La furia del trueno

for those of you who long for the old Italian Spaghetti westerns of the 60's and 70's, here is a step in the vaguely right direction. Set in New Mexico's beautiful Monument Valley, although a bit more contemporary than the old west. Mark Gregory stars as an Indian who returned from Vietnam and gets disgruntled when absurdly racist locals harass him multiple times. He spends about 50 minutes destroying property and murdering police officers before he finally is recognized as a hero (!). The plot is silly, the dialog campy in the extreme, but the cast was likable and the action scenes were very well done. On top of that, the movie had an excellent Francesco De Masi musical score, which really gets the blood going at times. Good Sergio Salvati camerawork too. Low budget, but not nearly as cheesy as the two sequels which followed.

My review was written in June 1986 after watching the movie on Trans World Entertainment video cassette.

"Thunder Warrior" (a/k/a "Thunder") is an okay Italian action picture, benefiting immensely from gorgeous Arizona locations in Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon and environs. Released theatrically overseas, the shot-in-1983 opus debuted on video cassette domestically, with a sequel "Thunder 2" currently in production.

Mark Gregory portrays Thunder, a young Navajo Indian who returns home to find that the tribal burial ground is being destroyed to become the site of an observatory, breaking a treaty signed 100 years ago by his grandfather. After starting a fight on the construction site with a worker named Thomas (Antonio Sabato), Thunder sits in at the office of Sheriff Cook (Bo Svenson). Brushed-off by Cook, he shifts his sit-in to the local bank that is financing the project and is promptly escorted out of the county by the cops.

Subsequently beaten by Thomas and his coworkers, and then treated to police brutality by Deputy Barry (Raymond Harmstorf), Thunder arms himself and becomes a mini-"Rambo" out of "First Blood". He survives, hence the sequel, and is established as a local folk hero after numerous encounters with the police and rednecks who try to hunt him down.

Filmmaker Fabrizio de Angelis (who likes to use the pseudonym "Larry Ludman" when directing), delivers fine stunts and chases, but overdoes slow motion to stylized violent scenes. Western-flavored music by Francesco De Masi is a plus, though film's main draw is its beautiful locations. Typically for an Italian visiting production, interiors were lensed back in Rome.

Star Gregory is good as the sullen Indian, a big improvement on his campy thesping in De Angelis' production of "1990: The Bronx Warriors".

A young Indian , lousily played by Mark Gregory, turns into a one army man when he is mistreated , as Thunder is determined to punish the local cops who are abusing his fellow tribe members .As a tough Native American is provoked to violence and then seeking a relentless vengeance . Mark is a young Indian called Thunder , he is a peaceful native whose quiet character is trigged by cutthroats , wrongful arrests, and injustices against his race . The Indian Thunder has vowed to live in peace and order but forswears the oath when his girlfriend is kidnapped and relatives are terrorized . Mark Gregory escapes into the Arizona mountains and leads his pursuers to all manner of lethal ends . Finally , an army of cops led by Bo Svenson , Raymond Harmstorf and other deputies are summoned to crush him .He is on the warpaths and he is gonna blow your town apart . They gave him hate , he gave them hell.

The picture deals with usual theme in Italian cinema of the 60s and 70s : a merciless vendetta . As revenge is the top priority , as the protagonist tormenting and reckoning the bad guys . Extremely violent and frequently confused, fueled on the revenge and no much concerned with the rules of plot realism . This is a rip-off to First Blood by Ted Kotcheff with Stallone that was followed by Rambo and sequels . Wooden acting by Mark Gregory as a two-fisted native American submitted to mistreats and prejudices, at the end he seeks vengance driving a caterpillar tractor against the nasties . He is accompanied by a motley group of secondaries as the American Bo Svenson , the German Raymond Harmstorf and a motley team of support cast who played a lot of genres in the sixties and seventies as Western , Peplum and Giallo, such as Paolo Malco , Nazzareno Zamperla , Bruno Corazzari, Goffredo Unger and Antonio Sábato. This Thunder had success in Italy , getting a boxoffice hit , being followed by 2 sequels also directed by Fabrizio de Angelis . As Thunder warrior II 1985 with Mark Gregory , Bo Svenson and Thunder warrior III 1988 with Mark Gregory , Ingrid Lawrence, John Philip Law , and Werner Pochath.

It contains spectacular outdoors photographed by Sergio Salvati , from Marble Canyon , Monumental Valley , Village of Oak Creek , Sedonia , and Navajo villages in Arizona . However , copy of the film is worn-out , being necessary a perfect remastering . Special mention for musical score , well composed by the prolific Francesco De Massi . The picture was regular , though professionally directed , by Fabrizio de Angelis who often used the pseudonym Larry Ludman . He has produced and directed a lot of B films of all kinds of genres , adventure , terror , and Wartime especially . As he has directed movies as Manhunt , Operation Nam , Deadly impact, Overthrow , being particularly known for the Karate Kimura series .

Mark Gregory once again succeeds in delivering another trashy film. He seems completely suited to it, he makes them work.

The story of protecting his homeland works nicely and the action is delivered pretty well making for a reasonable film :)

One of the main reasons why I worship the Italian exploitation film industry so much is because their rip-offs are often so damn blatant and shameless that you wonder how they even dared to register it on camera! Just look at the opening sequences of this "Thunder Warrior", for instance. A rusty old pick-up truck drops off a lone Vietnam War veteran, a seemingly calm and peaceful person with long dark hair and still wearing his soldier's clothes and a backpack over one shoulder. Does this image sound somewhat familiar? Well, it should, because "Thunder Warrior" is an all too obvious imitation of the tremendously successful "First Blood" that was released barely one year earlier. Thunder is the Navajo-version of John J. Rambo, but the actor Mark Gregory isn't nearly as muscular as Sylvester Stallone and definitely not as fierce and combative as he's depicted on the VHS-cover. In fact, Mark Gregory/Marco Di Gregorio isn't even a real Indian but a former shoe salesman from Italy who became a star for a very brief period thanks to "1990: The Bronx Warriors". Thunder is informed by this extremely old and awfully dubbed Native American grandfather that their sacred burial grounds are being overbuilt by capitalist real estate developers and urinated on by redneck construction workers. Thunder initially tries to diplomatically talk to Sheriff Bill Cook and his yokel deputies, but he's quickly chased out of town and beaten down in the sand. But he fights back and receives unexpected support from a freelance journalist and a radio DJ named Dancing Crow. The first half of "Thunder Warrior" is speedily paced and contains a couple of powerful action sequences, including a furious car chase and a raw fight, but I have to admit that the second half is dull, weak and severely lacking in the action department. Most of Thunder's opponents don't even get the ass-whooping they deserved (maybe because a few re-appear in the sequel?) and the grand finale is sorely disappointing. The supportive cast will appeal to cult cinema fanatics, with names like Bo Svenson ("Inglorious Bastards", "Snowbeast") Antonio Sabato ("Seven Blood Stained Orchids", "Gang War in Milan") and the über-sleazy Raimund Harmstorf. I haven't seen either of the two sequels yet, but here's to hoping that they unscrupulously rip off "Rambo: First Blood part II" and "Rambo III"