KARAOGLAN: CAMOKA'S REVENGE is the third in a series of historical adventure films about the heroic Karaoglan, a Robin Hood style protagonist who toured the countryside, righting wrongs and fighting on behalf of the poor and oppressed. One thing I've noticed over the years is that Turkish cinema was very good at building the characters of local folk heroes, with all manner of exotic figures like Karamurat and Malkocoglu dominating the screens in the 1960s and beyond.
CAMOKA'S REVENGE is a largely cheap and derivative instalment of a long-running film series, although it's just about acceptable if you're willing to overlook the obvious budgetary deficiencies. The film is made on the cheap, in black and white and with static cameras that sap some of the enjoyment from it; the later 1970s historical adventures I've seen with Cuneyt Arkin are colourful and full-blooded and thus more fun.
The handsome Kartal Tibet is the youthful hero of the piece, reminding me in looks of Alexander Fu Sheng a little. The returning villain of the piece is Camoka, as played by the animalistic Danyal Topatan. Much of the running time sees poor Turkish villagers suffering at the hands of some dastardly Mongol invaders, before Karaoglan shows up and proceeds to kick backside. There's a wealth of low rent action here, some of it repetitive, some of it surprisingly vicious and bloody for the time, and an abrupt ending which had me thinking the video had broken.
