Thunder

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".

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 :)

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.

Thunder a weak Italian production took place at American sacred ground of Navajo nation Arizona, under the auspicious and iconic director Enzo G. Castellari, just an European casting with Bo Svenson and the Rambo's alike Mark Gregory, about a clash of the local Sheriff on supporting a construction on Indian reserve assigned by a treat of peace on the past.

Such unexplained constructing mainly in an Indian sacred burial place triggers a fight between the young warrior Thunder against hundred of cops, workers and all authorities of Arizona, many contrived sequences, fakes cardboard buildings, blasting sequences are enough to hold the audience's attention, a cheesy offering, bad characters and so for, however what a great pleasure to see it almost on restored version at Youtube, it come out officially in Brazil just in VHS format, praying for DVD release.

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 1988 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-Youtube / Rating: 5.5.

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.