The Bronx Warriors Trilogy

The Bronx Warriors

Italian exploitation films took what was popular and put their own spin on it, so shortly after The Warriors and Escape From New York had been released to commercial success, a film taking elements of both was penned by Dardano Sacchetti and offered by producer Fabrizio De Angelis to prolific director Enzo G. Castellari. Castellari had worked in just about every genre, so moving to post-apocalyptic action wasn't really a challenge. He is a man who knows how to get the most out of a limited budget and found his lead in his local gym, working out on his own in the corner. Though Mark Gregory had never acted before, Castellari liked the way he was built, so cast him as Trash, the leader of one of the gangs in the Bronx.
 
As with Escape From New York, The Bronx Warriors is set in a dystopian future where one of the five boroughs has been abandoned by the government and left to its own devices. The various gangs have their own territory and peace is ensured so long as no one goes where they shouldn't. Matters are complicated when a rich young woman leaves her school in the middle of the night and travels from Manhattan to the Bronx. Her father, a wealthy and powerful man, despatches Hammer, who was born there, to fetch her. Upon arriving, Ann was attacked by a roller skating gang and rescued by a motorcycle gang led by Trash.

 
With Ann reluctant to return to Manhattan and under Trash's protection, Hammer implicates Trash in a series of murders to spark a gang war so he can bring Ann back to her father.
 
In films like this you don't expect the cream of thespian talent or the most intelligent dialogue, what you do want and what this delivers, is a meld of various genre films with dubbed voices, outrageous costumes and obvious ambition. Mark Gregory, in his wonderful leather waistcoat, is an odd leading man but has the physique and presence to just about carry the role and is ably supported by the likes of Fred Williamson and Vic Morrow (with Williamson in almost exactly the same role Isaac Hayes played in Carpenter's movie).
 
The Bronx Warriors is nonsense, but enjoyable nonsense and is a fine way to spend 90 minutes with your brain on standby! It had massive success both in Italy and the U.S. so a sequel was green-lit while it was still playing.
 

The New Barbarians

Shooting on this began immediately after The Bronx Warriors wrapped, with Enzo Castellari drawing heavily on the themes and styles of Mad Max for another post-apocalyptic film. Set in 2018 when society has collapsed and people live in tribes, a loner, called Scorpion, finds himself being hunted down by the Templars, a ruthless gang that seeks to wipe out or enslave everyone on the planet.
 
Scorpion discovers a peaceful group of religious survivors and becomes their protector when the Templars learn of their existence. He can't do this by himself and has a young boy, a mechanical genius, to help him repair broken vehicles and design new weaponry. A mysterious archer, another loner, keeps a keen eye on Scorpion and turns up at the most opportune moments with his explosive-tipped arrows and deadly aim. 
 
The New Barbarians perfectly typifies the Italian exploitation movie: it was cheap and quickly made, stole virtually everything from popular contemporary films and features actors from other exploitation films - Fred Williamson and George Eastman were in The Bronx Warriors and Giovanni Frezza from Fulci's The House by the Cemetery. You also have an attractive woman (in this case, Anna Kanakis) in a skimpy outfit.  The film has nothing to do with the others in this set and is only linked by the same director, editor, producer and a couple of cast members.  It has nothing to do with the Bronx but has the same post-apocalyptic theme and sense of lawlessness with one man against the forces of evil.
 
Some of this is laughably bad, with stilted dialogue and wooden acting but the technical aspects are sound, particularly the direction and editing. The costumes and props won't convince anyone that this is a post-nuclear future, but there is something endearing and enjoyable about the film that makes you forgive its shortcomings and just enjoy the ride.

  

Escape From The Bronx

This sequel to The Bronx Warriors takes place several years after the first film finished and is obviously a cynical cash in on Escape from New York as there is no escaping with the protagonists wanting to stay in the Bronx!
 
Trash is still around but has lost his leather waistcoat and found a lycra top! As a cynical and disenfranchised loner, he spends his time dodging the authorities and selling ammunition to other survivors. He is basically Public Enemy #1 and the opening scene shows him shooting down a surveillance helicopter with a handgun!
 

The General Construction Corporation has seen the real estate possibilities of the Bronx and intends to tear down the existing buildings and build a city of the future. Offering to relocate residents to New Mexico, a hit squad of 'disinfectors' go in to the borough and forcibly remove anyone who won't leave voluntarily, burning or shooting them. A journalist from the Bronx knows what is really going on and is desperate to tell the story but the all-powerful corporation discredit her with their spin that everything is running smoothly and peacefully.
 
Events escalate until Trash and the other resistance fighters are staging all-out war against the disinfectors, prompting the corporation to send in their amoral ruthless head of security to wipe them out.
 
This is a slight oddity as, unlike the others which borrow heavily from/rip off (delete as applicable) other films, Escape from the Bronx actually beats others to the punch, most notably RoboCop.  With the ambitious assistant to the megalomaniac property tycoon and corrupt officials using law enforcement to aid their own nefarious plans, the film predates not only RoboCop but Demolition Man, with an underground resistance movement.

The Disc

 
Extra Features
Each film has an authoritative and exhaustive fact track by Paul Alaoui, which tells you about filming locations, interesting titbits about the cast and crew and related films that will only add to your 'to watch' pile. They are almost a combination of a trivia track and a commentary which are all well written and spaced out so you're not inundated and have time to read each one.
 
Each disc has an introduction by Enzo G. Castellari (in the editing suite of his new film, Carribean Basterds) saying how great this trilogy is and how pleased he is with the release.  The Bronx Warriors disc also contains a lengthy interview with him and editor Gianfranco Amicucci. Castellari is the most engaging of the two, recounting his experiences making the film and meeting up with Quentin Tarantino at a special screening. Though Castellari speaks English, the whole piece is subtitled as his accent is thick and it adds words that he misses; Amicucci does the whole thing in Italian.

There is also a selection of trailers and a gallery of publicity material.
 
Each film comes in its own amaray with a reversible sleeve and the three are housed in a lovely metal tin which is well designed and fan-friendly.  Shameless have kept up the numbering system which had finished at 20 with Footprints, so this set is 21 and the discs are 21.1, 21.2 and 21.3, with the spines making up a nuclear logo.

 
The Picture
The Bronx Warriors is clearly the best looking of the three with a transfer that has been polished up and is sharp with good contrast levels and colours.  The other two fare less well with constant graining and a lack of clarity.  As these have been restored to their full uncut glory, there are a few short scenes that are of inferior quality to the rest of the film and, in The New Barbarians, there are a couple of instances when the aspect ratio changes slightly.
 
All three are shot with action in mind and Enzo G. Castellari says how he shot with at least two cameras and up to seven in the action scenes, with them running at different speeds so he can cut between the different frame rates for maximum effect.  You therefore have slow motion explosions and bodies flying through the air slowly as they were filmed up to 96fps!
 
The Sound
As with the visuals, the quality varies throughout the series and, again, The Bronx Warriors is the clearest.  The other two suffer from an unbalanced soundtrack where the dialogue is too quiet when compared to the ambient sounds, score and effects so it's quite hard to find the right volume level on your amp.  As such it's a pity they don't have subtitles but, still, you can work out what is going on quite easily.
 
Final Thoughts
This is a well put together set of some cult films from one of the great exploitation directors of Italian cinema.  His name is now famous for directing the original Inglorious Bastards but there is much more to Castellari than one war movie.  Some of these films were previously available uncut from Vipco but, going by Paul Alaoui's fact track (I'm no authority on these), there are scenes here that aren't on any other releases so this set should be considered the definitive collection.
 
These aren't the most accomplished action films ever made (and aren't even a trilogy) but they draw on genre classics, are influential in their own right and are really enjoyable.  I had a great time watching them and won't be the only one.  The set itself is a terrific display piece and the work that has gone into the designs is clear to see.