Duri a morire

Duri a morire (a.k.a. Tough To Kill) is a movie with a set of balls so large that they drag on the ground. Sam Peckinpah probably would have left the theater with a tear in his eye if he had ever had the chance to see this D'Amato outing.

The story, a simple one, concerns Martin, a small-time mafia hitman, who receives word on where he can locate a high-profile political assassin. The bounty on the man is up to one million dollars. The assassin has been doing mercenary work in the jungles of Africa to earn some extra cash. With very little effort, Martin manages to infiltrate the merc squad and gains access to the assassin.

Martin, and four others, use a routine attack on a bridge to take the assassin hostage. They set off into the jungle for their rendezvous in Georgeville. They won't all make it. Along for the journey is a congenial villager who seems to act as the group's guardian angel.. or is he?

Excellent cinematography helps to pump this film up a little but the bad dialogue manages to deflate it again. What I really enjoyed about Duri a morire was the way D'Amato introduced each of the mercenaries, gave them each a distinct personality, then played with them. He never allows the audience to form a solid opinion of them. I also enjoyed the ending which took me completely by surprise, even despite DAmato's various hints throughout the movie.

In closing, Duri a morire is a gritty, low-budget film about brooding men with enough machismo, chest-beating and testosterone for any two Nick Gomez movies. If you you can get around all the violence and silly, tough-guy, one-liners you might actually get a kick out of this film. I sure did!

With a threadbare jungle mercenary script, a touch of "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", zero nudity, and zero blood, this is a tough watch. Character development is nil, and the film is mostly aimless walking around in the jungle, by men who we care nothing about. The highlights would include a game of chicken with grenades, and a surprise ending. The lowlights would include a bloodless decapitation, gratuitous explosions, a stock footage cheetah, and a plot that hinges on someone having a million dollar price on their head, who we know nothing about. "Tough to Kill" is tough to watch, for obvious reasons. Not recommended, even for admirers of low budget exploitation. - MERK

Luc Merenda joins up with a group of mercenaries in some undisclosed African country. He decides to go on a mission with them, but secretly does so hoping to snag a guy with a million dollar bounty on his head. Some of the other mercenaries find out and want in on the deal, needless to say it's not long before greed gets the better of them. Directed and co-written by prolific, infamous, misunderstood Joe D'Amato, this macho action film is one of his less sleazy (not UNsleazy, just less so), more comprehensible films. It's also one of the director's best films and any fan of Italian B-movie cinema will probably like it. It's a travesty that the DVD of the movie is so horrid.

My Grade: B

DVD Extras: Hmmmm.. we get..nope, nothing (worse than that, the video on the DVD looks to be VHS quality, and the sound is VERY sub-par)

Even though I found it strangely watchable, you've got to wonder why Joe D'Amato bothered making this one. It's an action film without hardly any action, set in a jungle with barely any jungle trouble, full of tough guys who mainly threaten each other rather than doing anything.

I suppose there's a mystery element to it if you've just woken up out of a sixty year long coma - Luc Merenda arrives in a foreign country, puts something in a bank vault, seemingly sheds his identity and signs up for a bunch of white mercenaries fighting in an African civil war. Is Merenda there just to make a quick buck or is he there for some other reasons?

Donald O'Brien is the Major in charge of this outfit that includes a guy with a rabbit, an Irish guy, and a snivelling fat guy. That's just about all you need to know about this lot as all that jungle fighting you'd be expecting from this film is dispensed as the plot becomes a fight for a one million dollar bounty. And lots of walking across harsh landscapes. There's one, slight, gun battle, and that's used as a pretext for our main characters to do a runner.

Throw in some racism towards Africans (although D'Amato does try and turn this around in the finale) and you've got a weirdly flat action film that's carried mainly by Donald O'Brien's hard-ass character. Luc Merenda just sort of scowls at everything. With a film like this, full of unlikable characters, I still didn't hate it. I'll put that down to D'Amato's skill as a director.

When I think about it, D'Amato does seem to do that from time to time - go from one extreme to another. One film is full of gory carnage, the next full of naked ladies, then this is full of not much at all.

(1978) Tough To Kill/ Duri a morire SPAGHETTI ADVENTURE/ WAR DUBBED

Cinematography, co-written and directed by Joe D'Amoto known for directing a great portion of low budget erotic horror films, or quickie made movies, has him involved directing a semi- war movie that has Martin (Luc Merenda ) joining a group of mercenaries for the purpose of bringing a specific someone among their regimen to collect a 1 million bounty on his head which the major soon finds out upon going on a mission. The ending can be seen a mile away by going through some minor racial boundaries to satisfy skeptics making it overall almost pointless!