Thunder, um Homem Chamado Trovão

Mark Gregory once again succeeds in delivering another trashy film. He seems completely suited to it, he makes them work.

The story of protecting his homeland works nicely and the action is delivered pretty well making for a reasonable film :)

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.

Many were put off by Jeffrey Wright's portrayal of a Dominican drug lord in John Singleton's 2000 remake of "Shaft". The reason? Wright wasn't Hispanic. Not in any way. So the question begs to be asked, why was there no similar uproar when the white-as-snow Mark Gregory was cast as the Navajo lead in 1983's "Thunder Warrior"?

OK, so maybe I'm overstating here. Wright stole the show in "Shaft". Everybody talked about it. Gregory on the other hand, played out the role of Thunder to an audience of, well, zero. In fact, you'll be lucky to find a copy of "Thunder Warrior" in even the dankest of video cellars. And with good cause -- it like, totally stinks.

"Thunder Warrior", a gripping yarn about a lone soldier standing in the face of injustice, is a hot-blooded Reagan-era "Rambo" knockoff. And the parallels to Sly Stallone's "Rambo" are staggering: The vigilante lone-wolf warrior, the fighting-for-a-just-cause shtick, the massive odds piled up against him, yada yada yada. It's probably a purposeful move the producers made to keep this flick below radar, in order to avoid accusations of outright plagiarism.

Directed by Fabrizio de Angelis (the genius behind "Murder Alligator" and "Zombie Holocaust"), what we have here is a scorched tale of personal vengeance set in the American West, created by an Italian cast and crew, led of course by Gregory (ne, Marco di Gregario). In essence then, it's Spaghetti-Rambo.

But where "Thunder Warrior" splits from John Rambo comparisons is its level of quality. And by stretching the very definition of 'quality' to include "Rambo", surely now the abilities of "Thunder Warrior" can be understood. Combining chop-shop editing, stunted dialogue and stunts taken from "The A-Team" big book of tricks, it appears that poor Fabrizio's vision may not have been fully realized. And frankly, that's just sad. There is no action in this action movie. There are no thrills in this thriller. It defies any genre, the very reason the only place you'll find it now is in the five-cent bargain bin. Right next to its two(!) sequels.

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"

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.