Action/Adventure/Drama
1 hour and 29 minutes
Rated: PG
Written by: Chris Trainor & Steven Luotto
Directed by: Ruggero Deodato
Produced by: Ovidio G. Assonitis & Maurizio Maggi
Cast:
Miles O'Keeffe
Savina Gersak
Donald Hodson
Ronald Lacey
John Steiner
Michael Aronin
Hal Yamanouchi
A legendary desert avenger battles a savage outlaw empire!
The 1980s signaled the decline for a great many of Italy's filmmakers who earned their proverbial claims to fame in the decades prior. Despite having gotten his start in the 1970s with great films like Waves of Lust, Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man, and of course Last Cannibal World, the 1980s seemed like they might have been a fruitful decade for filmmaker Ruggero Deodato given his starting the era with his two most discussed films: Cannibal Holocaust and House on the Edge of the Park. Unfortunately, with a few low budget pictures and one big budget film not adding up to much in the way of box office profits - by 1986 Deodato, like many other wonderfully brilliant Italian filmmakers, was finding financing his films to be much more difficult. Deodato, again like many of his cohorts, turned to becoming a gun-for-hire director in order to make money so that he might put together projects he later felt passionate about. Such was the case for his film The Lone Runner.
Producer Ovidio G. Assonitis hired Deodato to direct the film, hoping that this legendary master of the grotesque's name might add some weight to the film ensuring its success. Unfortunately for Deodato and Assonitis things didn't pan out in their favor. Assonitis initially told Deodato that the film was meant to be a made-for-TV movie, which undoubtedly led to Deodato toning back his usual amount of violence and gore (his previous three pictures: Body Count, Cut and Run, and Raiders of Atlantis were all signature, bloody Deodato). And yet when Deodato traveled to the United States after completing the film, he was surprised to find various B movie houses showing it. And that is exactly the point, The Lone Runner's biggest problem seems to be a major lack of communication between all the parties involved with making the film.
For starters, the story is an absolute mess. It follows the kidnapping of a rich king's daughter in a post-apocalyptic desert, her rescue, her being recaptured, her escaping, her being recaptured again, her being saved, her being recaptured yet again, her being rescued again, her being recaptured .... well, you get the idea. The film is so grotesquely cyclical that it reaches a point where while watching it one feels that the actual experience is an hour or so over its real running time. Not even the film's script - what little there is in the way of dialogue - can make up for this lazy of a storyline.
Peppered in throughout these moments of rescue and recapturing is the film's running gag, where the hero, played by Miles O'Keeffe interacts with a wandering merchant - often stealing from the man promising to pay him back the next time. This happens EVERY time between a capture and a rescue to the point where it too becomes predictable, and whether or not anyone thought it was funny the first, second, and maybe third time - by the fourth and fifth time even people easily prone to laughter will find themselves growing angry.
The performances are a mixed bag at best, something that becomes a given with later career Deodato movies. Miles O'Keeffe actually is entertaining enough as the film's hero, but considering he is offered very little in the way of dialogue, his performance probably seems much better than it is. Let us not forget the Ator films, Sword of the Valiant, and even Tarzan the Ape Man where O'Keeffe shows off his particular lack of thespian talent. The rest of the performances are largely forgettable, although it should be said Deodato regular John Steiner is really a lot of fun to watch. This is largely due to his character in the film being completely unlike anything he has ever done before, for Deodato or anyone else. Hal Yamanouchi also holds his own, but like O'Keeffe he is offered very little in the way of dialogue and mostly impresses through his talent in the film's action scenes.
What action sequences are present - and trust me when I say there are quite a bit - are for the most part actually pretty entertaining, and remain The Lone Runner's greatest strength. Deodato proved himself worthy of directing exciting action sequences with Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man, Raiders of Atlantis, and Cut and Run and here he continues to flex those talented muscles. O'Keeffe especially is a blast to watch fight - using crossbows, fists, and daggers - and he undoubtedly could have had a much bigger career in action movies (hey, if Schwarzenegger made it work, why not?) His fight scenes with Steiner and Yamanouchi in particular are really terrific and a lot of fun to watch play out on the screen.
The Lone Runner, unfortunately, offers nothing more than quick flash in the pan excitement. This is especially disappointing considering the talent of Ruggero Deodato as a filmmaker, but understanding his restrictions and limitations as a gun-for-hire director of the film, one is left with the impression that if this is what came out of his more than capable hands, then perhaps this motion-picture was never meant for greatness regardless of who made it. Still, a bad Ruggero Deodato film has more merits than a good M. Night Shyamalan film - as I always say.
4/10
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