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    For a B-movie made in Italy in 1982 this is really very well done.  It looks like they had a healthy enough budget for outside filming, fancy-looking vehicles, cool costumes, and a then-current 1980s-style soundtrack.  I'm surprised that I enjoyed it this much.  I bought the original video release on VHS for cheap because I thought it might be cute to see plus it had Fred Williamson in the cast, whose movies I enjoy.  But this movie surprised me.

    Let me say that I am not a great fan of the post-apocalyptic movies made so popular by the "Mad Max" series.  Too depressing, and in most of these movies everything always looks like it was made cheap.  The post-apocalyptic theme, I feel, was always a copout to make cheap action films.  But this movie took that basic idea and made something better out of it.

    It is a very simple, straight-forward film about good vs. evil in the days after the nuclear holocaust.  It is the year 2019.  Most of the people in the world are dead.  The few that are still alive are struggling to survive.  As if lack of food and drink wasn't bad enough, a cult of homosexuals called the Templars ride around killing anyone who isn't a Templar.  They blame everyone else for the holocaust and are anti-Christians.  The Templars fancy themselves as self-styled priests, led by a man called One (George Eastman).

    A loner named Skorpion (Giancarlo Prete, credited as Timothy Brent) stirs up trouble with the Templars.  Apparently he had a run-in with One a while back, won a duel, and had since been removed from their hit-list.  But after he rescues a beautiful woman named Alma from his deputies and kills One's favorite warrior in self defense, the war was started once again.  The Templars hunt down Skorpion and everywhere the anti-hero goes becomes a war zone.  Fortunately, Skorpion is joined in battle by a big black man and expert archer Nadir (Fred Williamson) and a small boy who is a genius with anything mechanical simply called Young Mechanic (Giovanni Frezza).  Skorpion's lady in the show, Alma, is the sensational Anna Kanakis.  She really is lovely, and I wish they would've given her more to do.  We don't see her as much as we like, but she is a cool character.  In real life, Anna Kanakis was Miss Italy in 1977.  She's done quite a bit of acting since this movie was made.

    The acting is decent enough, but nothing complicated or outgoing.  What really makes this movie fly is all the action.  The violence looks real, almost too real.  The car chase scenes are exciting, as are all the explosions.  The stuntwork is well done.  Plus, it's a fast-moving story.

Warriors of the Wasteland- This is what the movie was called when it was released in the United States and personally my favorite title of those given to this film.

Photos:

Posters

This is a close-up of poster art made for the film.  As you can see, a great deal of "creative liberty" was used here.  First off, Fred Williamson is shown as a white man.  Second, Fred's character of Nadir was NOT the main character, but a supporting hero.  Third, Anna Kanakis is shown as a redhead.  And the face doesn't even have Anna's features.  And where does that spaceship thing come from?  There's no truth in advertising here, but it IS an awesome poster.