The Messenger has Williamson as Jake Sebastian, a man who has just gotten out of prison in Italy and is excited to see his girlfriend. Turns out said girlfriend is involved in the Italian coke trade, and she's upset some really powerful people. After leaving a party, those powerful people meet them outside and hose down his girlfriend with an uzi. Now he wants his revenge, and he's going to take down everyone in Italy and America whose involved in the coke ring.
This was a pretty fantastic 80s Italian action production. Williamson was as great as you'd want, plus the supporting cast included Cameron Mitchell, Christopher Connelly, and Stack Pierce, guys you watch something like this for and are stoked to see when they're there. The action wasn't bad, there weren't many dull moments, and when we didn't have action, we had guys like Williamson, Mitchell, Connelly, and Pierce who could carry the scenes and keep them fun. Not only that, the film had this early 80s R&B soundtrack that made me want to dig up Peabo Bryson and James Ingram playlists on YouTube. If you're looking for a low-budget 80s Italian actioner, this is a great choice, especially if you're binging on a few at once.
As always, we lead off with our Hall of Famer, and Williamson not only stars in this one, he wrote the story, and directs and produces as well. With this being the weekend of the Super Bowl, one thing that's great to look at with Williamson is how, for most people, his football career would have been the thing to hang his hat on, and anyone who lived that alone would have felt lucky to have done that; but Williamson has gone on to have a 50+ year acting career after that, and he's still going! This is my first Williamson flick since I came back from hiatus, so we'll try to keep the ball rolling from here and get more up, but this was a great one to bring him back with. Between his martial arts, his leather outfits, and his too sweet mustache, this is 100% Pure Hammer. Here's to you Mr. Williamson, you're one of the great ones, and a true Hall of Famer.
Knowing I was going to do one paragraph to cover both Cameron Mitchell and Christopher Connelly, I tried to find an image that had both of them in it, and this was the best I could do. Mitchell played an LAPD detective investigating drug crimes, and Connelly the FBI agent leaning on him for information so they could bring Williamson to justice while he was taking out all the "drug gangsters," and most of their scenes were one alone on screen yelling at the other, and then the other alone on screen responding. It doesn't matter, as I mentioned above, these are guys we come to movies like this for, and they didn't disappoint, but the fact that they were interacting with each other in almost every scene they were in made it even better. Like Pacino and De Niro in Heat, only in a family pack amount. Also, Stack Pierce (not shown), was Mitchell's partner on the LAPD, and he and Mitchell were great together, as always.
One of the things I've talked about in my Steve James posts is how James didn't get the leading roles he should have, often losing out to white actors, like when Dudikoff was cast as the lead in American Ninja despite having no martial arts skills and James was an expert martial artist. Unfortunately James passed away as he was starting to get more of those leading roles; but we see in a film like this how Williamson also had to go outside the usual avenues to get the roles he wanted and tell the stories he wanted to tell. Williams not only starred, he directed, produced, and wrote the story for The Messenger. It was like, if the industry won't give me the parts I want, I'll have to make them. To underscore again how sad it is that we lost James so young, Williamson turned 41 in 1979, and look at how much he's put out since that we love, and which we've been really lucky to have.
This movie, and this blog post, have been brought to you by King Cobra malt liquor. How amazing is that? In another scene, Williamson and his buddy (the guy above) were sitting at a table, and there was a case of it with them. I haven't had it in a long time, so I googled it, and found that they've changed the logo and bottle! What a shame? I also discovered old magazine ads with Williamson while I was searching, which are amazing. I used to drink a lot of 40s when I was younger, whether King Cobra, Colt 45, or Bull Ice. Two of those and a joint, and the next thing I'd know I was waking up in a bathtub full of ice in an Eastern European dive motel minus my kidneys. Man what great times those were! And Anheuser-Busch, if you're listening, I would love to have King Cobra as our official sponsor, and would do all I can to pitch your fine product. If you want to reach out, you can use the email at the top of the site. I look forward to hearing from you!
Okay, better to wrap this up now, as we're really going off the rails here. This is available on Prime, and also can be found on YouTube. If you in the mood for either Fred Williamson, an 80s Italian actioner, or both, this is the flick for you. As an aside, I'm posting the link to this on IMDb, but it's almost impossible to find on there by searching. You need to look up Fred Williamson first, then find it in his filmography.
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0185495
Looking for more action? Check out my short action novel, Bainbridge, and all my other novels, over at my author's page! Click on the image below, go to https://www.matthewpoirierauthor.com/
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