The
essence of Italian exploitation was to cash in on successful Hollywood
formulae. "The Last Hunter"
sets its sights on "The Deer Hunter"
(title, opening brothel sequence and rat infested
Vietcong water trap) by way of "Apocalypse
Now" (the journey down the river
toward a hidden base to liquidate an American traitor spouting anti war
propaganda). The difference is in the details, like Margie Evelyn
Newton (Hell of the Living Dead)
taking on the Kurtz role as a Saigon Rose who broadcasts appeals to
American GIs to throw down their arms and go home.
The
late David Warbeck is terrific as Captain Harry Morris, the operative who
is dropped into the jungle to execute the mission. As with his roles in
Fulci's "The Beyond" and "The
Black Cat", he has just the right amount of toughness
mixed in with a genuine likeability. We want him to survive, and that's
what makes the film so absorbing and the ending so powerful.
The
film is wall to wall action, expertly staged by the director and his crew
in the steaming jungles of the Philippine locations. It begins with a bang
as a friend commits suicide before Morris' eyes as explosions rock the
encampment. He barely makes it to shore when he has to fight off a very
aggressive poisonous snake, losing his supplies in the river. Joining up
with Tony King's GI bro George Washington (King was Bukowski's cannibal
buddy in Margheriti's Vietnam allegory, "Cannibal
Apocalypse"). they fight their way through many Vietcong
ambushes. The film goes out of its way to show how women and children are
employed by the Cong to get the soldiers off guard. The action is fast,
furious, bloody; bodies are blown apart, dismembered and flayed as waves
of blood engulf the viewer. Tisa Farrow, a veteran of Fulci's "Zombie",
is on hand as a photojournalist who provides some romantic-sexual interest
for Morris, while Newton is the "dark woman" from his past who
turns out be his worst nightmare in the present. The ending is
surprisingly downbeat, and very appropriate for the era as well as the
film. Solid support is lent by Margheriti regulars King, John Steiner as
the martinet Major Cash and the director's mascot, Alan Collins (Luciano
Pigozzi) as a bartender in the surreal underground city which Warbeck
visits.
Reviews
by: Robert Monell
