{"id":23143,"date":"2021-07-15T16:14:33","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T23:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=23143"},"modified":"2021-07-15T16:14:33","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T23:14:33","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-invaders-of-the-lost-gold-1982","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=23143","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! Blu-ray Review: INVADERS OF THE LOST GOLD (1982)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This Blu-ray is currently available from Severin films. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In 1981, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas took the world by storm again with the blockbuster adventure film, Raiders of the Lost Ark<\/em>. Naturally, its worldwide box office success spawned a number of imitators. One of those was Invaders of the Lost Gold<\/em> aka Horror Safari<\/em> aka Greed<\/em>, a film that most were introduced to on VHS. Made on a shoestring in the Philippines by maverick independent producer Dick Randall (Crocodile<\/em>, Supersonic Man<\/em>, Pieces<\/em>, Don\u2019t Open Till Christmas<\/em>), the movie veers into exploitation territory. Despite its lowbrow ambitions, it somehow managed to secure an impressive cast and actually delivers a few amusing moments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

B-movie fans who get a kick out of these types of films (and I will admit to being one of those people) can now pick it up on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films, who have given the picture a sharp and impressive 2K restoration. The movie also arrives with some nifty extras that include a few interviews with participants. Those involve tell remarkable stories about how it was made and detail making a movie in another part of the world with limited resources. Like just about every other release from the studio, Severin have taken incredible care with the presentation and bonuses. This is about as good as the movie has ever or perhaps will ever look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The movie opens with a flashback set during the end of World War II. With allied forces ready to libertate the Philippines, a trio of Japanese soldiers decide to hide millions in stolen gold in the jungle. After their platoon is attacked by headhunters, the men hastily leave the valuables in a cave. 36 years later, sneering villain Rex Larson (Edmund Purdom) gets wind of the hidden riches. With the backing of a financier (David De Martyn), he decides to track down the officers, demanding he \u201chelp them\u201d retrieve the stash for a significant cut. They\u2019re not exactly thrilled by the offer, leading to violent confrontations. Eventually, Rex manipulates the last solider, Tobachi (Harold Sakata) into joining him on the quest. They hire a grizzled guide named Mark Forrest (Stuart Whitman), who enjoys hanging out in strip clubs.. where you’ll naturally find all of the most qualified men to lead a dangerous mission. The final group also includes randomly chosen assistant Cal (Woody Strode), as well as the financier and his fetching daughter, Janice (Glynis Barber). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The story appears to be an amalgamation of Raiders <\/em>and\nThe Treasure of the Sierra Madre<\/em>. In fact, it\u2019s more of the latter film\nthan the former. This is essentially a tale about a group of people venturing\nout into the wild to find gold. Besides a reasonably zippy and elaborate battle\nduring the opening sequence, there\u2019s little in the way of dynamic action later\nin the feature. In the end, the individuals within the group become their own\nworst enemies. They make terrible choices throughout and ultimately turn on\neach other, which results in unnecessary bloodshed and death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While the movie certainly isn\u2019t strong from a story perspective\nand is politically incorrect in many respects (the depictions of headhunting natives\ncertainly wouldn\u2019t fly today), there is plenty humor to be derived from a couple\nof over-the-top performances, as well as the stunning ineptitude that these\ncharacters display. The leads are buffoonish and the filmmaker seemingly goes\nout of his way to get them killed is the dopiest ways possible. Of course, the\nleads fight among themselves, often being pushed great heights off of bridges\nand cliffs to their deaths. But the tale also includes an individual who is\ndevoured by a crocodile and another who goes for a swim during the chaos and is\npulled under the water by an unseen force (clearly there was a plan to show\nsome kind of animal, but money ran short).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In movies like these, filmmakers are forced to cast whomever\nmight be willing and available, even if they don\u2019t necessarily fit the role. Purdom\nis a standout as the scenery-chewing villain. He exaggeratedly snarls and\nthreatens his way through the proceedings. It\u2019s remarkable that the group aren\u2019t\nimmediately suspicious of this figure based on his hilarious delivery alone. Whitman\u2019s\nheroic Forrest looks rumpled, tired and a little too old for his role. That makes\nit all the funnier to see female lead Janice fawn over him for the entire running\ntime, despite it being clear that the vibrant and young aristocrat is very much\nout of the hero\u2019s league. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These anomalies help provide an enjoyably cheesy experience for\nviewers and allow many chuckles to be had at the outrageous trashiness on\ndisplay. And on a technical level, one can take some real appreciation from the\nlocation photography. It is impressive and images featuring boats sailing down rivers\ninto the jungle are nicely captured. The cave used during the finale is also gorgeous\nto behold. With the new and improved image quality, these shots look striking\nand the movie does serve as an interesting travelogue (apparently, it is\nmentioned in the extras that the cast and crew shot the movie on the same river\nused in Apocalypse Now<\/em>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As mentioned previously, the Blu-ray extras are also fun.\nThere is an interview with director Alan Birkinshaw (who later helmed the 1989\nremakes of The Masque of the Red Death<\/em> and The House of Usher<\/em>) who\ntalks about how he got involved in the production and all of the craziness that\nwent on behind-the-scenes. More than 20 minutes of outtakes from the documentary\nMachete Maidens Unleashed<\/em> are also included that deal specifically with\nthis title. In the various clips, Birkinshaw explains that he was a very young\ndirector and saw the picture as an opportunity to gain experience. He realized\nthat the script wasn\u2019t good and knew he wasn\u2019t a proper screenwriter, but tried\nworking and rewriting scenes every day to make the best out of the situation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He talks about dangerous situations and shooting slowdowns when\nmuch needed supplies weren\u2019t arriving onset. The director also discusses the troubles\nin getting the practical effects to work. Some of the stories are outrageous. Birkinshaw\nis honest in his comments about the movie and notes the mistakes he made. He states\nthat while the jungle backdrop was impressive, he wished that he had inserted\nmore color into the green backdrops. He realized far too late that the art\ndirectors and production designers on Apocalypse Now<\/em> wisely found ways\nto integrate a splash of color into shots, making the images pop. He also goes\ninto the tension between co-stars Purdom and Whitman. Both men saw themselves\nas the lead and would only arrive on set last, causing complications in getting\nthem in front of the cameras. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The late Dick Randall\u2019s wife also discusses her husband\u2019s\ncareer. The producer was American but moved to Europe., where he began embarking\non a movie career. She states that he always had the best of intentions, even\nif the final products rarely ended being as good as he had hoped them to be. His\nsignificant other talked about working with him in the Philippines, recalling\nthe dangers involved in shooting there. This included one incident involving\ngovernment officials suddenly increasing their fee and threatening to kill her\nhusband if he didn\u2019t meet their demands. She actually believed that Randall\nenjoyed the stress and danger and explains how the situation was resolved. This\nsubject also has amazing stories and even comments on Whitman\u2019s alcoholism during\nthe shoot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Invaders of the Lost Gold<\/em> isn\u2019t an amazing movie, but there is a reasonable amount B-movie charm to be had in the excessive schlock. The Blu-ray presentation is wonderful and the extras are very entertaining, adding some explanation about the reasons behind weirdness occurring onscreen. It you enjoy cheesy exploitation flicks like Robowar<\/em> (that Severin have also released in recent years), then you may get a kick out of this disc as well. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Blu-ray is currently available from Severin films. In 1981, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas took the world by storm again with the blockbuster adventure film, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Naturally, its worldwide box office success spawned a number of imitators. One of those was Invaders of the Lost Gold aka Horror Safari aka […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":23151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[114,697,785,2923,3073,6732,8398,8610,8902,9337,9897,9898,9899,11342,11860,16050,16605,19233,24469],"class_list":["post-23143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-114","tag-action","tag-adventure","tag-blasts-from-the-past","tag-blu-ray-review","tag-edmund-purdom","tag-glynis-barber","tag-greed","tag-harold-sakata","tag-horror-safari","tag-invaders-of-the-lost-gold","tag-invaders-of-the-lost-gold-blu-ray-review","tag-invaders-of-the-lost-gold-review","tag-jungle","tag-knock-off","tag-philippines","tag-raiders-of-the-lost-ark","tag-stuart-whitman","tag-woody-strode"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}