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Released by: Mondo Macabro
Released on: 11/18/2008
Director: Sisworo Gautama Putra
Cast: Barry Prima, Eva Arnez, W.D. Mochtar, Dana Christina, And A Cast Of Thousands!
Year: 1981
The Movie:
Indonesian action icon Barry Prima, in one of his most famous films, plays an Indonesian man named Jaka Sembung living under the colonial imperialism of the sinister Dutch army. Tired of being kept down by the dastardly Dutchmen, Jaka and a few other upstarts decide to start fighting back. This all seems like a great idea at first until the Dutch bring in a big dude named Kobar to take Jaka down - but no dice! Jaka makes short work of him and as such proves himself a viable threat to the Dutch occupiers.
After that, the Dutch get fed up and pull an ace out of their sleeve in the form of a voodoo master who raises Jaka's dead archenemy, Kieten, from his musty grave to fight for them. If Kieten weren't bad enough before he died, since his resurrection he's somehow gained the ability to reattach his limbs should they become severed from his body - which seems to happen pretty frequently. Eventually the Dutchman in charge, Van Shramm, captures Jaka and tosses him into prison where his eyes are gouged out and a Van Shramm's cute daughter falls for him. After Kieten turns Jaka into a pig (thankfully not a permanent issue) he decides he's going to need to bone up on his magical fighting abilities if he wants to show those Dutchmen and their thugs who is really the boss!
Calling The Warrior eclectic or quirky would be a bit of an understatement and while it's certainly true that there are crazier films out there, this one definitely holds its own. Not in the least bit ashamed to revel in gore, the film features some pretty graphic violence and bloodshed including but not limited to eye gouging, torso ripping and limb severing. Throw in a couple of bad guys who cackle incessantly in that way that seems to be so popular in martial arts films, some strange Islamic theology and a fair bit of magic and mysticism and you're left with a Hell of a film.
A huge reason the film is as much fun as it is has to do with the charismatic lead, Barry Prima. His martial arts prowess is fun to watch and while he's a little wooden in terms of his acting ability, he's as bold as bold can be when it comes time to get down to business and kick Dutch ass! The English dubbing adds a further level of weird to the film as do all of the low-brow special effects that appear throughout the picture. The movie boogies along at a nice pace and builds to a satisfyingly ridiculous conclusion making this one a whole lot of good, gory, goofy fun.
This DVD marks the first official home video release of the film anywhere in the world and the film is presented here completely uncut. Here's hoping Mondo Macabro can bring us the sequels!
Video/Audio/Extras:
Mondo Macabro presents The Warrior in a 2.35.1 anamorphic progressive scan transfer taken from the film's original negative. Before the film starts a disclaimer warns us that the elements were in bad shape and that every effort was made to clean up the image but that some damage remains. Thankfully, Mondo Macabro's efforts were not in vein. Anyone who has seen the movie before will no doubt walk away quite impressed with this transfer. There is some print damage and sometimes the colors get a little funky but despite those issues this is a pretty decent effort. Expect a fair bit of grain and some softness here and there but aside from that this is a fairly colorful image with reasonably strong detail levels and it's great to see the film in its original widescreen aspect ratio.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track won't blow the doors off of your home theater system but it sounds fine. The English language dialogue is pretty easy to understand and follow and while you'll probably notice a bit of hiss in a couple of spots, generally the audio here is quite clean sounding. Levels are well balanced and there aren't really any serious problems here to complain about at all.
The two main extras are a pair of lengthy interviews, the first of which is with the film's producer, Gope T. Samtani (11:52) who talks about how he got his start in the movie business in 1968 importing films and then starting producing films in 1978. He started with drama and then when the Italian cannibal films did well, he bankrolled Primitives which lead to Barry Prima mania in Indonesia. The Warrior wound up doing very well for his company and it was well received internationally as well as in its homeland. From there he talks about other horror and genre spin offs that did well for the company before discussing their more modern output from the last couple of years.
The second interview gets the film's writer, Imam Tamtowi, in front of the camera. He talks about how he started writing in order to get famous and eventually wound up working as a stage actor before moving into various aspects of film work. In the early 70s he started working as an art director and eventually he wound up working on The Warrior which he admits was heavily influenced by the movies coming out of Hong Kong prior, the Shaw Brothers films in particular. He discusses the originals of Prima's character, the reality of black magic in Indonesia, response to the film, and where a lot of the ideas for some of the film's more memorable moments came from.
Rounding out the extra features are an essay on the history of the film from Pete Tombs, the feature's original theatrical trailer (presented in anamorphic widescreen), trailers for three more (modern day) Indonesian genre pictures - Ghost Train, 40 Days The Rise Of Evil and Ghost With Hole - animated menus, chapter selection, text biographies for Barry Prima and Eva Arnez, and of course, the ever expanding Mondo Macabro promo reel.
The Final Word:
The Warrior is action packed nuttiness from start to finish. The transfer might not be perfect but it's pretty damn good considering the age and obscurity of the picture. Throw in some great bonus features and this disc comes up a winner!
Want more info? Hit the Mondo Macabro website by clicking here!