1990: I GUERRIERI DEL BRONX

(vt Bronx Warriors; vt 1990: Bronx Warriors)

   Film (1982). Deaf Film International. Dir Enzo G. Castellari, starring Mark Gregory, Vic Morrow, Chris Connelly, Stefania Girolami, Fred Williamson. Screenplay Castellari, Dardano Sacchetti, Elisa Livia Briganti. 84 mins. Colour.

   Inspired by Walter Hill's The Warriors (1979) and John CARPENTER's ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981), this Italian film is set in a future-Hell New York overrun by street gangs, with a psychotic law-enforcer (Morrow) trying to rescue a corporate princess (Girolami) from a biker hero named Trash (Gregory). Essentially silly, it has three exploitation veterans (Morrow, Connelly,Williamson) to make up for its pouting hero, and throws in an array of intriguing minor characters - a sadomasochist Morticia-Addams figure, a tap-dancing gang of killer Broadway chorines, subway troglodytes - and some pleasantly melodramatic excesses. Its sequel is Fuga dal Bronx (1983; vt Bronx Warriors 2), and Castellari also made a similar post- HOLOCAUST actioner, inspired by MAD MAX 2 (1981), I nuovi barbari (1983; vt The New Barbarians; vt Warriors of the Wasteland). The slew of similar Italiancheapies included L'ultimo guerriero (1983; vt The Final Executioner), Bronx lotta finale (1984; vt Endgame) and Il guerriero del mondo perduto(1984; vt Warrior of the Lost World).

   KN