BRONX WARRIORS 2 (FUGA DEL BRONX)

Italy, 1984, 89 minutes, Colour.
Mark Gregory, Henry Silva, Valerie Dobson.
Directed by Enzo G. Castellari.

Bronx Warriors 2 is an unexpected follow-up to Enzo Castellari's spaghetti-Mad Max, The Bronx Warriors 1990.

The film shows that in the early '80s the Italians had transferred their spaghetti style from westerns and science fiction to futuristic action, with violence and special effects and stunts. This film has the same central character, Trash, as the original played, laconically, by Mark Gregory. He and the hero from Castellari’s The New Barbarians join forces in New York to confront a wheeler dealing multinational corporation executive who is destroying the Bronx to rebuild New York. The inhabitants are being exterminated (including Trash's parents being fire torched). The film, as with the original, utilises the waste landscapes of the Bronx and its underground with a confrontation between the gangs and the business-suited executives and their death squads. The film has the presence of Henry Silva as, once again, the conscienceless smiling exterminator. There are the usual brutal effects and action. On its own level it works well enough as 'R' rated matinee entertainment attempting unsubtle social comment. It does raise questions about the tastes and values of an audience (European and American) which encourages this kind of sequel. Once again there is the acknowledge ment in the copying of aspects of the Mad Max films.