Indio 2 - La rivolta

My review was written in May 1991 after a Cannes Film Festival Market screening.

With "Indio 2 -The Revolt", Italy provides an entertaining exploitation film with a message. Action specialist Antonio Margheriti reveals that a litle gore nevver hurt a social conscience tract (see Gillo Pontecorvo's "Burn").

Ex-boxing champ Marvelous Marvin Hagler had a character part as a marine sergeant helpin Francesco Quinn in the original pic. Quinn's character, a Brazilian Italian who's a U. S. marine, is killed at the beginning of the sequel, and Hagler (taking over the central role) vows revenge.

Hagler's line readings are flat, but his physical presence and ingratiating clowning are in context. After topically reciting the story of "Spartacus" to the Amazon Indians, he leads them cleverly in pitched battles with heinous South African villain Vincent Van Eyck (Dirk Galuba). Van Eyck is dropping acid defoliants on the forest and people alike while using the Indians as slave labor to clear the road for his mining company.

Sluggishly paced, film climaxes after an hour with explosions and a battle victory for the Indians. Remainder of the pic is repetitious though Hagler's mao-a-mano fight in an explosion pool of mud (straight out of Henri-Georges Clousot's classic "Wages of Fear") is worth waiting for. Margheriti's patented pyrotechnic scenes are also a plus.

Oddball cast is okay, with Filipino beauty Tethie Abayayni looking a shade too glamorous as Quinn's widow. Widescreen lensing in Borneo, Brazil, Argentina and the Philippines is above average for an Italian-produced actioner.