Product: Troma's War (The Unrated Director's Cut) (The Tromasterpiece Collection) (1988)
Rating: 4.0
Troma Does a War Flick
Why I continue to plod my way through Troma's catalog of schlock movies is a question not easily answered. "The Toxic Avenger" holds a special place in my heart because that movie was my first real gore film experience. Since then, I have seen many more films from Lloyd Kaufman's warped studio, and none of them ever really matches that first Toxic Avenger picture. If you are not familiar with Troma, they are a movie production company dedicated to releasing the worst trash films in cinematic history. The people at Troma actually revel in their reputation for bad taste through massive self-promotion in all forms of media. "Troma's War" shares attributes with nearly every other Troma film I have seen: atrocious and hammy acting, cheesy but gruesome effects, lame musical scores, pedestrian pacing, and tasteless humor.The impetus for "Troma's War" is a plane full of civilians crash landing on a seemingly deserted island. Not many passengers survive, but those who do constitute a broad cross section of American society. You have a Catholic priest (who is a great singer!), a trio of rock and roll wannabes, a slimy businessman, a blind girl, the requisite hunky guy and gal, a Vietnam vet (who really gets into the war: he wears a necklace made out of human ears and has the best death scene in the movie), a British guy with a blowgun and poison darts, a few old folks, and a woman with a baby. The surviving passengers spend the first scenes of the movie just trying to figure out what happened and to map a plan of action. When hunky guy Taylor decides to explore the island, he discovers a roving band of soldiers armed with assault weapons slogging through the forest. All the survivors generally agree that this could be a bad thing, especially when they witness a band of armed thugs gunning down one of the defenseless passengers on the beach. Our heroes rapidly head for the hills, so to speak, in order to avoid the armed gangs looking for them.As "Troma's War" unfolds, the crash victims discover that these soldiers on the island are actually armed mercenaries and terrorists training for a clandestine offensive against the good old United States of America. After some trite soul searching, the group of survivors decides to arm themselves and fight the terrorists in their own backyard. This decision takes on special meaning when the terrorists capture several members of the group and subject them to painful torture techniques, such as exposure to AIDS and throwing a flight attendant off of a watchtower. When our armed heroes liberate the prisoners and kill all of the terrorists, they move on to the main target: a base full of Cuban soldiers and more terrorists. As the enemy soldiers die in numbers that John Rambo would appreciate, the crash survivors also suffer a few casualties in the course of the war.That's all there is to "Troma's War": several scenes of survivors bonding followed by lengthy battle sequences where people die en masse. Kaufman states in an extra on the disc that "Troma's War" used more squibs (little packets of blood placed on the body and set off with a small charge to simulate gunshot wounds) than nearly any other movie with the possible exception of Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch." Kaufman may be right, but we don't get to see many of those squibs going off because the battle scenes are so poorly choreographed. It looks as though Kaufman directed his cast and extras to just run around and shoot, and we don't get to see much of the carnage in graphic detail because Kaufman and company didn't effectively use slow motion outside of a few "people on fire" scenes. Moreover, the squibs weren't as big as they could have been. I looked forward to blood packets the size of tennis balls, but alas, this did not happen. Overall, there is still a body count so high that it should satiate even the most rabid war movie fan.Troma made this film in 1988 as a response to the hyperpatriotic, right wing war films like the Rambo series and "Red Dawn." At one point in the film, lead character Taylor waxes philosophic about how he found documents in the terrorist camp proving that right wing elements in America are working with the terrorists because they want to use the resulting chaos to increase their wealth and power over the common man. It's a class and control issue, laments Taylor, and it's up to them to put a stop to this terrible exploitation. Further evidence in this vein comes from the mouths of one of the terrorists, claiming that a campaign to destabilize America will cause the citizens to turn to mercenaries in order to restore the rule of law. I wish someone would one day write an article about left wing themes in Troma films.The DVD version of "Troma's War" contains even more extras than a normal Troma release. There are interviews with nearly every person involved in the production, from the actors to the stunt people to the crew. The usual tour of Troma studios and intelligence test are here, as are four trailers for such Z grade numbers like "Sizzle Beach, U.S.A." More importantly, the movie on the disc is the unrated director's cut. "Troma's War" isn't the greatest Troma film ever made ("great" being a highly subjective term regarding Troma), but it isn't the worst one, either. Low budget movie aficionados should probably check this one out if they get a chance, as there is plenty of groan worthy material in the movie. I recommend this as a "rent, not buy" experience.