MARIO GAUCI Italian Cinema from the 1970s onwards is littered with examples of rip-offs of big-budget Hollywood productions, from THE GODFATHER (1972) to THE EXORCIST (1973) and from JAWS (1975) to DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978); this one here is, believe it or not, a lamentable attempt at a FIRST BLOOD (1982) clone! To start things off, leading man Michael Sopkiw hardly has the adequate physique to survive some of the harder ordeals he goes through in this film and his character is made even less interesting than Stallone's John Rambo by having him a disgraced police officer with a teenage daughter who eventually tags on for the wild ride with her fiancée' and her father's pal!! What is this - shades of DELIVERANCE (1972), now? Incidentally, the backward kid in that film's celebrated "Duellin' Banjos" sequence also makes a cameo appearance here very early in the film (as does the camera equipment, twice, in a poorly-executed car chase towards the end)! Anyway, predictably, Sopkiw is left all alone before long and he exacts a terrible revenge on his increasing horde of trigger-happy pursuers via his ultra-sophisticated multipurpose rifle which, unfortunately for the viewer, he only decides to use ten minutes before the end credits!! Euro-Cult staple George Eastman plays Sopkiw's old hunting buddy whose younger brother (along with his beer-guzzling cronies) is causing all the mayhem. What this film does have that makes it stand out ever so slightly is its unusual (for its time) pro-ecological stance since the trouble literally starts over the merciless mistreatment and exploitation of deers and the wildlife in general by the greedy, ignorant rednecks.

diesel-magoo This has got to be one of the best bad films i have ever seen. The plot is atrocious. It starts of with an ex cop out to avenge the murders of his wife. he meets an old buddy from the force who gives him... BLASTFIGHTER.. the gun with a million different uses...spray of darts armour piercing explosive tips etc.. etc The hero gets into position to kill the crooked lawyer who got his wife's killer off, he has him in his sights but doesn't shoot. Instead he drives off into a cabin in the hills to think things over, the film doesn't return to this incident it just sort of forgets all about the need for vengeance and turns into a deliverance meets Rambo type hodge podge. In the end he kills about 30 or 40 redneck hunter types because one of them killed a little dear he saved when they killed the dears mother, oh and i think they might have killed his best friend raped his daughter and killed her boyfriend though i can't really remember. He drives into the town at then end in his pick up with all the dead bodies in the back and a whole lot of explaining to the authorities...this was the days of Rambo and death wish where multiple homicides were common place and he probably got let off with a fine..I bought this movie for 50p years ago at a video clear-out store and used to watch at all the time,it had a cult following amongst me and my friends until the tape nipped and we ceremoniously burned it.

dogcow Scenic locations and great action really make this italian entry into the Hicksploitation genre stand out. It's somewhat reminscent of Rambo: First Blood, but I actually like it better than that movie. Micheal Sopkiw really shows his talent as a versitile action star here. See it along with After the fall of New York and Massacre in Dinosaur Valley to really get a sense of Sopkiw's talents.

Michael A. Martinez Lamberto Bava's best film so far plays like a variation of Deliverance and First Blood. For the first half of the movie, it remains in doubt rather Sopkiw is going to strike back at a huge passel of harassing rednecks. The scriptwriters here seemed to know what we wanted and made the movie flow accordingly. You can watch the film, hate a character, say whether he lives or dies, and you'll be pretty much correct. All in all this film packs a whallop, with a good Claudio Simonetti score (same as the score in MASSACRE IN DINOSAR VALLEY). The characters likable enough (except Sopkiw's LOAD daughter) and the climax was suitably exciting and violent. Basically the two hicks in DELIVERANCE here are replaced with 500 hicks, 90% of whom die in violent explosive ways. A good movie, lots of goods, not much to complain about. There were a lot of references to EVIL DEAD, such as the fact that Sopkiw drove the same model car, lived in a similar wooden shack in the woods, and even was made up to look like Bruce Campbell! Find this movie if you can.