Tuesday 14 September 2010

BROTHERS IN BLOOD (Italy, 1987)

Original title: LA SPORCA INSEGNA DEL CORAGGIO
AKA BLODBRØDRE (Denmark) 

VHS / Denmark / fullscreen / English dub / Danish subtitles / long uncut version


review by JACK J

1974. As BROTHERS IN BLOOD begins we're back in Vietnam. A handful of US soldiers are in deadly combat with an overflow of Vietcong soldiers. In the most critical minute a chopper finally arrives to take them out of their hell hole but just as the last guy is about to get on board he's hit by a bullet.

There's screaming and yelling, and the Vietcong is closing in so in the final moment the pilot decides to take off even tho the wounded soldier lying on the ground obviously isn't dead. Tough luck. Then jump to 12 years later. The former leader of the group (Bo Svenson) is back in the US spending his nights in bars boozing and getting into fights. His wife isn't too thrilled. o_O

Anyway, one night he watches the news on telly and learns that his old war buddy, the one they left behind, is still alive and is being held hostage in some South American country. Needless to say, he leaves his wife without a word and heads off to find the other members from the old group.

The members are spread out all over the place; One runs a casino and is in trouble with the underworld; One has a family with an ill kid; and Werner Porchat plays a drag queen who's under the thumb with some South American general (if ya catch my drift). By the way, the last movie I saw Werner Porchat in was Umberto Lenzi's WILD TEAM, also set in South America (altho it's actually filmed in the Dominican Republic, LOL) and also quite entertaining.

Anyhoo, Bo Svenson collects the group, none of them are particularly happy about having to save their old friend but somehow Svenson (with NO trace of a Swedish accent, he's clearly dubbed by somebody else) convinces them it's the right thing to do and off they go. They steal a helicopter and weapons not knowing that the FBI are making arrangements with the crook South American government to kill them off once they've rescued the hostages. I'm not going to reveal the ending but there's lots of shootings and explosions. Haha.

BROTHERS IN BLOOD is certainly a fine way to spend around 90 minutes, that's for sure! There's heaps of fighting, shooting and explosions (altho in contradiction to the Filipino films they don't always have exploding huts in the Italian films, LMAO). And some fine acting too. Bo Svenson is a fine character actor. ;-)

I always thought Werner Porchat had one of the best bad guy mugs around. Unfortunately, he died a few years back. There's really no gore and no real explicit violence other than people getting gunned down and blown to pieces but on the other hand we DO see that a lot. Not the best trashy war film ever but as I said it's pretty entertaining.

The print I watched is the Japanese VHS which is dubbed into English and looks great as it's presented in its letterboxed format.


Directed by:
Tonino Valerii

Starring:
Bo Svenson
Werner Pochath
Peter Hooten
Martin Balsam

Three International Sister Films
Italy, 1987

Reviewed copy:
Columbia Video (Japan)
VHS, Letterbox, English dub w/Japanese subtitles
Running time: 1h34m

Trailer:




VHS / Japan / letterbox / English dub / Japanese subs


VHS / Holland / format? / English dub / Dutch subs

[you can click all scans for bigger size]


Thanks to Diabolik for scan of the Danish VHS and for uploading the trailer (it's off a Danish ex-rental VHS. In English, no subs) and thanks to KingofB (Teade) for the Dutch cover scan!!!

8 comments:

  1. hi!there is another title on imbd!imbd thw new garbage.did you see how ugly are their new pages?are they fool?i am angry with them.its so confusing!it was the best movie site now the worst!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey,
    Eh, I'm not sure how this is related to BROTHERS IN BLOOD but yeah the IMDb (not "imbd") sure sucks. But then again I always thought they sucked. So much crappy misinformation. Almost all right out Filipino films are listed as American co-productions if they've got even just ONE American actor in it. Complete bollox, of course.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey again there, Epanastatis. Your post is bit confusing but it finally dawns on me what you mean! LOL. You're right, they are using another English title for this movie on IMDb. Instead of BROTHERS IN BLOOD they list two English language titles; "Blood Commando" and "Savage Attack". However, the print I own is clearly called BROTHERS IN BLOOD, not just on the cassette but on the print itself as well.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jack J: "However, the print I own is clearly called BROTHERS IN BLOOD, not just on the cassette but on the print itself as well."

    So does the danish release...
    http://www.diabolik.dk/uncut/brothersinblood.jpg

    /D

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Jack
    I found the trailer for Brothers in Blood on another of Jaguar Film's releases... Uploaded just for you, matey!! :-)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U2oNIf-l2I

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hate to tell you this but BROTHERS IN BLOOD was filmed in The Dominican Republic and not the Philippines. Have I missed something? Love the blog - just fabulous.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha, no, you haven't missed anything. Even tho this blogs boasts of being devoted "entirely" to Filipino Vietnam flicks ... it's not actually the case. There's a section of B movies about the Vietnam war (and other wars) that were produced and filmed in other countries. They're in the "Film index [non-Filipino productions]" section.

      And thanks for your kinds words, mate. :D

      Delete

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