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Terminal Island
Knuckle-Men
USA 1973
produced by Charles S. Swartz, Lawrence Woolner (executive) for Dimension Pictures
directed by Stephanie Rothman
starring Don Marshall, Phyllis Davis, Ena Hartman, Marta Kristen, Barbara Leigh, Randy Boone, Sean Kenney, Tom Selleck, Roger E. Mosley, Geoffrey Deuel, Ford Clay, Jo Morrow, Clyde Ventura, Frank Christi, James Whitworth, Richard Stahl, Sandy Ward, Albert Cole, Chris Allen, Richard Taylor, Ray Saniger
written by James Barnett, Charles S. Swartz, Michael Andres, music by Stephanie Rothman
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
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In some alternate reality, the USA have finally abolished the death
penalty - only to ship all murder convicts off to a high security island,
where they are left to their own devices. There's no law on the island, so
they may murder one another all they want, and it's really survival of the
fittest. Carmen (Ena Hartman) is the latest arrival on the island, dubbed
Terminal Island, and she's soon befriended by the local doctor (Tom
Selleck), a murder convict himself, who leads her to the main village,
hardly more than a random collection of shacks ruled with an iron fist by
psychopath Bobby (Sean Kenney) and his muscle Monk (Roger E. Mosley). The
women in the village, Joy (Phyllis Davis), Lee (Marta Kristen) and deeply
traumatized Bunny (Barbara Leigh) work just as hard as the men and are
forced to pleasure them sexually every night. Carmen is at first shocked
how readily the other women seem to accept this, but soon has to learn
that it's either accepting it or forced to accept it by violent means.
Then though the girls are saved by a group of rebels led by A.J. (Don
Marshal), who have long escaped Bobby's rule. Thing is, they are now
constantly on the run, justifiably fearing Bobby's wrath - which is just
not good enough for the girls who before long teach their new allies how
to make grenades and curare for blow darts to defend themselves against
Bobby's goons and eventually go into the offense - which is about time as
Bobby and company have managed to capture a patrol boat for its handguns
and machine guns to have the upper hand on the battle field - unless of
course our heroes use some ingenuity and cunning ... Back in
the early-to-mid 1970s, prison camp movies, often with a black female
lead, seem to have been all the rage on the exploitation side of
filmmaking, and this movie follows that genre's playbook rather nicely,
but at the same time manages to escape being just another formula movie by
adding splices of dystopia, elements of Lord of the Flies and even
some social commentary - especially in the opening in a TV studio - to the
mix, as well as putting a female perspective on things, thus minimizing
the sleaze for actual content. That's not to say this has then become a
brain-heavy thought piece, it's still a wildly enjoyable genre movie made
to entertain first. All that said, this film is no utter masterpiece
either, just one of the better exploitation pieces of its time, and most
certainly worth a watch.
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