La Charge des Cosaques

Steve Reeves takes a vacation from ancient times in order to play a Moslem resistance fighter in The White Warrior. He plays the real life Hadji Murad who led Moslems in Chechniya in the 19th century against the encroachment of Russia. How times have changed. Made today the Russians would be the heroes, but in 1959 these were the years of the Cold War.

The film is not biographical in any sense, it rather is based on a Leo Tolstoy novel on the same subject. Reeves is a popular hero and one of the clan leaders in fighting Russian imperialism. He's also the beloved of both the sultan and his daughter whom Reeves would like to marry. But there's intrigue in both camps and he's got to overcome all that plotting.

Fans of the Herculean physique will be disappointed in that he only takes his clothes off in one scene. What's the purpose in casting Steve Reeves then?

Not the greatest film, but not as "tiresome" as Leonard Maltin claims in his review. (Leonard has seen so many films, he apparently gets tired easily -- See IMDB's sidebar link.) The wonderful thing about this film is its decision to cover a subject area that is largely unknown to Western audiences. Indeed, we Westerners didn't have any idea about this area of the world until the fall of the Soviet Union, where a lot of these mysterious countries emerged with an "an" at the end: Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and the like... largely Turkic regions and nations. Of course, Turks are almost always treated as villains in Western films (Another group that's usually villainous in cinema are the Arabs; however in a rare film where the Arabs were the heroes, "Lawrence of Arabia," the Turks were still the villains).

Now the Turks are not the heroes in this film, per se (not the Turks of today's Turkey, or the then-Ottoman Empire) but various Turkic tribes in the Caucasus (in the film, they're referred to as "tribesmen," "Caucasian," once as "Muslims," or -- derogatorily by the Russians --as "Savages." Probably using the word "Turk" would have been risky, as the Western audience might then lose its sympathy for the film's heroes). In the declining years of the Ottoman Empire, mighty Czarist Russia instigated many wars against the Ottomans, taking good advantage of their weakened state.

The thing I found interesting is that Czarist Russia is often depicted in American and other Western films as noble and heroic... I guess it's the Christian connection. In this film, based on a novel by Tolstoy, the Russians are hinted at as the bloodthirsty oppressors they were. I'm influenced by a rare book, "The Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims" by Prof. Justin McCarthy, which showed the unbelievable magnitude of the evil and inhumanity displayed by the Russians, and others, including Bulgars and Armenians. Turkish or Muslim lives are not as important, and this part of history is very unknown to us Westerners. I doubt this subject matter would be chosen in an American film, and if it wasn't for Tolstoy's book, probably the Italians would have been unaware of the subject matter themselves, when they tried to choose an adventurous vehicle for Steve Reeves.

At the beginning of the film when Hadji Murad attacks Russian troops down a lonely road, Robin Hood-style, he meets with the "Maid Marian," Russian princess Maria. When she makes a statement regarding the superiority of Russian soldiers, Murad replies that his tribe kills only soldiers, whereas the Russians slaughter women and children. I'm reminded of the fighters in Chechnya following the same procedure (generally)... they wouldn't target innocent Russian civilians (other than terrorist attacks) during the first phase of their recent struggle, a few years ago. During the second phase, when the Russians invaded again, the Russians murder, rob and rape as indiscriminately as they have done in centuries past. Now that the Chechnyans (is it Chechens?) are no longer winning, there has been a general news black-out in the American media... but their struggle is still a continuation of freeing themselves from Russian domination in the Caucasus that "The White Warrior" is about.

I thought Steve Reeves had a surprising charisma... obviously, he was hired for these kinds of films for his spectacular build and not for his great acting ability, but he came across as a likable and believable hero in this one.

It is a fact, no country puts a better "Sandal & Peplums" movies ever than the Italian producers, since the fifties until the sixties also in "Epics" too, this one belongs those "sword and sandal" genre whereby Steve Reeves fitted very well in all them due his well-shaped muscled body, weather like it or not overcame the talentless Reeves.

A tale was based and adapted from Lev Tolstoy's novel White Warrior, the picture tells an allegedly accurate story about the Chechen Agi Murad referred to as Diavolo Bianco by the Russians in the 19th century where the Czar Nicholas I (Zivanovic) ruled with heavy hands over the adjoining small and weak countries, due many rebellions drained deeply the Russian's financial to the extent the Czar asking for the Princess Maria arguing to Agi Murad a peace treaty.

Indeed Agi Murad was esteemed for his enemies to be utterly lenient at war time, he usually spared lives of his vanquished foes, meanwhile Agi Murad getting stronger as Chechnyan leader he raises some jealous from Ahemed Khan(Renato Baldini) who intents to stealing Agi Murad's bride the gorgeous Sultanet Aslan Bey (Giorgia Moll), due Agi be opposite to killing hostages of the battle he left their fellow-countrymen, sadly Agi Murad is catch during his marriage by the wicked Prince Sergei (Gérard Herter) and coerced to sign a shady peace treaty with the Czar.

Average Italian production shot external scenes at ancient Yugoslavia, flamboyant landscapes, few actions sequences, when it had is too much overdone, dull dancing scenes, bad dubbed, another vehicle to Steve Reeves, anyhow not that bad it needs a utmost restoration due the DVD available may was from VHS's transfer.

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 2010 / Source: DVD / How many: 2 / Rating: 5.5.

It is such an annoyance to watch mutilated foreign films, specially Italian productions as in this case, which was obviously a well- mounted co-production, benefiting from the participation of the Yugoslavian film industry which provided beautiful art direction and bright choreography, as well as fine performers, combined with Italian professionals: cinematographer Mario Bava (a year before making his first feature, "La maschera del demonio"), composer Roberto Nicolosi and director Riccardo Freda, all working in beautiful scenery and sets. The version I just saw is English-dubbed and 10 minutes shorter than the original (even with the restoration of some footage that had originally been censored in Spain, where my copy was issued): it is a strange mixture of average-looking sections with others that seemed to come from a blown-up VHS copy. "Agi Murad" though is an attractive wide-screen adventure film with a touch of history, in spite of being not very well acted by Steve Reeves, who this time seems a little beyond his scope for the title role in the dramatic scenes, but he compensates his shortcoming in the action scenes and has Gérard Herter to counteract as he chews the scenery playing the Russian villain, and sexy Scilla Gabel as his scheming wife, who has fallen for the "White Devil", as Murad is called. By the state the home-video business is in these days, it is a pity that we will probably never be able to watch these films in their original form.

I don't think that anybody involved with this picture,including Steve Reeves,would have considered it to be great art.it's the type of low budget "peplum"style film that were cranked out in the late 40s,50s,and 60s,that were shown on Saturday afternoon double-features.Still,from a technical perspective,it's very competently hand.Camera work,sound,dubbing,make-up,etc. is really a good,not a great job.

The plot,interestingly enough,does manage to transcend the usual tripe seen so often in films of this type.Granted,everybody in here fits into what is a 2 dimensional stereotype,at best.But,maybe the way to look at this is terms not of a drama,but,rather of a fairy tale.We've got:dashing heroes;beautiful heroines;jovial fathers;sinister villains;wise benign monarchs;somber antagonists;troubled princesses sacrificing happiness for duty;and loyal henchmen.All the ingredients for a story with all of the archetypes.And,looking at the costumes,props,and settings,there IS an attempt to provide some historical and ethnographic verisimilitude.

Further,we have 3 or 4 scenes where Steve strips down to the waist,and show off his Mr. Universe physique.Isn't he just delectable?