THE BRONX WARRIORS (aka 1990: THE BRONX WARRIORS aka THE RIFFS)

 

Close-up of the front cover of my EV ex-rental big box VHS video of The Bronx Warriors (© Enzo G. Castellari/Deaf International Film/Fulvia Film/EV – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

After owning it unwatched for almost 40 years, last night I finally sat down and played my EV ex-rental big box VHS video of the English dub of a classic Italian action/near-future semi-sci fi movie from the early 1980s. Namely, 1990: The Bronx Warriors (aka The Bronx Warriors, The Riffs, 1990: I Guerneri del Bronx, and several other alternative release titles).

Directed by Enzo G. Castellari (who also takes a small acting role in it as the MC's vice-president), filmed in 1981, and released in 1982 by Fulvia Films, 1990: The Bronx Warriors (to give it its full title, as the year 1990 is central to its plot) belongs in some ways to the post-apocalypse survival sub-genre of science fiction movies, except that instead of the global disaster that usually features in them, here the devastation and gang rule is limited to a single borough of a single city, and has been caused not by nuclear annihilation but instead by officialdom's wholesale abandonment of said borough.

The city in question is New York City, the borough is the Bronx, and the year is 1990 – which is when, as announced in a brief preamble shortly after the movie opens, is when the NYC authorities gave up trying to fight the unrelenting crime wave that had overtaken this borough and abandoned it as a lawless no man's land. Since then, it has become a wholly feral hellhole, a ramshackle ruin of crumbling buildings and deserted homes, ruled by a diverse array of different gangs, each with its own fiercely-defended territory. And when it comes to the gangs, diverse is definitely the word to describe them.

The Riders, for instance, who take centre stage in this movie, is a no-nonsense motorcycle gang (some of its members were actually played by real-life Hell's Angels) led by the youthful albeit exceedingly tall Trash (played by Marco De Gregorio, but credited as Mark Gregory); whereas the Zombies, led by the charismatic Golan (George Eastman), zip around on roller skates in gleaming white shoulder-crescented costumes, wield deadly hockey sticks that are anything but jolly, and might have led to confusion with extras from Starlight Express – were it not for the incongruous fact that another gang, the ironically-titled Iron Men, actually do take their besequined sartorial inspiration from musical theatre (and are played by professional television dancers), but are no less violent than the other gangs all the same.

 

Trash (centre) in conference with some of his fellow Riders (© Enzo G. Castellari/Deaf International Film/Fulvia Film – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Also of serious note are the saloon-driving Tigers, led by the coolest dude this side of the Brooklyn Bridge, a kind of black Austin Powers known only as the Ogre (Fred Williamson), though he also styles himself King of the Bronx, and the other gangs pay him grudging, token respect as he is responsible for bringing into the Bronx from the outside world all manner of necessities, including food and especially weaponry – lots of it. Nor dare we forget the Scavengers, a gang of barely-human killers attired only in rags, who emerge from their subterranean hideaways to waylay anyone unfortunate enough to encounter these degenerate troglodytes who seem incapable of speech, communicating only via grunts and shrieks.

Clearly, the Bronx is not a safe place for any outsider to viait, which is why the sudden appearance there one night of a beautiful teenage girl named Ann (Stefania Girolami, the real-life daughter of director Castellari) attracts such interest – and not just from a group of Zombies who try to assault her, and from Trash who turns up in the nick of time to rescue her and take her back to the other Riders, where he swiftly falls in love with this veritable damsel in distress

For Manhattan's police and especially the exceedingly powerful president of a massive arms-manufacturing company based there named the Manhattan Corporation (MC) are soon aware of Ann's disappearance into the Bronx, thanks to a covert tagging device used by the MC called a gizmo. And because she just so happens to be the MC president's own daughter and therefore heiress to the entire company, he is determined to get her back safely, whatever it entails, and at whatever cost in money and human lives it takes.

With its core plot duly established, the rest of the movie is basically a thrilling series of set pieces initially involving inter-gang scuffles and skirmishes but followed by uneasy truces and co-operation in order to keep Ann safe once she reveals who she is and how she has fled because of her hatred of what the MC represents – its selling of weapons being responsible for untold killings and human suffering worldwide year after year. Needless to say, this is something that Ann wants no part of, but will be irrevocably linked to once she does eventually become its president.

 

Official concept artwork depicting a fraught scene featuring Trash opposing some inimical enemy bikers (but not present in the movie itself) (© Enzo G. Castellari/Deaf International Film/Fulvia Film – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Interspersed between the gangs' confrontations with one other are confrontations between the Riders (especially) and a psychotic Bronx-born mercenary named Hammer (Vic Morrow), who knows every inch of this godforsaken territory and has no scruples or conscience whatsoever in killing whosoever attempts to prevent him from recapturing Ann, having been hired and sent specifically to achieve this goal by her father. Reluctantly working alongside Hammer is another Bronx local, a deadbeat known only as Hot Dog (Christopher Connelly). Moreover, Hammer also gains a further ally when one of the Riders, Ice (John Loffredo), a treacherous, traitorous would-be usurper of Trash as leader of the Riders, volunteers to set gang against gang, which should enable the three of them during all of the undoubted ensuing mayhem to abduct Ann (and also, as Ice is secretly intending, to enable him to become supreme ruler of the Bronx when the gangs have all but exterminated each other.

As so often happens, however, the best-laid plans often fail to come to fruition, and Ice's is no exception. Let’s just say that when Hammer's actions falter, prompting the MC to send in a private army brandishing fire-throwers in addition to the usual artillery, the movie's climax is horrifically violent, with a truly apocalyptic death count, though in a last-minute twist, who is killed and who  survives may not be who you are expecting – it certainly caught me by surprise.

Overall, The Bronx Warriors is very redolent of other Italian movies of this genre that were emerging at much the same time, as well as Hollywood's cult 1979 classic The Warriors and John Carpenter's 1981 neo-sci fi thriller Escape From New York, as well as Australia's Mad Max franchise. In turn, it went on to inspire countless more action flicks in this same movie mould.  Consequently, as I'm a longstanding fan of such films there was nothing to see in it that I hadn't already seen countless times, with the albeit well-staged series of fight scenes beginning to pall after a time for me (though I can well understand why this movie attracted such fandom when first released to audiences who were far less accustomed back in the early 1980s to such superbly-choreographed spectacles).

On the plus side: despite this being a very violent movie there is scarcely any gore to be seen anywhere in it (though there may be more in uncut, unrated versions), which as far as I'm concerned is always a good thing – I'm a firm believer in the Hitchcockian approach to movie-making, i.e. gore is not more. Harnessing the human imagination can yield far greater scares and chills than anything presented fully on-screen.

 

The Ogre (actor/former American football player Fred Williamson) and Witch (actress/model/former Italian Olympic swimmer Elisabetta 'Betty' Dessy), his whip-lashing Tiger lady, luxuriating in their groovy Bronx pad (but actually filmed in Rome, Italy, whereas most outdoor scenes were indeed filmed in NYC itself (© Enzo G. Castellari/Deaf International Film/Fulvia Film – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Despite being a secondary character, The Ogre is certainly the most memorable in this movie, due to Williamson effortlessly stealing every scene that he appears in. Also arresting is Eastman as the Zombies' imposing crimson-garbed leader Golan (but named as Golem in some reviews read by me), making a pleasant change (at least by comparison) from his more (in)famous previous roles as cannibalistic serial killers (in Anthropophagus, 1980, and Absurd, 1981)! And Girolami's Ann is suitably pretty and decorous, contrasting sharply as the living Beauty against the dead, decayed, disintegrated Beast that had once been the thriving Bronx.

Conversely, although his fight scenes, motorbike riding, and stunts throughout the movie are both formidable and faultless (which is particularly noteworthy as he did everything himself, not using a stuntman double), and although I had no problem with his acting skills either (in spite of this movie being the very first that he'd appeared in), I did have a problem accepting Gregory as Trash, the all-powerful leader of a seriously tough adult biker gang.

My problem lay with the fact that Gregory had only just turned 18 (not 17, as often mistakenly claimed) when he filmed his role as Trash, and, unlike various other actors who can look much older than their real age, he really did only look 18. True he was tall, muscular, and undeniably very handsome, but he was clearly just a teenager, and as such I found it difficult to suspend disbelief in order to accept how someone like him could ever have become leader of a biker gang whose other members were all older, in some cases considerably older, than him (or at least looked it).

Perhaps it is no accident, therefore, that in publicity posters and on my video's front cover, Trash is portrayed in vibrant artwork depictions as a clearly much older, far more savage, bloodthirsty figure in full warrior mode, presumably to provide additional encouragement to viewers to watch the movie. Check out the three pictures below to see what I mean.

 

Trash, as seen from left to right in decreasing order of savagery (and in increasing order of reality) – click pictures to enlarge for viewing purposes (© Enzo G. Castellari/Deaf International Film/Fulvia Film/EV – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Worth noting, incidentally, is that Gregory came to director Castellari's attention after Gregory's fiancée sent a photo of him to Fluvia Film, which resulted in Castellari requesting Gregory to attend an audition. Whatever Castellari saw there, he evidently liked very much, youthful age notwithstanding, because Gregory ultimately won the lead role of Trash over 2,000 other applicants. Yet by the end of the 1980s, Gregory was shunning the film industry limelight entirely, for reasons still unclear (though he'd begun to suffer emotionally), and slipped into almost total obscurity thereafter, tragically dying via suicide in 2013 aged only 48. One of the few films that he made before turning his back on the world at large was a Bronx Warriors sequel entitled Escape From The Bronx, which was released in 1983, and which I now plan to watch too.

Meanwhile,, despite taking such an inordinately long time to do so, I am very happy to have finally watched The Bronx Warriors, and I can confirm that for me it was certainly well worth the wait. Equally, if you are also a fan of this movie sub-genre, I feel sure that you will enjoy it too, particularly if you watch it in the context of its production and release during the early 1980s, i.e. over 40 years ago, and don't attempt to compare it directly with the effects-exploding blockbusters of today's cinematic experience. The Bronx Warriors is very much a film of its time, and therefore should be judged accordingly.

If you'd like to experience briefly the barbaric Bronx of 1990 in this action-packed alternate-timeline movie, please click here to watch an official 1990: The Bronx Warriors trailer on YouTube; or click here to watch the entire movie free of charge there.

Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

The full front cover of my ex-rental big box video of The Bronx Warriors (© Enzo G. Castellari/Deaf International Film/Fulvia Film/EV – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

 

LAND OF DOOM (aka RAIDERS OF DEATH)

 

Front cover and spine of my official UK ex-rental big box VHS video of Land of Doom (© Peter Maris/Matterhorn Group/Maris Entertainment Corporation/Pegasus Home Video/PolyGram Video – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Last night I watched yet another of my ex-rental big box movie videos, but although this one was only purchased by me very recently, I well remember it from my video rental days back in the 1980s and 1990s. It is entitled Land of Doom, though I have seen some videos of it for sale that bear the title Raiders of Death instead.

Directed by Peter Maris, and released cinematically by the Matterhorn Group of the Maris Entertainment Corporation in 1986 (but see also later for further details concerning release dates), Land of Doom is based upon a Peter Kotis sci fi novel, with Kotis also writing the screenplay for this movie version. Following the unexpected but very considerable global success of the first two Mad Max movies (released in 1979 and 1981 respectively), the 1980s and 1990s saw a sizeable number of MM-inspired post-apocalyptic biker/survival flicks hit the big screen, of which this is one.

Set in the standard barren desert wasteland of a devastated post-apocalyptic world where only the meanest, toughest, most ruthless human survivors of the nuclear holocaust, plague, pollution, and other social inconveniences can eke out an existence, mostly by raiding what few settlements still exist and killing everyone there that they can find, the appropriately titled Land of Doom is notable within this traditionally macho sci fi subgenre for featuring a feisty female warrior as its lead character (albeit ably supported throughout by a rugged male sidekick).

Said feisty female warrior, armed with a crossbow and dagger, is the surprisingly sweet-named Harmony (played, again somewhat unexpectedly and almost unrecognisably, by none other than Deborah Rennard, who was much more famous onscreen at that time for wearing slinky haute couture outfits while playing the aptly-named Sly – wily personal secretary to Larry Hagman's evil oil baron J.R. Ewing in the American blockbuster TV soap Dallas). Harmony reluctantly rescues a wounded man named Anderson (Garrick Dowhen in his last movie role) after a gang of vicious bikers raid her home village, slaughtering its men and raping or killing its woman, except for Harmony who had remained concealed.

Anderson tells Harmony that he knows of a safe domain, secure from gangs of biker raiders like this one, though he confesses that he's not exactly certain where it is. Nevertheless, this is good enough for Harmony, who hops onto the back of a raider's motorbike behind Anderson after killing said raider when he confronts them shortly after they had left behind Harmony's pillaged village. It turns out that the raider had been sent on their trail by the biker gang's insane leader, Slater (Daniel Radell), who is instantly recognizable by virtue of his artificial arm and steel-clawed hand, his half white/half-black hair, and his Phantom-esque face mask. I'd have added to that list his heavily-studded black leather gear, except that all the other bikers in the gang are wearing much the same – after all, thanks to Mad Max you can't be a post-apocalyptic biker if you're not leathered to within an inch of your generally short-lasting life, now can you?

(Speaking of which, as a biker myself I can only assume that whoever creates these movies has no personal experience of ever riding a motorbike in full leather gear on even a hot British summer's day, let alone in the burning, unrelenting heat of a desert at noon, or they would know that wearing such outfits in such an environment would be totally life-sapping even for just a short time, let alone habitually – then again, who in the cinema world has ever let such trivialities as heath issues supersede image necessities!)

Anyway, back to the story. It turns out that by vigorously defending himself and others against the onslaughts of the biker raiders (whose motorbikes are more like two-wheeled chariots, sporting enormous spike-edged fairings and lateral fins!), Anderson has been for quite a while now a major thorn in the side of Slater – and thence Slater's second-in-command, Purvis (Frank Garret, in his only film role). For Purvis invariably suffers the savage brunt of Slater's ire when he and his biker troops consistently fail to capture Anderson and bring him back to Slater.

Incidentally, although Harmony and Anderson do eventually allow themselves a few laconic one-liners here and there, in terms of general acting Rennard and Dowhen generally seem programmed simply to go through the motions, engaging in one action/battle set piece after another throughout the movie, but revealing little depth or shade to their characters' personalities. By contrast, not only does he expose his mean streak at every available opportunity, Purvis also has a wonderful talent for dry quips, sometimes spoken directly to the camera, which adds some much-needed levity to what can at times be a ponderous "not another fight scene" affair. Overall, Garret is imho by far the best actor in the entire movie, stealing every scene that he is in, which is why I'm puzzled that he apparently never made an impression in the acting world, especially on the big screen (and with only a few TV appearances too). Does anyone know why, I wonder?

 

Frank Garret as Purvis, with his (very) mean machine! (© Peter Maris/Matterhorn Group/Maris Entertainment Corporation/Pegasus Home Video/PolyGram Video – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

After any number of often explosive confrontations with Slater's biker raiders, not to mention a perilously close encounter with a pair of cannibals whose "deer-meat stew" they wisely refrain from consuming, plus a fight with a pitiful zombie-like band of plague-ravaged outcasts, Harmony and Anderson rescue a friendly but garrulous gent named Orland (Akut Duz, aka Aykut Düz) and his pet puppy Guinevere from a pack of rabid feral dogs, which soon turns out to be a very fortuitous good turn.

For when H & A are ambushed shortly afterwards and successfully captured by Slater's mob, bringing them to the clawed one himself who gloats and boasts so maniacally about what he intends to do to each of them that he abruptly develops a lisp for no apparent reason, it is Orland who stages an epic rescue, armed with a flame-thrower that he just so happens to have found in a cave – along with the stand-out characters of this entire movie. Nothing less than a tribe of diminutive hooded entities whose faces are never seen but which in overall outward form resemble a memorable amalgamation of Tolkien's hobbits, the Jawas of Tatooine in the Star Wars film franchise, and Orko from the Masters of the Universe TV cartoon shows, and which speak in a babbling gibberish that, inexplicably, Orland can actually understand!

Once the climactic battle is finally done and dusted, with the bikers decimated, we would be forgiven for assuming that at long last, the arduous trials of H & A are finally over. But just as they begin to ride off into the sunset together, what should appear over the edge of a cliff face but a grasping clawed hand! Whether or not that ominous sight of an apparently still-surviving Slater heralded plans for a second Land of Doom movie, I cannot say, but I can say that no sequel has ever appeared.

So far in this review, I've mentioned all of this movie's main stars – or, to be precise, all but one of them. For its greatest star, effortlessly outshining all others, was its absolutely spectacular scenery. Land of Doom was filmed on location in the breathtakingly beautiful, hauntingly evocative mountain and desert landscape of Capadocia, in Anatolia, Turkey, dotted with crumbling relics and disintegrating remains from real but long bygone civilisations here. It all combines seamlessly to imbue every panoramic shot, every vibrant scene set amidst this surreal, otherworldly vista, with a truly unique atmosphere and aura. Once seen, never forgotten, that's for sure.

Also spectacular in my opinion is the very eyecatching artwork on the front cover of Land of Doom's official UK ex-rental video, as seen in the picture opening the present review. However, when viewing it please do bear in mind the short but significant disclaimer presented in minuscule typeface on the back cover, which reads: "The scenes depicted on this sleeve may be an artist's impression and may not necessarily represent actual scenes from the film". This is particularly relevant, I feel, to the two characters depicted on the front cover. For its red-haired brow-encircled Amazon bears no resemblance whatsoever to blond-haired, diadem-lacking Harmony (but in my opinion she does recall various poster images of the title character from the 1985 movie Red Sonja). Similarly, the semi-masked, steel-clawed male warrior is evidently not Anderson; nor is it entirely Slater either, certainly not facially nor in terms of his unicoloured hair (in contrast, the entirely different front cover artwork of videos bearing the Raiders of Death title do portray an accurate depiction of Slayer). Never mind, it is still very impressive artwork, guaranteed to attract attention from potential video rental customers back in the day, as intended.

I have seen some highly critical reviews of Land of Doom online, comparing it unfavourably with the Mad Max movies, which I feel is somewhat unfair. By definition, derivatives rarely compare well with originals, certainly not directly. Yet as long as a film is entertaining in its own right, then that, surely, is a measure of success, and for me this movie was indeed entertaining in its own right. In fact, my only disappointment was that it did not contain any monsters – no giant mutants created by the nuclear fall-out, for instance – which I feel would have given it much more dramatic diversity. Perhaps its budget simply wasn't big enough to include monsters – shame!

Lastly: as I mentioned earlier, some odd aspects exist in relation to Land of Doom's release date. In all of the authoritative movie databases that I've checked, 1986 is the year given for its cinematic release. Yet the date given on my UK ex-rental VHS video is 1985, and on various American NTSC videos that I've seen it is given as 1984. For obvious reasons, video release dates for a movie are normally the same as or later than that movie's cinematic release date, but as in this instance they are earlier, does this mean that Land of Doom was released onto video before it obtained a cinematic release? If anyone reading this review of mine can offer any suggestions, please feel free to post your comments below – thanks very much!

If you haven't seen Land of Doom but would like to do so, it is currently available to view free of charge in its entirely (with Korean subtitles) on YouTube by clicking here, or click here to view an all-action trailer for it (with Dutch subtitles).

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

The full cover of my official UK ex-rental big box VHS video of Land of Doom (© Peter Maris/Matterhorn Group/Maris Entertainment Corporation/Pegasus Home Video/PolyGram Video – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

 

A BOY AND HIS DOG

 

Publicity poster for A Boy And His Dog (© L.Q. Jones/LQ-Jaf Productions – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

On 14 August 2021, 40-odd years after reading the original classic sci-fi novella 'A Boy And His Dog', written by Harlan Ellison, first published in 1969, and winner of the highly-coveted Nebula Award for Best Novella later that same year, I finally watched the movie version of this memorable story. (In 1970, it was nominated for the equally prestigious Hugo Award for Best Novella, but lost out to Fritz Leiber's 'Ship of Shadows'.)

Directed by L.Q. Jones (who also wrote its screenplay after Ellison suffered writer's block while preparing one for it), and released in 1975, A Boy And His Dog is set in the year 2024, within a barren post-apocalyptic Earth. The 'boy' is a late-teenage loner named Vic (played with great zest by a young Don Johnson). His dog is a genetically-modified, super-intelligent mutt named Blood, with whom Vic can communicate telepathically (Blood's thoughts are voiced by Tim McIntire), as they eke out a nomadic, Mad Max-like existence together in a comical love-hate relationship, foraging amid the arid desert terrain of what had once been the U.S.A., prior to the nuclear devastation wrought by World War 4, that is… (Indeed, it has been claimed that this movie was the inspiration for the Mad Max film franchise.)

Vic's primary interest is finding women for sex, Blood's is finding food, so each helps the other in their respective searches, and they combine forces to steer clear of marauder gangs, slavers, deadly mutants, and other life-endangering hazards spasmodically confronted by them. Eventually they encounter and rescue from marauders and their ferocious guard dogs a passionate young woman, Quilla June (Susanne Benton). However, she ably uses her physical and emotional wiles to trick lustful, hapless Vic into deserting a now-injured Blood (after having  battled one of the guard dogs) and following her instead into a secret underground realm resembling an idealized all-American town from the 1950s but ruled by an autocratic Committee, headed by the merciless Lou Craddock (Jason Robards).

It turns out that the Committee had specifically sent Quilla into the above-ground, surface world to ensnare Vic, because their women need impregnating by a virile, fertile male from outside their inbred, self-contained society in order to become pregnant with male offspring. Inevitably, Vic is overjoyed to learn this, until he discovers that instead of performing actively as a stud as he'd expected to be doing, he is forcibly attached to a machine that, shall we say, facilitates the necessary biological extractions automatically.

Angry with Quilla for her deceptions, Vic nonetheless takes her with him when he eventually breaks free and escapes from this soulless subterranean world, re-emerging back on the surface after having spent several days beneath it. There he finds Blood, still faithfully waiting for him but gravely ill due to starvation, Blood's worsening injuries having prevented him from hunting for food during Vic's absence below-ground. Blood now faces imminent death unless he can receive sustenance swiftly, but Quilla begs Vic to depart with her in a new life together above-ground and leave Blood behind, saying that there is nothing that can be done for him.

However, even though it actually occurs off-screen, this movie version's retention of the brief yet famously shocking, wholly unexpected end scene from Ellison's original story ensures that Blood does survive, with a boy and his now well-fed dog setting forth to face new adventures together, just the two of them once again...

Interestingly, there had been plans to film a sequel movie entitled A Girl And Her Dog, in which Vic and Blood have parted ways, Blood now teaming up with a young woman instead. Tragically, however, Tiger, the dog who had played Blood in A Boy And His Dog, died shortly after the latter film had been released, so the idea for a sequel was shelved indefinitely. Also of note is that the first choice of actor to voice Blood's thoughts in A Boy And His Dog was none other than James Cagney, but he was ultimately rejected for the role on the grounds that his voice was too recognisable and would therefore detract from the character of Blood. Instead, after about 600 others had auditioned, Tim McIntire was chosen.

Although adhering to the same principal plot as Ellison's novella, this movie version does veer from it in certain key ways. Most notably, the novella is predominantly set not in empty desert terrain (much of the film was actually shot on location in California's Mojave Desert) but instead within the shattered, desolate remains of what had once been a large, thriving city. Moreover, the underground town in the novella is far less bizarre, sinister, and out-and-out grotesque than in the movie. For in the latter, the faces of all of the people are painted with clown-like 'white-face' make-up, complete with fake red-painted upturned smiles, and the Committee uses a series of murderous androids to keep the populace obedient and subservient, with anyone stepping out of line being summarily dispatched off-screen to a mysterious place named The Farm, after which they are never seen again.

Also, the extraction machine used upon Vic in the movie is not present in Ellison's novella, in which Vic is simply expected to impregnate the town's women in the traditional, natural manner (as Vic had expected to do in the movie before the machine made its unwelcome appearance!). And one aspect of the movie that apparently greatly irked Ellison at the time was that his iconic closing lines in his original story were replaced by a totally different set that in his opinion spoilt the entire end of the movie. I won't say what they were, so as not to spoil either the novella or the movie for those not currently acquainted with them, but I do agree that Ellison's lines would have yielded a far superior and much more chilling finale for the film.

Notwithstanding these changes, this movie version of A Boy And His Dog is an engrossing, semi-humorous, and highly unusual entry in the sci fi cinematic genre, and has gone on to become a cult film among the latter's aficionados. Certainly, I greatly enjoyed it – so much so, in fact, that it inspired me afterwards to dig out and re-read my copy of Ellison's original novella, as contained within a collection of his stories published in a 1979 Pan Books paperback edition entitled The Beast That Shouted Love At The Heart Of The World (also the title of the first story in this collection) that I'd bought back in or around 1980. (Incidentally, the version of 'A Boy And His Dog' contained in this particular edition is an expanded one that had been prepared by Ellison for the story's first American publication.)

At the time of writing, A Boy And His Dog can be viewed for free on YouTube by clicking here, and an official trailer for it can be watched by clicking here.

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

My copy of the 1979 Pan paperback edition of the Harlan Ellison collection of stories containing 'A Boy And His Dog' (depicted on its front cover) and entitled The Beast That Shouted Love At The Heart Of The World (© Harlan Ellison/Pan Books – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)