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Released by: Troma
Released on: 01/26/2010
Director: Michael Herz, Lloyd Kaufman
Cast: Carolyn Beauchamp, Sean Bowen, Michael Ryder, Ara Romanoff, Jessica Dublin
Year: 1988
The Movie:
When this strange mix of war time drama, slapstick comedy, and horror-gore effects begins, an airplane crashes on a remote island somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Most of the passengers and crew die in the crash but a group of ragtag survivors manage to crawl out of the wreckage more or less in one piece. While the survivors bicker about what to do and how to get back home, the militant group that lives on the island clue in to their presence and assume they're a commando team sent to attack them.
As the survivors gather their wits and decide to fight for their lives rather than let the terrorists take them, they soon find out that there's a plot to destroy America with AIDS underfoot. A few minutes later, they've killed some bad guys and stolen their weapons and are launching an all out war against the bad guys that would harm the American way of life. A lot of bullets are fired, a lot of squibs explode and a lot of people die as the war wages until the better end and bad, corny jokes are made left, right and center offending anyone and everyone they possibly can.
Presented here in its unrated director's cut, Troma's War will delight those who appreciate old school bullet wounds. Never a group to shy away from the gory goodness that some well placed squibs can provide, this is a film filled to the brim with the kind of primitively charming effects work you just don't (or at least very rarely) see in shoot'em ups anymore since the advent of CGI. Kaufman notes in his commentary that this really isn't any worse than other films that came out around the same time and cites Robocop as an example, but he might be understating the amount of violence he and his cohorts have crammed into the hour and forty minutes that comprise the film - and that's a good thing indeed. The violence here is quite impressive.
Also worth noting is how the crew manage to make upstate New York look like a completely different country. A few well placed palm trees and some clever camera work hide the fact that the film was shot somewhere between Manhattan and Buffalo. By utilizing a decrepit old army base for most of the action, the film has the right sort of look to let you actually believe that it's all taking place in a third world country somewhere.
What hurts the film somewhat are the shifts in tone. Troma's War goes back and forth between the crass humor that the studio has often used to make a name for itself and a more serious demeanor without really much of a reason. Sometimes the comedy works, sometimes it doesn't but so much of it feels at odds with other scenes that definitely have a darker, and dare I say it, almost serious feel to them. It makes for a pretty erratic viewing experience and it can sometimes pull you right out of the movie if you're not expecting it. Once you accept the fact that the film isn't to be taken seriously and accept the fact that some impressive stunt work and super rad scenes of carnage are going to be piggy backed onto some bad jokes and crass humor, it's easy enough to have a good time with this one, even if it's a really uneven picture.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Troma's War is presented in a 1.33.1 fullframe transfer that looks, based on the compositions, to be the film's original aspect ratio. The image is interlaced, a common problem with Troma's transfers unfortunately, but is otherwise not a bad effort. There are some minor compression artifacts present in the darker scenes and the colors rarely leap off the screen but for an older low budget movie Troma's War looks pretty good. Skin tones are pretty realistic looking and detail is alright. This won't win any awards but it's certainly more than watchable and colorful enough. The old DVD release isn't readily available for comparisons sake but it's probably a safe guess (though still a guess) that this is an improvement.
The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track is fine. It's well balanced and you won't have any problems understanding anyone. There are a few spots that maybe get a little close to the red but never quite go over, they just border on shrill. These moments are few and far between, and generally things sound quite clean here. All complaints are minor!
The extras start off with a commentary from writer/co-director/Troma head honcho extraordinaire, Lloyd Kaufman, who directed the film under the Samuel Weil alias. Kaufman explains the troubles that he and Herz ran into with the MPAA in order to get the film an R rating, which they were oblige to do thanks to their contract with Media years back, and how the film was subsequently rendered pretty important by the imposed cuts. He talks at length about working on a low budget and some of the cost cutting measures that they employed to bring this in on budget and about shooting the film in upstate New York and parts of Brooklyn and how he and his crew tried to make it look like a more exotic locale than it actually was. It's a good track, and quite an interesting listen, though surprisingly enough there are spots where Kaufman, who is rarely at a loss for words, actually clams up. Imagine that. All kidding aside, the gaps of silence are frequent enough that you can't help but notice them, but there's enough good material in here that it's definitely worth a listen.
From there, check out the wealth of featurettes that have been supplied, starting with Veteren's Day: A Post Tromatic Reunion, which is a newly created piece where Pericles Lewnes visits the home of massive Joe Flesichaker (and brings him his mail!) so that the two can reminisce about their time spent working on this film. It's an interesting and candid piece and it fits in nicely alongside a collection of interviews with the cast and crew conducted by Kaufman. These are sometimes a little superficial but generally pretty interesting as they let almost all of the key players get a few words in edgewise about their characters and what it was like working on this bizarre film.
Rounding out the extras are the film's original theatrical trailer, a Kill-O-Meter (which lets you basically watch all of the gory death scenes in a row), trailers for a few other Troma DVD releases, animated menus and chapter selection.
The Final Word:
A really odd mix of war time drama, goofy comedy, horror, gore and social commentary, Troma's War is nothing if not entertaining. The tonal changes are bound to leave more than a few people scratching their heads but hey, it's Troma, what do you expect? This uncut release adds in a lot of previously excised gore and loads up the remaining disc space with extra features, making it the ideal way to see this surprisingly accomplished if completely off the wall film.