Coastwatcher

My review was written in May 1989 after a Cannes Film Festival Market screening.

"The Last Warrior", alternatively called "Coastwatcher", is a subpar World War II drama whose penchant for closeups, even during action scenes, betrays its video targeting.

Filmmaker Martin Wragge misses the boat right at the outset by choosing and styling a loner hero (Gary Graham) who is strictly modern '80s though cast as a U. S. soldier at a surveillance post in the South Pacific in April 1945.

A Japanese warship arrives and kidnaps al the native and missionaries on the island, except for Graham and a beautiful blonde nun-in-training, Maria Holvoe.

It's a very poor man's "Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison", as the two bicker but survive together, with Graham excessively lucky that the Japanese soldiers always choose to attack him singly. Relentlessly padded film climaxes halfway through when skilled warrior Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa decides to spare Graham's life so he can (quite improbably) train him to fight as an equal.

Mumbo-jumbo about "honor" and learning how to die properly won't fool an audience that will easily sniff out the artificial prolonging of a skimpy story.

Some attractive forest and mountain locations perk up the action, with the highlight scenes taking place on a rusted old shp that looks suspiciously like th4e set used for Wragge's previous South African-lensed sci-fier "Survivor". Director's overuse of slow motion during shootouts and sword fights is a drag.

While Graham obviously is miscast, Holvoe as the novice nun is a ringer, ready for entry in a wet t-shirt contest. Tagawa gives a stalwart performance that works toward overcoming the idiotic nature of his character, a killing machine without the killer instinct.

There are only a few actors in this film, which makes it somewhat of an oddity.

Gary Graham plays an American soldier fighting off the Japanese on a remote Pacific island in the last few days of World War II. He is accompanied by a missionary nun, Maria Holvoe, who looks anything like a nun. Maria is a sultry, sexy woman and complete miscast here. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa plays Graham's main adversary. He is a noble fighter who wants to win fair-and-square....and that costs him.

The main attribute of this film is the stylish photography and it needed a DVD treatment because many of the scenes are in darkness and not easy to see. It's wonderfully filmed and the story is decent enough to warrant a better look, so I may buy it. The only viewing I had of this was on VHS.

When i bought the DVD release and watched it for the first time, i had no clue what to expect. I'd not heard anything about this movie so i was expecting it to not be so good. :P But i was pleasantly surprised, especially with the beginning half of the film.

The cinematography is a big pull in this film, with some beautiful visual moments and some really gripping fight and stalking scenes. The use of light and water was brilliant, and the setting complimented perfectly. By the 20 minutes mark, i unfortunately wanted to throttle the music composer, but luckily the repetitive throbbing tones that accompanied a particular fight subsided and didn't return to any great extent.

It also gets big plot points for not going at all in the direction i was expecting. It was something of a double-take for me in the latter half, and in a good way. Despite being touted as a martial-arts type film, i'd not put too much expectation on that side of the action. The fights are pleasingly realistic, meaning there's less martial and more grappling and desperation. I prefer a film to be gritty, and i like the way this one went.

The cast worked well, Gary Graham held the film together pretty good and communicated a character i'd want to know more about. Another viewer commented on the small cast, and i agree it was quite unusual and quite nice too - it left room for focus on scenes, shots and the visual aspect.

There were only a few cringe moments, and they were overwhelmed with the good. Definitely worth a look, not least for the cinematography.

I saw this movie a couple of times on an off-brand "network" TV and I found it pretty enjoyable to watch. I would highly recomend it to any fan of war or action/war movie IF they can't find anything better to rent or IF they happen to catch it on TV or in TV Guide. The film provides a descent balance of action and suspence and a very good portrait of the main Japanesse soldier. Perhaps the films strongest asset is how balanced it is. One gets a good dose of action, history, character devolopment and plot and even if any one of these aspects are not very strong taken by itself, as a whole it makes for a very worthwhile movie experiance. It is a shame that this film hasn't gotten much attention as it is definitly a lot better than some of the flotasm floating around out there.