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Vendetta dal futuro

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Vendetta dal futuro
Theatrical release poster by Renato Casaro[2]
Directed bySergio Martino
Screenplay by
Story bySergio Martino
Produced byLuciano Martino[4]
Starring
CinematographyGiancarlo Ferrando[3]
Edited byAldo Devgen[3]
Music byClaudio Simonetti[3]
Production
companies
  • Dania Film
  • Medusa Distribuzione
  • National Cinematografica[3]
Distributed byMedusa Distribuzione[3]
Running time
94 minutes[5]
CountryItaly [1]

Vendetta dal futuro (lit. 'Vengeance from the future',[1] also known as Hands of Steel) is an Italian science fiction film directed by Sergio Martino. The film stars Daniel Greene, George Eastman and John Saxon.

Plot

An evil industrialist (John Saxon) has created a cyborg (Daniel Greene) who is 70% robot and 30% human. When the cyborg rebels, he ends up working at a bar frequented by arm wrestling enthusiasts. The cyborg just wants to be left alone but he is hounded by Saxon's men, the government, and the arm wrestlers.

Cast

Production

Hands of Steel was filmed in Arizona with some scenes shot at the Grand Canyon and the town of Arcosanti.[6] Actor Claudio Cassinelli died in Page, Arizona during production as he was on a helicopter that crashed into the Navajo Bridge.[7][8][page needed]

Style

Howard Hughes noted that the film belongs to a group of Italian film productions that borrowed elements from the film The Terminator, including Bruno Mattei's Shocking Dark and Nello Rossati's Alien Terminator.[6] In his overview of 1980s action films, Daniel R. Budnik described the film as "the hybrid movie to end all hybrid movies", noting The Terminator and Blade Runner as influences, as well as the plot later being borrowed for Over the Top.[9]

Release

Vendetta dal futuro passed Italian censors in 1986.[3] The film has been released with the English titles of Atomic Cyborg and Hands of Steel.[1]

Reception

From retrospective reviews, Hughes described Vendetta dal futuro as "the best example" of a film in debt to The Terminator, noting its other influences of Blade Runner with a karate-fighting android and praising an action sequence featuring lorries, cars and helicopters as well as the score.[6] Budnik found that the film's beginning was boring with its more political elements, but improved after these scenes and that it was "fine, furious desert action with arm wrestling, and some sort of strange cyborg woman thrown in to confuse things." [9] Donald Guarisco of AllMovie described the film as a "decent time-killer for b-movie fans" noting that its "southwestern setting gives it a unique flavor and Sergio Martino (using the pseudonym of "Martin Dolman") does a decent job of delivering plentiful action on a shoestring budget: his best moment might be a scene where the hero has to fend off gun-toting assassins while also fighting a pair of disguised cyborgs in close quarters."[5] Guarisco concluded that "The end results are frequently silly (it takes the police a really long time to figure out they're hunting a cyborg) but never dull" and declared the film to be "strictly for the b-movie audience but they're likely to enjoy its low-budget fun."[5]

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c Paul 2005, p. 299.
  2. ^ "Hands of Steel French 1p '86 cool Casaro artwork". emovieposter.com. Retrieved 2018-06-22.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "Vendetta dal futuro (1986)" (in Italian). Archiviodelcinemaitaliano.it. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
  4. ^ Budnik 2017, p. 117.
  5. ^ a b c Guarisco, Donald. "Hands of Steel (1986)". AllMovie. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
  6. ^ a b c Hughes 2014, p. 206.
  7. ^ "E' morto l'attore Cassinelli caduto con l'elicottero in Usa". La Stampa. 14 July 1985.
  8. ^ Enrico Lancia,Roberto Poppi. Gli attori. A - L, Volume 3. Gramese Editore.
  9. ^ a b Budnik 2017, p. 118.

Sources

  • Budnik, Daniel R. (2017). '80s Action Movies on the Cheap: 284 Low Budget, High Impact Pictures. McFarland. ISBN 978-0786497416.
  • Hughes, Howard (2014). The Outer Limits: Filmgoers' Guide to the Great Science-Fiction Films. I. B. Tauris. ISBN 978-0857734754.
  • Paul, Louis (2005). Italian Horror Film Directors. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-8749-3.
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