The Forgotten Warrior stars Ronald L. Marchini as a POW in Vietnam who, along with two fellow soldiers (Mike Monty and Quincy "Quin" Frazier), makes a daring escape. Things get wild though when Frazier kills Monty, and then tries to kill Marchini to cover up the first killing, leaving him for dead at the bottom of a river. Marchini is nursed back to health by a kind villager, whom he marries and has a kid with, only to have Frazier come back to the jungle to finish Marchini off, but killing the wife instead. Bad move Frazier, as Marchini and his yellow shirt are now unleashed, and you're going down.
This might be one of those ones that's more fun than good, but I'll take that any day over just plain bad. Marchini delivers the action--in a bright yellow shirt that might as well be hunter safety orange--as he's wont to do, and at a cool 76 minutes, we seldom see any real lag time. We also see a lot of the usual standards, like the white soldier training the villagers to fight, which, in a film like this we'll manage when it's so fun, but in this case also comes with a bit of commentary because the white men, even Marchini, really only bring death and destruction to the locals. Fun 'Namsploitation with a side of nuance and commentary all in a 76-minute package? Sign me up.
This is the second Marchini film we've done here, the other being Omega Cop, and as I said in that review, all of the seven I watched for the pod episode on Comeuppance were fun. For a DTV action star, that's a string of success that I don't think we've ever seen. Usually there's a dud in there somewhere. I think to that extent Marchini understood what worked: shorter runtimes, action throughout, and heroes you can root for and baddies you want to see defeated. If it's that simple, why do we see so many instances of it not working?
The phenomenon of 'Namsploitation in the 80s and 90s was a trend the likes of which we may never see again in film. I think it starts with filmmakers wanting to remake Rambo, but then you add in the cheap production costs of the Philippines, and you have yourself a cinematic movement. From there you could just throw in whatever you want, whether it's Marchini with a bright yellow shirt and a samurai sword, or a screaming Reb Brown, or a shirtless Richard Norton; sprinkle in some exploding huts, massive machine gunfire, and one or more of Mike Monty, Vic Diaz, Jim Gaines, or Joe Mari Avellana, and you've got yourself a hit everywhere in the world except the US--though there is a good amount of us here who appreciate this kind of thing too.
We should get back to the yellow shirt, because it will be Marchini's hallmark in the next few films. I grew up in Maine with my dad and his friends who hunted, and they had a lot of hunter safety orange hats and coats so they wouldn't shoot each other while they were trying to kill deer. That's the idea in that scenario, "I want you to see me so you don't shoot me, because you're not hunting me." Here though, Marchini's character is the one under attack, so you'd think camouflage of some sort would be the way to go, but instead, it's bright yellow. In that sense it's almost like he's saying "I don't need no stinkin' camouflage to beat you guys." It would be like Reb Brown screaming to announce that he was in the area to the baddies looking for him.
As we're wont to do here at the DTVC, it's time for our Mike Monty appreciation paragraph. The Monty we got here was scarce, but I'll take my Monty however I can get it. I will say though, it is a cruel thing to do to the movie watcher to give us Monty at the beginning, then snatch him away so violently. If there's one thing I can fault this film for, that would be it. If you want to sprinkle your Monty in in small parts throughout the film, I get it, but giving us the impression that this might be a Monty-fest and then kill his character off that quickly is not nice.
But that is my only complaint with a film that was otherwise a great time. As of now you can get this on YouTube. We're still banging that drum for the Marchini Blu-Ray boxed set, but until that time, YouTube will do. And if you haven't yet, check out the Comeuppance Reviews podcast, not only for the Marchini episode, but for all of them!
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0291913
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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