Robowar — Robowar( Blu Ray & CD)
Robowar (aka Robot da Guerra, Cyber Robo, Roboman) appeared in 1988- and was directed by notorious B movie hack Bruno Mattei (as Vincent Dawn). It was jointly written by Claudio Fragasso & Rossella Drudi- who are known for writing a fair bit of trashy Italian fare like Troll 2, Hell Of The Living Dead, Zombie 3, Shocking Dark, The Other Hell. The film is competently directed/ scoped- though both the pacing/ storyline do rather lack in a few places; but really the fun/ joy of this type of mash-up is figuring out what has been ripped off from other films.
The film's plot finds Maj Murphy(!)Black, and his team of crack(!) soldiers making their way into the jungle on a mysterious mission. Fairly soon they are coming across gorily decapitated heads, limbs, and body parts. And they realized they are been stalked by ‘The Hunter’- a murderous human soldier/robot crossbreed. The crack team, are decidedly bumbling & not really very macho- as at one point, one of them has real issues climbing up a tree. The Hunter- is someone dressed in a mirrored motorcycle helmet, muscle body amour, and bikers leathers- most of the time he jibbers in a higher-pitched elector voice, and we get his vision as a very pixelated yellow screen.
The films just over hour and a half runtime moves along with a mix of macho/silly one-liners, lots of machine-gun fire while characters yell, laser slicing guns, burnt-up and smoking bodies, clichéd character types, and stranded maidens needing macho help. The Hunter is initial amusing and wonderful campy- through by the end of the film has become somewhat trying- as he does the same things over & over again. The ‘big’ reveal is straight-out of Robocop- though the ending is wonderfully silly. On the whole, as mash-up goes Robowar is passable enough, and I can see one watching it at least a few times- getting a few chuckles each time. The thing that brings this set up and above the film it’s self, and makes it worthy for fans of Italy- exploitation- is the extras & the chessy-bound synth ‘n’ rocking guitar soundtrack.
So let us dig into those extras- there is a good selection of stuff here, so I'll work through longest-to-shortest. So first up we get an around a half-an-hour interview with co-writer/ co-director Claudio Fragasso- here he discusses working on the film in the Philippine jungles, amusing anecdotes, and how the soundtrack was both influenced by John Carpenter & re-used cues from Zombie 4, which was filmed back-to-back with Robowar. Next, we get a half-an-hour interview with Rossella Drudi discussing her career in general. We get around fifteen minutes of shot on VHS behind the scene footage from on location in the Philippines. Then we have five stand-alone interviews with members of both the cast and crew- these each run between ten and fifteen minutes apiece- and for the most part, are both amusing and informative. Lastly, on the Blu ray, we get an original trailer. The new scan of the film looks ok, and you can either play the film in its original Italian or with its English dub.
The second CD features the film's soundtrack- this takes thirty tracks and forty-minute playtime. These run between around thirty seconds, to nearing five minutes- so we get a nice blend of short cues and more lengthy work-outs. The sound here is a blend of dramatic-pulsing synth craft, with some electric guitar additions- as well as more ritual jungle-to-gothic percussion, pads, and synthetic choirs- which I’m guessing comes over the Zombie 4 score. Though topping off the soundtrack we get a nicely chesse bound & lightly rocking euro metal track. On the whole, it’s an enjoyable, if not very distinctive late 80’s soundtrack- and I do particularly enjoy the more pumping & machine-like tones present here, that of course very much fit Robowar's tone. All told the CD's a nice and neat edition, and it features a double-sided glossy inlay card- which on one side takes in the tracklisting, and on the other artwork from the artwork of the Japanese release of the film.
Put simply Robowar is a fun, campy and at times very silly slice of Italy-exploitation. You’ll have to be fairly familiar with both Predator and Robocop to get the most out of the film- but if you are I’m sure you get a good few views and chuckles out of this.