Italian exploitation cinema of the ‘70s and ‘80s was nothing if not quick at cashing in on any successes or any new trends. When Walter Hill’s “The Warriors” (1979), George Miller’s “Mad Max” (1979) and John Carpenter’s "Escape From New York" (1981) struck box-office gold producer Fabrizio De Angelis, screenwriters Dardano Sacchetti and Elisa Briganti and director Enzo G. Castellari quickly came up with this silly, trashy but incredibly enjoyable mash-up of the three previously mentioned movies. “1990: I Guerrieri Del Bronx” is set in the 1990s of the future, where the government has long since given up trying to keep order in certain parts of New York and has declared the Bronx a “no man’s land”. This has ceded control of the Bronx to a series of vicious gangs who control their own turf against other gangs and the government, while the rest of the city is run by the evil Manhattan Corporation. Fed up with the behaviour of the Corporation, Anne (Stefania Girolami), the daughter of one of the Corporation’s head honcho’s runs away and ends up in the Bronx, where she falls in with the “Riders”, a down and dirty Hells Angels style gang. She’s soon the main squeeze of Trash (Mark Gregory) the young and charismatic leader of the “Riders”. For a number of reasons the Manhattan Corporation is keen to get Anne back and send in the psychotic super-mercenary Hammer (Vic Morrow) to “rescue” her. Unfortunately Anne ends up in the clutches of a rival gang of roller-skaters and with Hammer closing in, Trash and a couple of his men are forced to travel through dangerous gang territory to enlist the assistance of super-fly gang leader The Ogre (Fred Williamson), the self-proclaimed “King of the Bronx”.

“1990: I Guerrieri Del Bronx” could never be described as a technically good film or a particularly original one, but what it is a superb slice of cheesy, camp, colourful, stylish, action-packed, futuristic lunacy. The film has so many incongruous moments and odd interludes that to mention them all would be impossible – the lone drummer banging away on the quayside when the “Raiders” and The Ogre meet; the ridiculous rival gangs, in particular the “dancing gang” of rouged-up ballet and tap-dancing drag-queens; the bizarre costumes and spiky weaponry; the atrocious fight choreography and the climatic sequences when a police gang on horseback, armed with flamethrowers, take out the street gangs. Enzo Castellari, however, imbues the whole thing with an infectious energy and a junk aesthetic that turns the whole thing into a colourful, garish and bizarre spectacle. Castellari’s love of slow motion action is highly evident as well, so plenty of fun but highly contrived fight sequences are woven in through the film. The screenplay carries a slyly anti-corporate stance and despite the colour and the lively approach there is a downbeat tone threading through the narrative – “we were born dead” states Trash at one point. The film is nicely photographed by Sergio Salvati, who uses a widescreen quasi-verite style to good effect, delivering quality location photography throughout. Incongruously you can see “normal” New York in the background going about its everyday business while the Bronx street gangs go about their life-or-death struggle in their ghettoised part of town – a sly piece of social comment from Castellari? The score is by Walter Rizzati, whose pounding beat keeps everything moving forward at a reasonably high speed. On the acting front Vic Morrow is in over-the-top, scene-chewing form and blaxploitation star Fred Williamson plays it with his normal suave, cool, macho, ass-kicking style, here dressed to the nines in a satin super-disco pimp outfit. Mark Gregory as Trash, however, provides the standout performance for all the wrong reasons – incredibly stiff, ludicrously dressed in an open leather vest, skin-tight jeans, knee-length leather boots, sporting an immaculately teased curly perm and displaying an incredibly flouncy walking and running style, he screams homo-eroticism from all pores. Why a gang of badass, violent, hairy, tattooed bikers would accept this prancing pretty boy as their leader is one of the great imponderables thrown up by the movie. This, however, simply adds to the overall “trash” appeal of the film and helps to make “1990: I Guerrieri Del Bronx” a piece of highly enjoyable piece of low-budget, low-end exploitation trash lunacy. ( )