Sandokan the Great (1963)

First of all: The Sandokan movies from 1963 and 1964 are trash- cinema of the 60s, which nowadays appears once again cultic. You notice the low budget, but you will be abducted to beautiful original locations in India and Sri Lanka. Also the look of the costumes is very worth seeing.To the content (WARNING: SPOILERS from now on!):Sandokan, the pirate but also native prince, whose family was deposed and killed by the British, leads his people (a bunch of faithful, pirates, and adventurers) in the fight against the British colonial masters, who are as evil as the Nazis are in some US productions. It is very refreshingly one-sided and wonderfully politically incorrect, that the British here are only bad guys. The first part is, as far as the action is concerned, a little lame, up to the last 15 minutes, but then it's really right. The Malayan natives, supported by Sandokan's men, storm the mighty British fort. The portrayal of the violence in this battle is already quite violent. The British soldiers are really massacred here, which I have not yet seen in this mass of kills. Particularly noteworthy is the scene in which Sandokan fires with a conquered machine gun in a bunch of soldiers in the yard of the fort also backwards and mercilessly mowed them down, which is all shown by the camera. Here is no shading of the camera, you see them going down and in other scenes their dead bodies lying around overall in the background around the whole fort. The Stuntfights are partly quite amateur, but this does not stop the spectacle of this mass struggle.However, the second part is still a little more violent when Sandokan breaks out with his men from a prison camp with a mine and a quarry. There he used also a conquered British machine gun, which he mounted on a truck and then firing around on a ride through the mine, killing British soldiers in rows with it. This goes even further when he slaughters nearly the entire British garrison alone in the yard of the camp with the MG, so that the court is covered with the bodies in red British uniforms. The fight is quite one-sided but this machine gun raid is really suspicious. There are three of these battles in the second part, one on a ship, in the prison camp and in the final battle. In all three battles the British soldiers are completely slaughtered by the pirates and the natives, something which would been no longer shown in this intensity and political incorrect size of the massacres. Infortunately we have only one battle in part 1. A few more battles would be better but the Fort battle here is probably the best.Overall my conclusion is: Good entertaining films, in which the natives are the really one-sided good ones, which I find very refreshing.

An effective jungle adventure yarn from one of Italy's greatest cult directors - Umberto Lenzi, who would later go on to greater fame with his polizia and horror movies in the '70s and '80s. Here, his pacy direction keeps SANDOKAN THE GREAT interesting when it could be regarded as overlong, and a wealth of action and plot elements make the running time fly by. On top of this, the band of assorted leading characters are a well-developed bunch too, not just cardboard cut-outs as in many similar movies from the period, each with their own personality and character. The dashing hero is played this time around by genre titan Steve Reeves, effortlessly charismatic and athletic when the script calls for it, as Reeves displays once again the skills that made him a true legend in Italy.The majority of the film's running time is taken up by a huge jungle trek in which our heroes must fight many perils. The journey is interspersed with plenty of fights, shoot-outs, jailbreaks, and other action staples which are well-staged and always a pleasure to watch. Reeves' party is fleshed out by a pretty blonde girl (played well by Genevieve Grad, although she doesn't have a lot to work with), and minor parts for Wilbert Bradley and Dakkar Genre fans may spot seasoned performers Rik Battalgia and Superargo himself, Giovanni Cianfriglia, appearing in other minor roles. Leo Anchoriz ironically has the role of the stuffy British villain, Lord Hillock, but unfortunately is rather unmemorable.Along the way, Reeves and his men must traverse treacherous bogs and poisoned swamp water, a surprise attack by a lethal tiger, an elephant stampede (done with stock footage, but still realistic), a tribe of head hunters who shoot and kill with their poisoned darts, and a traitor in their midst as well as avoiding all the British soldiers out to get them. The ending could have been a classic but is let down by some poor day-for-night filming which obscures some of the action, so it just remains great fun. Sandokan and his men perform a jailbreak and then proceed to massacre the British army in a large battle scene, the highlight of which sees a bloodied Reeves jumping on to a huge machine gun and cutting down dozens of the enemy. A good way to end what is a perfectly enjoyable little adventure romp, recommended to all fans of the genre.

Sandokan and his group of followers on the mission to fight merciless English colonial army and to free Sandokan's father. Thanks to one Portugese gentleman who puts on a stolen British uniform and tricks the enemy into thinking Sandokan was eliminated, rebels succeed in penetrating a British fortress and capturing the highest ranking officer's niece. Unfortunately, there is a traitor among Sandokan's men. This rat keeps divulging classified information to the other side and counteracts each Sandokan's future move. The Tiger of Mompracem has to reveal the identity of the traitor, protect the British girl from the dangers of jungle, avoid bullets during several clashes, break out of jail and outwit those treacherous Englishmen... Apart from several action sequences and one bullet removal, the movie contains a bit of romance when British officer's niece succumbs to the power of Sandokan's personality, and large number of exotic animals: poisonous snakes, elephants, a tiger (who gets his buttocks kicked by Sandokan) and a smart chimpanzee lady who helps rebels escape from prison cell... Dakkar, the guy who later appeared in Fulci's Zombie and Girolami's Zombie Holocaust, plays one of Sandokan's men in this nice old-fashioned adventure.

This high-spirited adventure yarn features Steve Reeves in the role of Sandokan, a Malaysian rebel who kidnaps the niece of a British general who is planning to execute Sandokan's father, the sultan of Moulker. He and his men traverse sweaty jungles, poisonous swamps, and strange lands filled with fierce native headhunters! An unforgettable experience.