The Seven Red Berets (1969)
It's fair to say that 1968's "Dark of the Sun" a Congo mercenary adventure directed by Jack Cardiff, still resonates with both film buffs and filmmakers today......
The film, which took violence and torture to then unheard of levels in the year of its release, remains a favorite of directors Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino (who used excerpts from its haunting score in "Inglorious Basterds".)
Guess who else took notice.....those tireless Italian pulp purveyors who'd wasted no time flooding the world with countless knockoffs of Sergio Leone westerns. Surprisingly, only a few of these multi-nation co-productions sought to make their very own 'Dark of the Sun' imitations......and we couldn't wait to dive into this one when we found its availability on multiple streaming services.
"The Seven Red Berets", an Italian-West German production directed by Mario Siciliano, sticks close to the basic 'Dark of the Sun' tropes.
Everything's in place here.....battle-hardened mercenaries on a perilous trek through the blood soaked Congo uprisings of the early 1960's. Their primary mission - secure valuable documents that fell into the hands of the insanely violent Simba rebels, (and if possible, rescue a captured woman journalist, whom we earlier saw being gang raped by the Simbas in the film's prologue.
As in 'Dark of the Sun', don't look for any historical accuracy here. 'Red Berets' only agenda involves serving up 90 minutes of unrelenting slaughter and assorted atrocities......you can already sense that most of these mercs are doomed, along with vast amounts of Congolese natives who get regularly machine gunned and blown apart with grenades.
But also, don't expect the professional artistry, craft and acting skill that went into 'Sun' here either......any more than you'd expect a Sergio Leone amount of quality while you're watching some cheapo spaghetti western wanna-be titled "Santuco Kills For a Dollar and change"
On the plus side (which you know we always burst blood vessels trying to search for in even the worst of movies).....some very beautifully composed scenery shots and the always effective charismatic Ivan Rassimov (the 'go to' guy for Euro-trash Grindhouse macaroni.) Here he lends his striking, vulpine presence to the lead role of a dissolute soldier of misfortune with his own tragic, haunted past.....and acquits himself fine as an anti-hero.
And we have to give the producers some credit for the sheer nerve on display at the film's opening....daring to throw in a quote from Martin Luther King as the film kicks off its spectacle of piling up African bodies. Brass balls indeed.....maybe they should've thrown in quotes from Gandhi, Mother Theresa and Mr. Rogers while they were at it......
A tough one when it comes to final recommendations and rating. Seekers and cinephile curators of low rent 1960's Euro-junk will want to view it at least once.....or anyone curious enough to discover something-sort-of-similar to 'Dark of the Sun'. For those folks, 2 & 1/2 stars (**1/2).
For everyone else? Merely a 1 star (*) diversion if you can't find anything else on TV and don't like the book you're reading.....
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