THE NEW BARBARIANS

Italy, 1983, 98 minutes, Colour.
Fred Williamson, Mark Gregory, Giancarlo Prete.
Directed by Enzo Castellari.

The New Barbarians is another action thriller written and directed by Enzo Castelari. In 1990: The Bronx, Castelari imitated the original Mad Max. In this film, he imitates Mad Max 2. In fact, The Monthly Film Bulletin referred to it as Minestrone Mad Max.

The setting is the future, there is an oil shortage. There is a strong jutting-jawed hero who undergoes a great deal of suffering. There is a scantily-clad heroine and a whiz kid child. The enemy is, particularly, a group of mankind-hating knights with a homosexual touch.

While the special effects and the Panavision colour photography are very effective, there is an emphasis on brutality and violence rather character or theme development. The basic ingredients of the futuristic science fiction are there but exploited and overemphasised in the Italian style. Another example of Italians taking the genre, giving it effective technical treatment, but exaggerating it.