The New Barbarians [DVD] [1982]

I Nuovi Barbari (The New Barbarians) also features Luigi Montefiore (better known by his Anglicised name, George Eastman), an enormous, imposing man who made a living playing enormous, imposing monsters (in Joe D'Amato's The Anthropophagous Beast, Absurd and as 'Big Ape' in Sergio Martino's 2019: After the Fall of New York). Eastman also wrote screenplays: e.g. Enzo Girolami's Keoma and Michele Soavi's Deliria (aka Stage Fright). Here, over fifteen years before The Matrix, Montefiore plays an enormous, imposing villain named 'One'. Did the Wachowskis watched Italian post-apocalypse sci-fiers before making their 'blockbusting' SF trilogy? If they had, their last two films might have had a more satisfyingly nihilistic 'flavour': in this movie, the 'One' (Montefiore) leads a nihilistic gang apparently modelled on the Knights Templar. Furthermore, the nihilism of this gang is depicted quite graphically both visually and verbally. To be honest, for cult film fans the presence of Williamson and the concept of a nihilistic post-apocalyptic biker gang named the Templars makes this movie a must-see.

I Nuovi Barbari was Girolami's second post-apocalypse movie, following I Guerrerri del Bronx (1990: The Bronx Warriors)--which, strictly speaking, isn't a post-apocalypse film, although it is often labelled as such--and consequently, I Nuovi Barbari demonstrates the understanding for the genre that Girolami was developing, which would feed into his 1984 movie Fuga del Bronx (Bronx Warriors 2: Escape From the Bronx), the best of the three films. Having raised the issue of genre, however, it is significant that this film brings together the conventions of at least three different film genres: the medieval swordplay film, the Western and the science-fiction movie. Needless to say, Girolami has a strong affinity with the Western genre, and in this film the elements taken from that genre (the hero's status as an outsider, the endless travelling across a forbidding 'uncivilised' landscape) are the most compelling.

After Peckinpah, Girolami is one of the greatest post-1960s directors of action movies, and in his crime movies, Westerns and post-apocalypse action movies he demonstrates a strong understanding of how to film an action sequence and how to 'mesh' multispeed photography. Although the narratives of some of these movies may be weak (or may at least seem 'quaint' to contemporary viewers), in his action sequences Girolami shows a greater understanding of the mechanics of action movie filmmaking than more 'successful' contemporary action filmmakers (e.g. John Woo, Michael Bay).

However, due to some poor dubbing for the non-English speaking cast members, some rather ineffective special effects work and a disjointed, unconvincing narrative, I Nuovi Barbari doesn't reach the dizzy heights of some of Girolami's other films: for example, Keoma, Il Grande Racket (The Big Racket) or Fuga del Bronx. Nevertheless, along with I Guerrerri del Bronx and Fuga del Bronx , I Nuovi Barbari is an important footnote in the history of the contemporary science-fiction film; if macho posturing and great Peckinpah-esque action sequences are your 'bag', this film is a necessity, and is far more satisfying than most modern Hollywood action films.