Bianco Apache

A late Pasta/Chorizo Western co-produced by Italy/Spain from Claudio Fragasso and Bruno Mattei, made when the spaghetti boom had long since passed. This Ravioli/Chorizo Western contains noisy action, shootouts , ravage, fighting , a love story , lots of blood and guts and a big deal of gratuitous violence. Average but acceptable Spaghetti in which a white boy whose family was killed lives at an Indian tribe. It begins with outlaws attacking a band of settlers and murder everyone except a pregnant woman who's rescued by a band of Indians. The woman dies giving birth but Chief White Bear (José Canalejas) adopts her male baby, naming him "Shining Sky," (Sebastian Harrison, Richard Harrison's son) and raising him as brother to his own son, Black Wolf. The boys grow up together and good-naturedly compete for the affections of beautiful Rising Star (Lola Forner). In the meantime, 'Apache Kid' falls in love for the attractive Apache woman after healing him some wounds. In a horse competition, Shining Sky accidentally kills Black Wolf, is forced leaving from the tribe, and finds work in a nearby town where he pretends to be a mute. A town girl named Isabella (Cinzia de Ponti) flirts with him, but thing go wrong. A hoodlum called Ryder (Charly Bravo), under command of the governor (Alberto Farnese or Albert Farley), runs Shining Sky out of town, hangs him by the wrists, and leaves him to die. Shining Sky is subsequently freed by the shaman of the tribe, Crazy Bull (Charles Borromel), and takes him back to the Indian village where he's reunited with Rising Star. Along the way , many chases and fights ensue and the events gets worse . Then the slaughter of the peaceful tribe takes place. The innocent Indian survives an attack and the noble squaw arranges to getaway. Both of whom will have to pay a dear price for love and will find a lots of dangers. The Indian young then seek revenge about those responsible for the attack, killing eye for an eye. A bit later on , they contend the heinous enemies headed by the villainous Ryder and more gruesome violence ensues. As the duo of protagonists are drawn to a community of white people who are all racists , bigots , sleazebags, murderers and cutthroats. They form an odd couple joining forces, and tactics, to exect ultimate vengeance on the cutthroats.

This is an exciting story with tragic results packing some good action, nasty characters , exploitation, rampage , tortures, but lots of dull spots. Gratuitously violent late Spaghetti-era Old Western hits hard on racial themes. This ¨Apache Kid¨ or Bianco Apache¨ or ¨White Apache¨ has an anti-violence message, but at the same time using a lot of the same, and dealing with hardship on racial themes by that time, as well as excessive brutality. As the main cast, Sebastian Harrison and Lola Forner, are attacked and will have to face off deal of risks and taking on revengeful cutthroats, until a final massacre. The confrontation amongst the bandits and the hapless Indians is thrilling and really violent. As the movie's central theme is the racism that 'White Apache' is subjected by a band of despicable people. Stars the gorgeous Lola Forner, an ex-Miss Spain, and Sebastian Harrison who bears remarkable resemblance to his father, the hero of a number of Peplums and Spaghettis Richard Harrison, who apparently also wrote the script for this 'White Apache'. Films about this peculiar sub-genre about relationship between Indian-white man harassed by several enemies are the following : this¨Apache Kid¨ (1987) by Claudio Fragasso/Bruno Mattei with Sebastian Harrison, Lola Forner, José Canalejas, Emilio Linder, Charly Bravo, Luciano Pigozzi (nicknamed the Italian Peter Lorre) ; it is made back to back to ¨Scalps¨ (1987) by Bruno Mattei with Mapi Galán , Vassili Karis , Charly Bravo , as well as ¨Cry for Me, Billy¨ (1972) by William A Graham with Cliff Potts , Maria Potts and Harry Dean Stanton, and , finally , ¨Una Donna Chiamata Apache" or "Apache Woman" by Giorgio Mariuzzo with Al Cliver , Clara Hopf or Yara Kewa and Rick Boyd . And there're scenes when the bloody massacre takes place that result to be a rip-off of ¨Blue Soldier¨ by Ralph Nelson with Peter Strauss and Candice Bergen, the latter was based on real deeds regarding ¨Sand Creek massacre¨ and with remembrance about Vietnam killings¨: May Lai. The highlights of the movie are, of course , the violent attacks , they result to be strong butcheries, including boody torture, rape and gory scenes. And the climax is really bleak and pessimistic. The tragic love between the boy raised by the indians and his Indian squaw is portrayed with little believability and delicacy. This so-so motion picture is quite violent for the cruel murders , and isn't apt for children, neither squeamish. It displays acceptable action sequences in low budget with rousing attacks , decent scenarios and spectacular struggles. The motion picture has been filmed on La Pedriza , Manzanares of Real , Madrid and desert of Tabernas, Almeria (Spain), where several spaghetti westerns were shot during the 6os and early the 7os

Emotive musical score in Spaghetti style by Luigi Ceccarelli, including sounds in Morricone style. And atmospheric cinematography by Julio Burgos showing the usual deserts and mountains from Almeria. The film was decently produced by the Spanish José María Cunillé and wife Isabel Mulá. This knock-off picture was regularly directed by Claudio Fragasso and Bruno Mattei, though they develop an extreme exploitation violence. Together they make all genres: horror, western, science fiction, adventure, thriller, war and detective movie. Later Fragasso divides himself from Bruno Mattei, but continues to travel the world, making other horror movies, science fiction and zombies. In 1984 an American production called Claudio Fragasso to direct the rock star Alice Cooper, as protagonist of the film: "Monster Dog". In 1985 he directed the cult "After Death" in the Philippines. In 1989 he directed in America, the film phenomenon that has lasted for almost thirty years, "Goblin", later called Troll 2 from the American distribution, creating a misunderstanding that became the success of the film, because Troll 2 was never the sequel of the first Troll, but a comic horror story for families, without blood, called Goblin. In 1993 he returned to Italy, returning to his first love, the cinema of civil commitment. He created the award-winning "Teste Rasate", sold in many countries around the world. In 1995 he made his most successful work "Palermo Milano Solo Andata" . While Bruno Mattei directed various Naziexploitation and Nunsexplotiation and subsequently the successful "Night of the Zombies"(1980), a low-budged zombie picture inspired by other zombie cannibal movies and Lucio Fulci films . "Virus" was filmed in Spain and used jungle footage from New Guinea and a patch soundtrack from Goblins "Dawn of the Dead" soundtrack, which was a minor hit in Italy and abroad. After directing two women's prison films starring Laura Gemser, Mattei moved to directing sword-and-sorcery flicks, starting with ¨Seven gladiadors¨ (1983). Both Mattei and Fragasso collaborated on the sci-fi/horror flick ¨Rats¨(1984), inspired by the futuristic movies of the early 1980s. Mattei considers this his best work, despite his still having to work with a very low budget. He worked relentlessly through the 1980s, directing a pair of "spaghetti westerns", some action flicks and about half of Zombi 3 (1988) after Lucio Fulci was taken off the production, though Mattei was not credited with it. In the early 1990s Mattei directed a series of erotic thrillers and a made-for-TV movie, Cruel Jaws (1995). This ¨Apache Kid¨ is a 'must see' for action-starved Indian Western buffs with strong graphic violence, though being very mediocre .

You see, the thing about Westerns is that the whole spiel about the laconic man of action is a myth. Oh he may stand and stare and spit and smoke, but eventually he is going to open his pie hole and say something, and it had better be memorable. Or at least funny, poignant, witty, sarcastic, even poetic depending on who wrote the script. This is why you don't see actors like Dolph Lundgren or Sylvester Stallone making Westerns. No matter who dubbed their voice or wrote the script, whatever their character might say at the moment of truth would come across as the words of a big meathead.

WHITE APACHE has the same problem. It's hero is an archetype in search of a one-liner or two. Family is killed by slobbering cracker gang, who are in turn slaughtered by Native Americans, who take the baby of one of the womenfolk in as their own and raise him into Dolph Lundgren. Dolph falls in love with the only blue eyed squaw, kills his adoptive brother and finds himself cast out of the tribe -- ALL IN THE SAME DAY! -- and finds himself drawn to a community of white people who are all racists, bigots, sleazebags, murderers, cutthroats, and proud of it. An alien even amongst his own folk, the guy draws the ire of the local Dennis Hopper mad dog villain (played by one-time Spaghetti supporting regular Charly Bravo, who is unrecognizable) by just standing there and staring as his gang roughs him up.

See, this is where the problem lies: Your average Clint Eastwood or Anthony Steffen or Gianni Garko type would have said something as the fists started to fly that would have been three times as brutal as the punches. Or someone like Eli Wallach or Tomas Millian would have used it as the launching pad for a soliloquy on why they are a bunch of pig-dogs. Instead, Dolph stands there being beaten, and since it's only a movie we know he isn't *REALLY* being beaten and his hair still looks like a rock star's at the end of it, the result is a null sum gain. Drooling evil white guys: 1. Poor misunderstood proto half-breed: 0.

The film does have one great performance, with frequent Margheriti supporting actor Luciano Pigozzi as the friendly local businessman who takes Dolph in to work as a stable hand. Pigozzi doesn't do or say much that is memorable either, but just seeing him on screen is such a pleasure that the movie becomes more enjoyable just via his presence. The other cast member of note is longtime genre character actor José Canalejas, here somewhat absurdly cast as a soothspeaking Injun medicine man and unlike Mr. Bravo easy to recognize under his silly looking wig and feathers.

Which brings me to the subject of the film's somewhat duplicitous racial agenda. The movie's central theme is the racism that Dolph is subjected to by both his own people (the whites) and his adoptive people (the Injun tribe), creating an interesting problem of whom to root for during certain scenes. The assumption by the filmmakers is that we will end up rooting for Dolph, though frankly beyond being a pincushion for Mr. Bravo's thugs to push around he doesn't give us much reason to root for him. The film's most interesting moment comes when he rather stoically confronts his white woman squeeze with her own racist beliefs and she turns the tables by ripping open her skirt and screaming RAPE! Beyond that the movie's formula is very easy to predict, the ending a foregone conclusion, with the requisite torture scenes, sex scenes, exploitation scenes, fight scenes, atrocity scenes and mystic Injun going postal scenes to qualify this as an Apache Atrocity & Revenge potboiler. Director Bruno Mattei would concoct a more potent and lurid version with SCALPS the following year, which may be a nastier movie but is probably a better movie if only because the hero has some decent lines.

3/10: Recommended for fans of Italian made Westerns. Anyone else will probably need to watch it drunk.