood squibs as well. As always with his movies the level of squibs is a bit inconsistent. There's some great shootouts when they have to escape the hotel. I enjoy the part where Huff hoots and hollers dropping from the ceiling and shooting with some Peckinpah like slow motion. I like that he went all Colonel Kurtz and kept a collection of weapons in a tunnel he dug. Seeing Brent Huff dual wield an M60 and an M16 is awesome. Those last two shootouts are just insane. I enjoy how all the POWs think there is more than one soldier. Huff actually shows some acting chops with his face twitching when Maryline mentions the General is her father. Also they put the soldiers in water running toward landmines well before Rambo ever did that. That is when Massimo Vanni's character is killed unfortunately. Always like seeing him and Puppo in roles because I know they were also stuntmen. I love that Brent Huff does the Mel Gibson from Lethal Weapon 2 and shoots Kurt and says the name of all his men when he shoots him repeatedly. Once again I'd recommend the Severin blu-ray of this if interested. Man do I want to meet Brent Huff at a con or something someday.
English dubbing cast:
- Robert Spafford dubs John Van Dreelan as General Weber
Rating: 8/10
Trivia: Mary Stavin was Miss World in 1977. She also played small roles in Octopussy and A View to a Kill making her one of the few women to play Bond girls in multiple movies and in two different roles. She joins the ranks of Ursula Andress (if you include the 1967 Casino Royale), Maud Adams, and Martine Beswick on that list. That doesn't include actresses who played Moneypenny or Eunice Gayson who played the same.character in the first two Bond movies.
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