Any Man's Death

My review was written in May 1990 after a Times Square screening.

"Any Man's Death" turns out to be a preachy morality play instead of an action pic. Made at the height of the 1988 South African production boom, pic is another video-ready title that doesn't hold up well on the big screen.

John Savage indulges in some laughable tics and method mannerisms as a burnt-out reporter sent by tyrannical editor Michael Lerner to Namibia to get the story behind some mysterious photos. He ends up discovering Nazi war criminals, contacts the Israelis and comes up against a crisis of conscience.

Iain Roy and Chris Kelly's pretentious screenplay tries to address important issues, but is uncinematic. Helmer Tom Clegg, known for his tv work and features like "McVicar", founders in the final reels, culminating in a 20-minute talking head exchange between Savage and snake researcher William Hickey. Latter plays a Jew who assisted Nazi death camp experiments.

This boring talkathon is followed by an anticlimax of hammy Ernest Borgnine spewing Nazi venom in a role usually essayed by Donald Pleasence. Naturally the Israelis pick up Borgnine for a little glass booth action, but not before Savage is duped into committing himself for once on a moral issue.

Hickey brings conviction to his role, overcoming most of its cliches. Mia Sara handles her accent best and adds diverting beauty to the bleak African expanses.

Fans will chortle over the dubious casting as an Israeli secret agent of South African action star James Ryan (star a decade ago of "Kill or Be Killed" and other films for Film Ventures International, now a subsidiary of the U. S. backer of "Any Man's Death").

A scruffy, semi shell-shocked journalist is sent to the Namibia/Angola frontier to locate a rogue photographer and, instead, finds a Nazi war criminal trying to cure cancer using snake venom. Neither story is developed and no effort is made to tie them together, but who cares? The guilty pleasures of such far-fetched plotting make it a difficult film to criticize, and uneven casting pushes the whole thing refreshingly close to comedy. John Savage displays all his trademark facial tics and method acting spasms; token love interest Mia Sara looks as if she stepped out of a Vogue Magazine fashion spread straight into the Kalahari Desert; and any movie featuring Ernest Borgnine as an unreformed SS officer is worth at least the cost of a bargain matinée. A neat little double-whammy resolution shows what, with some ambition, this otherwise low rent thriller might have aspired to, but the downbeat, ambiguous ending will instead doom it (not altogether fairly) to quick oblivion on the home video market.

I'm sorry, what was that? This film is complete rubbish? I agree, Hollywood at it's worst for many years. The acting is questionable, the music is complete and utter garbage, the lighting for the dream sequences looked like a battery powered torch, the directing is mediocre and the action sequences are pathetic. Obiously done on a low budget this film was a great plan, Geonalist gone mad after his partner is killed in a war zone, stomps off to join a African colony and live the simple life. The hero (sort of) Is sent to find him but when he does the journalist refuses and stays. So now the storyline thickens, pointless action, a good car chase through out the desert, a picnic followed by some boring romance and sex. Then some flimsy storyline about Jews and Germans and then a plane takes off. spiffying stuff. The only good scene is the car chase involving a Land Rover series 2 and an early Toyota Land Cruiser, although when the series 2 goes off a cliff, you can clearly see there is no engine, suspension or chassis. They probably had to sell them off to make a profit, as no one will want to see this. If you have the chance, do buy it, then burn it.