WARRIORS OF THE WASTELAND (1983)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

Although Enzo Castellari's WARRIORS OF THE WASTELAND is just a cheapjack MAD MAX imitation, I've certainly seen much duller ripoffs, such as 1991's DUNE WARRIORS. At least there's some goofy inventiveness in the gimmicks used in the rival vehicles of this post-apoc world, even though a couple of online reviews correctly pegged the cars themselves as being like glorified "golf carts." In fact, I might have nudged the mythicity of WARRIORS up to "fair" if the scripters-- mainly Castellari and Tito Carpi (who seemed to do better with softcore sex romps)-- had delivered on the sociological conflict suggested in the opening.

Once again a nuclear catastrophe has reduced civilization to scattered enclaves of human habitation, and once again these pre-industrial settlements are preyed upon marauders who have a variety of tricked-out supercars to take the place of plain old riding-horses. This time the marauders are called "Templars," and in keeping with that name they have a quasi-religious mission: to annihilate all life. Their leader (George Eastman) calls himself "One," which results in a hilarious scene with his subordinates chanting, "One, One, One."

Some post-apoc flicks have a stranger-hero who comes from nowhere and intervenes to save the settled people for no particular reason. But this script's hero-- Scorpion, played by an Italian actor with the faux-English name "Timothy Brent"-- used to be a Templar, and it really bugs One that this guy rides around in his own funny-car, knocking off other Templars. Why? If there was a reason, Castellari left it on the cutting room floor. The only incident that comes close to furnishing an explanation takes place after One captures Scorpion. A visually confusing sequence makes it look like One may be committing rape on the hero. But in their performances neither Brent nor Eastman communicate anything like a quarrel about erotic fixation, such as viewers may find in the marginally better RED SONJA.

After Scorpion kills a small band of Templars, thus drawing down reprisals from One, he hangs out at some small enclave, where he's hero-worshiped by a little blonde kid who barely figures into the story. The hero also encounters Nadir (Fred Williamson, but not with his own voice). Nadir has even less of a raison d'etre than Scorpion, seemingly existing just to walk around with a souped-up longbow that fires explosive arrows. The two macho dudes seem to have a slightly acrimonious relationship, but again, there's nothing like backstory in the English language version. Oh, and Scorpion rescues a hot chick (Anna Kanakis) from some Templars, but she too has no function in the plot and could have been excised easily.

Williamson offers a little verve despite being dubbed, more so than stone-faced Brent. But the main attraction is watching countless stupid-looking cars tool around the desert, equipped with flame-throwers and buzzsaws and so on. The cars are often filmed in slow motion as if the director wanted everyone to contemplate their glories the way Shelley meditated on skylarks and mountains. I'm sure Castellari did so just to make sure he didn't have to shoot many retakes. But all of these artless cars do make WARRIORS stand out from a generally undistinguished pack.