Thunder

When Thunder (played by Mark Gregory of 1990:Bronx Warriors) returns home to see his girlfriend, he finds the local bank has financed the construction of a new building directly on top a sacred family Indian burial ground still owned by his tribe. An elder, who is the grandfather of his girlfriend, explained to him how the city roughed him up when he went and asked them to stop and honor a hundred year treaty signed that his people own the land.

Thunder, gets angry, and starts trouble with the construction crew that starts this wave of destruction that sets the pace for the rest of the film. The local police department doesn't want the aggravation so they handcuff Thunder and drive him to the city limits warning him not to come back. Thunder obviously returns only to get slapped around and threatened by a group of officers that take the law into their own hands. He escapes the beating, not without turning the entire town upside down in a wild police chase. Hiding in the mountains, the police assemble a posse to go in after Thunder.

Sound familiar? I hope while you were reading this you caught on that this is an Italian rip off of the original First Blood. It's been released under a few names. You can find it on Netflix as Drug "Traffikers" (I didn't spell that wrong, that's how it's spelled!) which makes no sense because the film has absolutely nothing to do with drugs. The difference is this was filmed in the desert, as said in the film Page Arizona. Coincidentally, John Rambo was part Indian and from Yuma Arizona.

Now, Thunder is not a guy to mess with. The Elder stated that Thunder is the son of the son of Night Eagle. Not sure if that actually means anything, but it's got to mean some serious business. There are tons of similarities to First Blood such as the deputy Barry Henson acting just like First Bloods Galt, and Sheriff Bill Cook (Played by Bo Svenson of Kill Bill, The Inglorious Bastards, and Delta Force) is manner exactly like Sheriff Teasle. Thunder jumps off a cliff to escape in a scene, minus the tree, and is pretty amazing with a bow and arrow. He destroys a police station and a bank, and though he doesn't blow up a gas station, one does get blown to smithereens. He even tells a cop that was inches from death to let it go, in other words.

A great warning is said in the film that states, "Thunder hasn't dug up his war hatchet yet." Not that he ever does, because he steals a bulldozer armed with a bazooka and starts blowing everything in his way up. There is a scene where he is being hunted by two guys on horseback and he shoots the bazooka at them. Priceless. For Arizona residents, you do briefly get to see the Glen Canyon Dam (Not to be confused with The Hoover Dam), a few Arizona chains still in business in the background of the city, and a college football game talking about The Sun Devils Stadium which is minutes from my house.

Thunder is a lot of fun and perfect for any dude night. It has some corny voice-overs that will make you laugh, great explosions, and come on, it's a rip off of one of the greatest action films ever made. Look out for the little kid at the end in war face paint when he says, "Thunder will never die." It deserves the cheesiest voice-over of a kid ever to end a film award!

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"

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".

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.

I know there are a lot of real bad action flicks out there, but this one isn't as bad as it sounds. Don't get me wrong, its not "good" or at least "quality" at all, but if you're in the mood for some cheezy action it'll do fine. There's a lot of bad, funny acting, a lot of building-up to a big revenge, typical '83 action stylee. I like the desolate desert locations and nice shots of caves & stuff. Antonio Sabato is pretty hilarious, especially when him & his boys blow up a gas station. I don't even think they had a reason to, just wanted a nice explosion in the movie or something.

Anyway, this is pretty entertaining stuff, and can't really be taken serious. Mark Gregory is a cool actor and its nice to see a native American as the good guy. Sit back and chill with a lil' Thunder Warrior to relive the times when we actually made movies like this.