Blood Red - Stirb für Dein Land

Sebastian Collogero (Giancarlo Giannini) is the patriarch of a Sicilian family farming and making wine in rural California. His roguish son Marco (Eric Roberts) pursues neighbor Antonio Segestra's daughter Angelica. They are an immigrant community proud to be new citizens. Land baron William Bradford Berrigan (Dennis Hopper) is looking to take over the valley to build his railroad. Sebastian Collogero leads the farmers in opposition. Mr. Berrigan brings in Andrews (Burt Young) and his thugs to kill Collogero. Devoted daughter Maria Collogero (Julia Roberts) witnesses the lynching and Marco leads a war against Berrigan.

Eric Roberts has his fluffy flowing hair and struts around while overacting. The release was delayed and this is actually one of the first acting roles for Julia. That's probably the only interesting aspect of this movie. It is visually more align with a TV movie although director Peter Masterson obviously is shooting higher. The overall quality is not good and its higher aspirations only make it worst.

If this movie hadn't been shot in color, I might have mistaken it for a '40s B Western. Tell the truth: the plot was lifted from The Mark of Zorro and the names were changed, right? At least those '40s actors didn't appear to forget their lines. Or maybe no lines were written for those embarrassing scenes in Blood Red where there are painful, inexplicable gaps in both dialogue and action. This film is noteworthy only as the single film to date in which both Julia and Eric Roberts have appeared together. That's the only reason I watched it as long as I did. And what brilliant, inspired casting! They played brother and sister. My Video Movie Guide is right: this is a turkey.

My review was written in April 1990 after watching the movie on Nelson Entertainment video cassette.

"Blood Red", a saga of oppressed Sicilian winegrowers in 19th century California, is an unsuccessful throwback to earlier forms of filmmaking. First-time screen teaming of siblings Eric and Julia Roberts makes this a definite curiosity item.

Project was announced in 1976 by producer Judd Bernard, filmed in 1986 and given a pefunctory release last summer by Hemdale.

Future film historians will ponder why this wasn't a Paramount picture, since it conforms to the themes and mood of "The Godfather", "1900" and Eric Roberts' first staring pic, "The King of the Gypsies". All that's missing is the late Sterling Hayden.

A robust Giancarlo Giannini is patriarch of one ot two families in Brandon, California, and soon is warring with robber baron railroad magnate Dennis Hopper (fitted with an unconvincing Scottish brogue here determined to get his land for his railroad's right of way.

Giannini's rebellious son, Eric Roberts, is in love with the beautiful daughter (Lara Harris) of another winegrowing clan. Hopper hires Burt Young (miscast) and his gang of mercenaries to convince Giannini and the other growers to clear out, resulting in violence. Pic ends in boring fashon with a whimper.

Ron Cutler's utterly predictable script is mainly to blame for draining "Blood Red" of interest. It emerges as a depiction in black hat/white hat terms of history in the mode of "Heaven's Gate" but without that film's controversial (but awesome) production values. Peter Masterson's direction is flat, and though there are some pretty shots, the love of the land and specifics of winegrowing are not developed.

Eric Roberts is more subdued than usual as the script fails to develop a three-dimensional character for him. His scenes with real-life sister Julia, cast as his sister, are intriguing because of the visual match. She doesn't get much chance to emote, but that nascent star quality already is evident.

Alexandra Masterson is a good match as the third sibling, while helmer's wife, Carlin Glynn (previously featured in Masterson's "The Trip to Bountiful") is solid representing the local gentry in supporting the Sicilan's just cause.

Carmine Coppola delives a romantic musical background that underscores the genre connection.

This was obviously a low budget film. It shows in every scene. What is nice to see is where it was made. A lot of the film was shot in Columbia, CA, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Sonora, CA. Some of the film was also shot in Jamestown, CA, very near Columbia. There is a railroad museum in Jamestown and they used some of the old trains in the picture. "High Noon" was also shot in Jamestown, as was "Back to the Future III".

So many people seem to hate this film! Yes, it's flawed (script is generic and predictable) but I still liked it, as it entertained me and had interesting subject matter. And an interesting cast too... At least check it out to hear Hopper's Irish accent.