Le dernier pénitencier

Remember Escape From New York? Eight years previously, in 1973, Terminal Island did the exact same idea. Not nearly as well, but hey - being first count for something, too! TI is an exploitation film when being an exploitation film was cool. As such, it has certain shortcoming inherent to the genre, such as street talking tough black guy, the psychotic white chauvinist pig, and the heroic woman, overcoming oppression with sagacity and perserverence. I can live with those stereotypes, but I can't bear the background music leftover from a 1970's porn movie!

Marta Kristen finally gets to play the part of an action hero - quite a leap from the laid back Judy Robinson role she is best known for. She fights and blows things up and knows how to create gunpowder from nature. Very cool.

This movie was fine, great, if you're a Tom Selleck fan. Personally, I like Phyllis Davis (who starred later in "Vegas" with the late Robert Urich). The "DVD" version; which is available from Canada, produced by Legacy Entertainment, is a "ripoff" (if you'll pardon an old slang word). It is cut for language, and other material, featuring Ms. Davis, and another actress (separate scenes, not together), involving nudity. I know, because a) I have a book called "The Bare Facts" by Craig Hosada, which reviews these scenes. b.) I have a tape called Famous T & A, I'm not making it up, which features an uncut/uncensored excerpt from the movie which shows what was cut. I am getting a VHS, used, from another place, from a different manufacturer, and hoping it hasn't been "cut". Although rated "R" originally, and even though it says it's been edited (which I didn't look to see, until after I viewed the movie; which if I had done, I'd have returned it) I feel I was cheated. So, this is a warning to any potential buyers. If editing doesn't bother you, then, by all means, buy it. In fact, I'm trying to resell my copy, as it was played once.

Selleck (playing a doctor before his stint on "Friends") and Mosley appear in this one seven years before the Magnum, P.I. TV series. (It is amazing how a person can play one character and be so right for so many different roles).

California has abolished the death penalty (before it was reinstated) and the golden state empties death row onto "Terminal Island". Here, the inmates run the show and the only "guard" is a Navy frigate that prevents escape. Basically, this is a standard prison movie without the bars, but since there are no rules, the inmates can do whatever they want from what they can improvise on the Island.

A social order has arisen where a dorky murderer along with his black enforcer(Mosley) force everyone to work while he has his way with the women (other males get their turn, as well).

A "revolutionary" band of renegades (lead by Don Marshall(II) from "Star Trek" and "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century") roam the island and basically steal what they can from the "establishment". They treat their people only slightly better.

A war erupts when some guards delivering a new prisoner are overwhelmed and their machine guns are stolen. All manner of improvised weapons are also used as well.

This movie is a very good allegory for the VietNam war and how determined ingenious under dogs can defeat a militarily superior power.

Also, as expected in seventies exploitation flicks, a lot of chicks go topless and nude--unfortunately not Selleck or Mosley.

Okay so this film is not Lord of the Flies caliber and it will never be included in the Criterion Collection, but I will give credit to female director Stephanie Rothman for her fortitude for completing this action/drama/thriller that includes a few female characters that are not total bimbos. Director Rothman does follow the action themed "good guys versus bad guys" and yes the women in this film are exploited both physically and mentally but the difference is sometimes in Ms. Rothman's film the girls get the better of the hardened criminal men and I did find myself rooting for the women.

The film starts off rather slow as we are introduced to a broadcast news crew who want to do a news story on this new law discipline that sends like-minded convicted murderers on to an island to fend for themselves, and to fend off one another mainly to survive. Thus the film title Terminal Island would indicate that as a convicted criminal murderer your days are numbered once you land on Terminal Island.

Yes it has that typical '70's era dull cinematography feel, a pretty redundant music score but it also has one known star for the time in Don Marshall (known for TV's Land of the Giants) as well as some up and comer TV actors such as Phyllis Davis, Roger E. Mosley, and the well known now geriatric actor Tom Selleck, who back in 1973 was a TV commercial male model hunk looking for his first big break. No doubt, Terminal Island gave Tom Selleck the break that he needed to become a bona fide television star in first Magnum P.I. for 8 seasons along side Roger E Mosley who played TC. More recently Tom Selleck has been starring in the highly rated prime time TV police series Blue Bloods for the past 7 seasons. So Terminal Island was recognized by the astute TV producers that there is some good talent coming out of Terminal Island that was well worth pursuing.

I liked Terminal Island because it deliberately stayed clear of overdoing any sex and gore and tried to execute a film with a pretty good plot that was both creative and not easy to execute on a small budget for a B movie at best. So yes, it is worth watching and I will say that I did enjoy it. Maybe you will too?

I give it a 7 out of 10 rating

The early 1970s B picture "Terminal Island" has an effective premise with which to work. In the "future", the Supreme Court has declared the death penalty unconstitutional. In its place, criminals are now dumped on an island 40 miles off the American coast. Here they're (mostly) left to fend for themselves. The latest arrival is a young woman, Carmen (Ena Hartman), who's just in time to witness an uprising. Some of the convicts are tired of the tyranny of their "leaders" Bobby (Sean Kenney, "The Corpse Grinders") and Monk (Roger E. Mosley, "The Mack"). So a small group splits off from the main group, and plots revolution.

Co-written by James Barnett, producer Charles S. Swartz, and director Stephanie Rothman ("The Velvet Vampire"), "Terminal Island" is pretty good for this kind of exploitation fare. It fulfils its requirements - violence, sex, nudity - adequately, and is simply beautifully shot (by Daniel Lacambre, "Humanoids from the Deep") on some pretty locations. While it naturally has its trashy moments, it never really wallows in unpleasantness, and it does have a sense of humour, to boot. (Watch how the horny character, Dylan (Clyde Ventura, "'Gator Bait") is dealt with.) The story is a little thin, but is also provocative on occasion. (Dr. Milford, played by a young Tom Selleck, was convicted of the mercy killing of a patient.)

The cast is full of then-stars, stars-to-be, and familiar character faces. Also appearing are Don Marshall ("The Thing with Two Heads"), Phyllis Davis ("Beyond the Valley of the Dolls"), Marta Kristen ('Lost in Space'), Barbara Leigh ("Junior Bonner"), Geoffrey Deuel ("Chisum"), James Whitworth (Papa Jupe in Wes Cravens' "The Hills Have Eyes"), Richard Stahl ("Nine to Five"), Sandy Ward ("Cujo"), and Albert Cole ("The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant"). The film gained newfound attention when Selleck and Mosley found later fame on 'Magnum P.I.'. Kenney and Mosley are particularly fun as the antagonists of the piece.

Full of solid squib action and some satisfying explosions, "Terminal Island" is worthy of discovery by devotees of the B pictures of decades past.

Seven out of 10.