Film Perfection

Fantastic!

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

"Jim Haygood" (James Iglehart) is a mercenary from America who has been hired by a corrupt government in Southeast Asia to help put down a revolt. As it so happens his platoon captures the leader of the rebels who goes by the name of "Moncada" and he turns him over to his superiors. He also turns over a young woman for their interrogation as well. Not long afterward he is shocked to hear that Moncada was murdered and the young woman was repeatedly raped and then also killed. When he angrily confronts his superiors things get out of hand and he is imprisoned and informed that he will be executed soon. Having nothing to lose he attempts an escape and manages to take shelter in a room belonging to two young American women by the names of "Vicki" (Lada Edmund Jr.) and "Amanda" (Carol Speed). Unfortunately, the authorities soon raid the room and although both James and Amanda manage to escape into the jungle, Vicki isn't as fortunate and is forcibly taken to a jail cell to be tortured until she gives them the location of where they can find James. Now rather than reveal any more of the story and risk ruining the film for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this movie had potential but wasn't quite as good as it could have been. For starters the combat scenes were a bit too unrealistic. Additionally, the dialogue could have also used some improvement. Even so this wasn't a terribly bad "blaxploitation" picture and I rate it as just slightly below average.

I'm no expert on the whole blaxploitation genre but I have seen, Shaft (1971), TNT Jackson (1974) etc and have to say this film was a big surprise for me.The story of a CIA(or some kind of military special forces adviser) played by James Iglehart as Savage set in some south east Asian country(read:Vietnam) who first helps the dictatorship and then realizes his mistake and turns on his former allies is not new.There are a lot of clichés but this film has some very dark undercurrents that few films in the same genre can match.Savage! (1973)is more reminiscent of The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973) a highly controversial film about a African American who joins up with the CIA and starts a revolution in the USA using the knowledge he acquired from CIA.One wonders whether or not Cirio H. Santiago(director of Savage!) saw The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973)or if just one of those strange coincidences? The parallels between the political awareness among americas youth and growth of various organizations like Black Panther Party, Weather Underground etc and the ongoing Vietnam war is strangely reflected in this cheaply made b-movie.Savage behaviour is a reminder of Muhammad Alis refusal to fight in Vietnam. Savage also behaves like a young member of the Black Panther Party and film becomes a metaphor for the internal struggle that USA was going through at that time.However it is a blaxploitation movie filled with fun, action scenes, loose women(and some interracial sex!) especially knife throwing bomb shell Lada Edmund Jr. who is just amazing in this film.Lada Edmund Jr. was a very talented gogo dancer and there are lots of nice clips of her on Youtube.Supported by talented actors like Vic Diaz, Carol Speed etc this a very good blaxploitation film that deserves more attention.Why it is more or less forgotten today is strange but should be seen by anyone who wants to see a different kind of blaxploitation film.

One of the more obscure pictures produced in The Philippines by Roger Corman's New World Pictures, Savage! (or Black Valor, if you're more familiar with the Bingo Home Video release) stars James Inglehart as the titular gun for hire. As the box art informs us, he's 'the toughest, baddest, bravest dude ever to hit the jungle!', and he's certainly the most taciturn. Hired by leering rotter Vic Diaz to help tamp down a righteous local rebellion, Savage switches sides after witnessing the savage rape of a witness and offers his valuable advise to the People's Liberation Army. Inglehart was quite memorable in Russ Meyer's Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, but director Cirio Santiago doesn't get much of an effort from him here. Dolly bird Carol Speed seems to be having fun though, and Diaz is, as always, great fun. Don Julian's score is suitably funky, though it's a shame The Meadowlarks couldn't contribute.

To start, I only watched "Savage!" for one particular reason; because I am a BIG fan of Lada Edmund Jr. If I was not a fan of Lada's, there would truly be no real reason for me to sit and watch such a terrible movie. The acting is horrific, and the dialogue does not even come close to being believable. I might love Lada, but she doesn't deserve any serious Oscar consideration. I know that there are also a lot of people out there that love Carol Speed; well, she's not any good either in this, in terms of acting ability and skill. But regardless of the terrible acting and poor dialogue, the worst thing about "Savage!" is the repetition of far too many ridiculous scenes with guns! It is just unreal for anyone to take these scenes seriously! It's as if the director grabbed a handful of B-movie actors and a large amount minority bystanders from the street, dumped a thousand guns on top of them, and shouted "Run!". Within a matter of seconds, Lada Edmund Jr. and Carol Speed go from cheesy night-club dancers to machine-gun toting guerrilla women! If you watch "Savage!", at some point in the middle of it you'll find yourself asking, "Whoa, did I just miss about 15 minutes here?".Lastly, I shall mention that there is one nice bonus to "Savage!". You do get a scene of Lada and Carol swimming without their tops on. The ONLY reason for this scene to be in this movie was to show boobs! It has NOTHING to do with anything else in the movie. This is so blatantly obvious, that it hurts. But if you think Lada is cute, and you've always wondered what "The Girl in the Cage" looked like beneath her shirt, then you won't be disappointed by the topless scene in "Savage!". Like I said before, I LOVE LADA EDMUND JR.!!