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One of the main reasons why I worship the Italian exploitation film industry so much is because their rip-offs are often so damn blatant and shameless that you wonder how they even dared to register it on camera! Just look at the opening sequences of this "Thunder Warrior", for instance. A rusty old pick-up truck drops off a lone Vietnam War veteran, a seemingly calm and peaceful person with long dark hair and still wearing his soldier's clothes and a backpack over one shoulder. Does this image sound somewhat familiar? Well, it should, because "Thunder Warrior" is an all too obvious imitation of the tremendously successful "First Blood" that was released barely one year earlier. Thunder is the Navajo-version of John J. Rambo, but the actor Mark Gregory isn't nearly as muscular as Sylvester Stallone and definitely not as fierce and combative as he's depicted on the VHS-cover. In fact, Mark Gregory/Marco Di Gregorio isn't even a real Indian but a former shoe salesman from Italy who became a star for a very brief period thanks to "1990: The Bronx Warriors". Thunder is informed by this extremely old and awfully dubbed Native American grandfather that their sacred burial grounds are being overbuilt by capitalist real estate developers and urinated on by redneck construction workers. Thunder initially tries to diplomatically talk to Sheriff Bill Cook and his yokel deputies, but he's quickly chased out of town and beaten down in the sand. But he fights back and receives unexpected support from a freelance journalist and a radio DJ named Dancing Crow. The first half of "Thunder Warrior" is speedily paced and contains a couple of powerful action sequences, including a furious car chase and a raw fight, but I have to admit that the second half is dull, weak and severely lacking in the action department. Most of Thunder's opponents don't even get the ass-whooping they deserved (maybe because a few re-appear in the sequel?) and the grand finale is sorely disappointing. The supportive cast will appeal to cult cinema fanatics, with names like Bo Svenson ("Inglorious Bastards", "Snowbeast") Antonio Sabato ("Seven Blood Stained Orchids", "Gang War in Milan") and the über-sleazy Raimund Harmstorf. I haven't seen either of the two sequels yet, but here's to hoping that they unscrupulously rip off "Rambo: First Blood part II" and "Rambo III"

A young Indian , lousily played by Mark Gregory, turns into a one army man when he is mistreated , as Thunder is determined to punish the local cops who are abusing his fellow tribe members .As a tough Native American is provoked to violence and then seeking a relentless vengeance . Mark is a young Indian called Thunder , he is a peaceful native whose quiet character is trigged by cutthroats , wrongful arrests, and injustices against his race . The Indian Thunder has vowed to live in peace and order but forswears the oath when his girlfriend is kidnapped and relatives are terrorized . Mark Gregory escapes into the Arizona mountains and leads his pursuers to all manner of lethal ends . Finally , an army of cops led by Bo Svenson , Raymond Harmstorf and other deputies are summoned to crush him .He is on the warpaths and he is gonna blow your town apart . They gave him hate , he gave them hell.

The picture deals with usual theme in Italian cinema of the 60s and 70s : a merciless vendetta . As revenge is the top priority , as the protagonist tormenting and reckoning the bad guys . Extremely violent and frequently confused, fueled on the revenge and no much concerned with the rules of plot realism . This is a rip-off to First Blood by Ted Kotcheff with Stallone that was followed by Rambo and sequels . Wooden acting by Mark Gregory as a two-fisted native American submitted to mistreats and prejudices, at the end he seeks vengance driving a caterpillar tractor against the nasties . He is accompanied by a motley group of secondaries as the American Bo Svenson , the German Raymond Harmstorf and a motley team of support cast who played a lot of genres in the sixties and seventies as Western , Peplum and Giallo, such as Paolo Malco , Nazzareno Zamperla , Bruno Corazzari, Goffredo Unger and Antonio Sábato. This Thunder had success in Italy , getting a boxoffice hit , being followed by 2 sequels also directed by Fabrizio de Angelis . As Thunder warrior II 1985 with Mark Gregory , Bo Svenson and Thunder warrior III 1988 with Mark Gregory , Ingrid Lawrence, John Philip Law , and Werner Pochath.

It contains spectacular outdoors photographed by Sergio Salvati , from Marble Canyon , Monumental Valley , Village of Oak Creek , Sedonia , and Navajo villages in Arizona . However , copy of the film is worn-out , being necessary a perfect remastering . Special mention for musical score , well composed by the prolific Francesco De Massi . The picture was regular , though professionally directed , by Fabrizio de Angelis who often used the pseudonym Larry Ludman . He has produced and directed a lot of B films of all kinds of genres , adventure , terror , and Wartime especially . As he has directed movies as Manhunt , Operation Nam , Deadly impact, Overthrow , being particularly known for the Karate Kimura series .

I know there are a lot of real bad action flicks out there, but this one isn't as bad as it sounds. Don't get me wrong, its not "good" or at least "quality" at all, but if you're in the mood for some cheezy action it'll do fine. There's a lot of bad, funny acting, a lot of building-up to a big revenge, typical '83 action stylee. I like the desolate desert locations and nice shots of caves & stuff. Antonio Sabato is pretty hilarious, especially when him & his boys blow up a gas station. I don't even think they had a reason to, just wanted a nice explosion in the movie or something.

Anyway, this is pretty entertaining stuff, and can't really be taken serious. Mark Gregory is a cool actor and its nice to see a native American as the good guy. Sit back and chill with a lil' Thunder Warrior to relive the times when we actually made movies like this.

Many were put off by Jeffrey Wright's portrayal of a Dominican drug lord in John Singleton's 2000 remake of "Shaft". The reason? Wright wasn't Hispanic. Not in any way. So the question begs to be asked, why was there no similar uproar when the white-as-snow Mark Gregory was cast as the Navajo lead in 1983's "Thunder Warrior"?

OK, so maybe I'm overstating here. Wright stole the show in "Shaft". Everybody talked about it. Gregory on the other hand, played out the role of Thunder to an audience of, well, zero. In fact, you'll be lucky to find a copy of "Thunder Warrior" in even the dankest of video cellars. And with good cause -- it like, totally stinks.

"Thunder Warrior", a gripping yarn about a lone soldier standing in the face of injustice, is a hot-blooded Reagan-era "Rambo" knockoff. And the parallels to Sly Stallone's "Rambo" are staggering: The vigilante lone-wolf warrior, the fighting-for-a-just-cause shtick, the massive odds piled up against him, yada yada yada. It's probably a purposeful move the producers made to keep this flick below radar, in order to avoid accusations of outright plagiarism.

Directed by Fabrizio de Angelis (the genius behind "Murder Alligator" and "Zombie Holocaust"), what we have here is a scorched tale of personal vengeance set in the American West, created by an Italian cast and crew, led of course by Gregory (ne, Marco di Gregario). In essence then, it's Spaghetti-Rambo.

But where "Thunder Warrior" splits from John Rambo comparisons is its level of quality. And by stretching the very definition of 'quality' to include "Rambo", surely now the abilities of "Thunder Warrior" can be understood. Combining chop-shop editing, stunted dialogue and stunts taken from "The A-Team" big book of tricks, it appears that poor Fabrizio's vision may not have been fully realized. And frankly, that's just sad. There is no action in this action movie. There are no thrills in this thriller. It defies any genre, the very reason the only place you'll find it now is in the five-cent bargain bin. Right next to its two(!) sequels.

1983 revenge themed movie. When the movie "First Blood" made a very good box office in 1982, they made a similar one through an Indian person. Whatever the American police were at that time, they either hug a Vietnam veteran or an Indian. An Indian teenager returns to his land. At that time, airport road works are being carried out around it. Here are the graves of their ancestors and the place is their own land. He goes to the sheriff to seek his rights, but he is fired from here. When he comes back, he is attacked. This neutralizes the attackers and flees.

The movie is 1 hour 20 minutes but it's like 3 hours. So very boring. The acting is a disaster. The man they found in the lead role can't act other than sulking. There is also a tin tin rushed in the field as an open target. But in the video era, this movie was watched a lot.

There is no sexuality in the movie and there is some nudity.

Thunder a weak Italian production took place at American sacred ground of Navajo nation Arizona, under the auspicious and iconic director Enzo G. Castellari, just an European casting with Bo Svenson and the Rambo's alike Mark Gregory, about a clash of the local Sheriff on supporting a construction on Indian reserve assigned by a treat of peace on the past.

Such unexplained constructing mainly in an Indian sacred burial place triggers a fight between the young warrior Thunder against hundred of cops, workers and all authorities of Arizona, many contrived sequences, fakes cardboard buildings, blasting sequences are enough to hold the audience's attention, a cheesy offering, bad characters and so for, however what a great pleasure to see it almost on restored version at Youtube, it come out officially in Brazil just in VHS format, praying for DVD release.

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 1988 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-Youtube / Rating: 5.5.

Mark Gregory once again succeeds in delivering another trashy film. He seems completely suited to it, he makes them work.

The story of protecting his homeland works nicely and the action is delivered pretty well making for a reasonable film :)

for those of you who long for the old Italian Spaghetti westerns of the 60's and 70's, here is a step in the vaguely right direction. Set in New Mexico's beautiful Monument Valley, although a bit more contemporary than the old west. Mark Gregory stars as an Indian who returned from Vietnam and gets disgruntled when absurdly racist locals harass him multiple times. He spends about 50 minutes destroying property and murdering police officers before he finally is recognized as a hero (!). The plot is silly, the dialog campy in the extreme, but the cast was likable and the action scenes were very well done. On top of that, the movie had an excellent Francesco De Masi musical score, which really gets the blood going at times. Good Sergio Salvati camerawork too. Low budget, but not nearly as cheesy as the two sequels which followed.

When Thunder (played by Mark Gregory of 1990:Bronx Warriors) returns home to see his girlfriend, he finds the local bank has financed the construction of a new building directly on top a sacred family Indian burial ground still owned by his tribe. An elder, who is the grandfather of his girlfriend, explained to him how the city roughed him up when he went and asked them to stop and honor a hundred year treaty signed that his people own the land.

Thunder, gets angry, and starts trouble with the construction crew that starts this wave of destruction that sets the pace for the rest of the film. The local police department doesn't want the aggravation so they handcuff Thunder and drive him to the city limits warning him not to come back. Thunder obviously returns only to get slapped around and threatened by a group of officers that take the law into their own hands. He escapes the beating, not without turning the entire town upside down in a wild police chase. Hiding in the mountains, the police assemble a posse to go in after Thunder.

Sound familiar? I hope while you were reading this you caught on that this is an Italian rip off of the original First Blood. It's been released under a few names. You can find it on Netflix as Drug "Traffikers" (I didn't spell that wrong, that's how it's spelled!) which makes no sense because the film has absolutely nothing to do with drugs. The difference is this was filmed in the desert, as said in the film Page Arizona. Coincidentally, John Rambo was part Indian and from Yuma Arizona.

Now, Thunder is not a guy to mess with. The Elder stated that Thunder is the son of the son of Night Eagle. Not sure if that actually means anything, but it's got to mean some serious business. There are tons of similarities to First Blood such as the deputy Barry Henson acting just like First Bloods Galt, and Sheriff Bill Cook (Played by Bo Svenson of Kill Bill, The Inglorious Bastards, and Delta Force) is manner exactly like Sheriff Teasle. Thunder jumps off a cliff to escape in a scene, minus the tree, and is pretty amazing with a bow and arrow. He destroys a police station and a bank, and though he doesn't blow up a gas station, one does get blown to smithereens. He even tells a cop that was inches from death to let it go, in other words.

A great warning is said in the film that states, "Thunder hasn't dug up his war hatchet yet." Not that he ever does, because he steals a bulldozer armed with a bazooka and starts blowing everything in his way up. There is a scene where he is being hunted by two guys on horseback and he shoots the bazooka at them. Priceless. For Arizona residents, you do briefly get to see the Glen Canyon Dam (Not to be confused with The Hoover Dam), a few Arizona chains still in business in the background of the city, and a college football game talking about The Sun Devils Stadium which is minutes from my house.

Thunder is a lot of fun and perfect for any dude night. It has some corny voice-overs that will make you laugh, great explosions, and come on, it's a rip off of one of the greatest action films ever made. Look out for the little kid at the end in war face paint when he says, "Thunder will never die." It deserves the cheesiest voice-over of a kid ever to end a film award!

My review was written in June 1986 after watching the movie on Trans World Entertainment video cassette.

"Thunder Warrior" (a/k/a "Thunder") is an okay Italian action picture, benefiting immensely from gorgeous Arizona locations in Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon and environs. Released theatrically overseas, the shot-in-1983 opus debuted on video cassette domestically, with a sequel "Thunder 2" currently in production.

Mark Gregory portrays Thunder, a young Navajo Indian who returns home to find that the tribal burial ground is being destroyed to become the site of an observatory, breaking a treaty signed 100 years ago by his grandfather. After starting a fight on the construction site with a worker named Thomas (Antonio Sabato), Thunder sits in at the office of Sheriff Cook (Bo Svenson). Brushed-off by Cook, he shifts his sit-in to the local bank that is financing the project and is promptly escorted out of the county by the cops.

Subsequently beaten by Thomas and his coworkers, and then treated to police brutality by Deputy Barry (Raymond Harmstorf), Thunder arms himself and becomes a mini-"Rambo" out of "First Blood". He survives, hence the sequel, and is established as a local folk hero after numerous encounters with the police and rednecks who try to hunt him down.

Filmmaker Fabrizio de Angelis (who likes to use the pseudonym "Larry Ludman" when directing), delivers fine stunts and chases, but overdoes slow motion to stylized violent scenes. Western-flavored music by Francesco De Masi is a plus, though film's main draw is its beautiful locations. Typically for an Italian visiting production, interiors were lensed back in Rome.

Star Gregory is good as the sullen Indian, a big improvement on his campy thesping in De Angelis' production of "1990: The Bronx Warriors".