Tornado (1983) Reviews

• Better-than-average Pasta taste of the Vietnam War

  SgtSlaughter2005-04-21

  Antonio Margheriti is easily Italy's most prolific director of the 1980s. He has dabbled in every genre imaginable. His Vietnam action flicks of the 1980s, including "The Last Hunter", "Tiger Joe" and the title piece are pretty solid films. "Tornado" is a fair film in its own right, but doesn't hold a candle to the earlier pieces in the trilogy. The plot resembles Peckinpah's "Cross of Iron" with little innovation, but isn't a rip-off in any way. In the final days of the Vietnam War, an unhinged American Captain (Antonio Marsina, "Leathernecks") sends his Green Berets on high-risk missions behind the lines. Sgt. Maggio (Giancarlo Prete, "The Assisi Underground") doesn't take kindly to his commander's attitude towards his men; when his friend dies because of the Captain's blundering, they get in a fight and Maggio winds up en route to the stockade. Well, he winds up escaping from the authorities and sets out across enemy territory to reach neutral Cambodia. Meanwhile, a reporter (Luciano Pigozzi, "Double Target" tries to expose the Captain's madness and save Maggio from his fellow troops, which are in hot pursuit. Margheriti doesn't really do anything wrong in this film. It's a lack of good things and innovation that drags it down to an "average" status. The action sequences are cheaply staged and consist almost entirely of stock footage from "The Last Hunter". These shots are very well-integrated, but the action looks as though it is revolving around the old material. The musical score is okay and mood-fitting, but doesn't even come close to the "Last Hunter" score. And like "The Last Hunter" Margheriti again throws in a prisoner-of-war scene which totally apes the "Deer Hunter" bamboo cage sequence. The one thing holding this movie together is a well-written script by the genius Tito Carpi ("Eagles over London") and Gianfranco Couyoumdjian and good acting to deliver the message. Prete is fantastic as Maggio; he's bitter and we always understand why. He's also tough, but with a sympathetic human side. We can relate to him; he's a man's man in a situation beyond his control which makes little sense. Marsina is even better as the maniacal Captain. He doesn't portray this officer as a full-blown lunatic. Instead, there's something quietly sinister about this man. The slight sneer in every expression. The quiet, level tone in every situation, no matter how intense or extreme. Marsina is simply brilliant. Finally, Luciano Pigozzi has a fair-sized part as the reporter, even if he doesn't get to do much except chew out both the Captain and Maggio for different reasons. He's got gusto and a real screen presence, even if he does look like some hillbilly from the swamps of Louisiana. Unlike "The Last Hunter", Margheriti handles the story without an over-emphasis on its anti-war message. Although this is definitely an anti-war film (there are sentiments throughout and the ending will drive this theme home) it's handled in a realistic, straightforward way. The characters are fleshed-out naturally. The action scenes are believable, for the most part, and are meant to be taken realistically rather than symbolically. There's hardly any graphic violence and the profanity is sporadic. This is in no way an exploitative film, nor is it an allegory: it's a serious comment on the wasteful nature of the Vietnam War. There are a number of memorable, stand-alone scenes throughout the picture. One, in which the Captain and his cohorts discuss finding Maggio - only to have him jump over their heads with a dirtbike - is simultaneously funny and grim. The discovery of a suicide and subsequent hand-to-hand fight is also very well-constructed. "Tornado" is an un-original action piece with enough good performances and interesting situations to keep any war film fan engaged, though not on the end of their seat. Worth a look.

• Not too shabby

  currax2002-10-06

  You gotta love a movie that's set during the last days of the Vietnam war yet the clubs and radios play 80's music. I know, nobody watches these films for realism, they watch them for...what DO they watch them for again? Well, this was made after two other Margheriti war films, The Last Hunter(1980) and Tiger Joe(1982). Tornado is the weakest of the three, but not by as much as I expected it would be. Timothy Brent/Giancarlo Prete is a pretty decent lead. You want to know about the story? Some lunatic army commander regularly makes decisions that lead to the injury/death/abandonment of his men yet nobody really gets on his case about it until a hotshot superstar green beret has had enough and punches him in the nose. Then the hotshot is arrested by the MP, but the vietcong attack and the vehicle he's in is damaged and he manages to escape. From there on, it's a battle of wills between the hotshot who hates the commander and the commander who feels that if the hotshot does escape, it would reflect well on the commander, because he trained the hotshot, but the commander wants him dead anyway. Even though the war has been officially declared over. It's good to see Luciano Pigozzi (aka Allan Collins) pop up here (it seems like he's in all of these) but his role is fairly boring. The ending sort of came out of nowhere. I read an interview with Margheriti and he claimed that the ambiguity of who did what to a certain someone in the final shot (I'm trying to avoid spoilers here) was intentional. Well it made me laugh, and I don't think that was intentional.

• Margheriti Plays it off Legit

  Bezenby2019-03-03

  War is hell, and fighting in a war already lost is even worse. Gian Carlo Prete finds out the hard way that loyalty can be misplaced in this surprisingly serious Italian jungle actioner. We're in Vietnam, right at the end of the war. The US is withdrawing everywhere but Captain Antonio Marsina still insists his men go out on patrol, resulting in many casualties and loyal Sargeant Maggio (Prete) mulling over his purpose in the war. After a particularly nasty firefight Maggio doubles back to help a stricken soldier, but finds out how expendable he is when his Captain orders the choppers to leave without him. One gruelling journey down river, Maggio returns with the wounded soldier alive. Marsina isn't taking the criticism from Maggio to well, however, and threatens to court martial the Sergeant. Maggio is popular amongst his men, and the appearance of journalist Luciano Pigozzi makes things a little more different for the CO. Pigozzi is very much anti-war by this point, and keeps annoying the Captain with questions about why he keeps sending his men out. You know that wounded soldier Maggio brought back? He was going to be an Olympic star, has just lost a leg, and has now committed suicide, an action that pushes Maggio over the edge... Margheriti plays all this fairly legit. There are no indestructible Arnie types wiping out half of South-East Asia. The US has already lost the war, the troops are demoralized and spend their time getting wasted (in both the boozy variety and the booby trap variety), everyone wants to go home except Captain Marsina, and Maggio begins to lose his faith in the army and act out, which leads to a chase into enemy territory, and various violent showdowns. Maggio's character might be a Green Beret, but he certainly spends his time getting a severe kicking from the NVA and the Viet Cong. There's still plenty of action to be going on with, but both Prete and especially Pigozzi convey their feelings well. This might be one of Pigozzi's best roles in fact. The old actor here certainly show that his sympathies lie with the soldiers, and he's rooting for Maggio all the way. Mike Monty shows up as another burned out officer, further highlighting that by this point in the war, people like Marsina are few and far between.

• Thanks to its director and cast, it's capably handled and rarely boring

  tarbosh220002012-03-29

  Set during the final days of the Vietnam war, Tornado is the tale of one Sgt. Sal Maggio (Prete), a man embittered by war. Compounding the situation is the hard-ass (to the point of being sinister) Captain Harlow (Marsina). The two men are always at odds, and their conflicts continue to escalate, with a court-martial looming for Maggio. When Harlow's decisions leave people dead in their wake, Maggio doesn't take kindly to that. But then he's captured by enemy forces and tortured. Harlow decides Maggio is a deserter and orders his men to shoot on sight if they see him. Meanwhile, Maggio escapes from his imprisonment and takes revenge on all of those who wronged him. If it's anyone who truly understands the Vietnam experience, it's the Italians. we're being facetious, but director Antonio Margheriti is amazing and his killer body of work speaks for itself. While his The Last Hunter (1980) is superior to this, Tornado is a decent, watchable Exploding-Hut jungle movie. There are slo-mo runs from explosions (and quality explosions at that), tons of southeast Asians with those bamboo cylindrical hats bite the dust, stock footage from the aforementioned The Last Hunter, and naturally there's plenty of shooting, helicopters, and the prerequisite torture sequence. None of it is really new, but it's not bad. There's the time-honored disco scene, which we always love seeing, and because this is an Italian production, they're going to add a bit of their trademark gore to some of the violent scenes. Here, it's not over the top however. This movie would seem to be highly influenced by Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), if it didn't predate it! But its First Blood (1982) inspirations are made explicitly clear on the movie's alternate title: The Last Blood. As if that wasn't enough, check out the burst on the lower right of the box art: "All the action of Rambo - set in the steamy jungles of Vietnam." Such is the gigantic influence Stallone left on the action genre. The year following Tornado, Tony Marsina would appear as the title character in Rolf (1984), extending his action cred. Giancarlo Prete (here as Timothy Brent) as Maggio is enjoyable to watch as the unshaven soldier with the big insubordinate streak. It's pretty surprising his character wasn't named "Stryker". Luciano Pigozzi (here as Alan Collins) is an actor who's been in pretty much every Italian movie...we think it's been said before, but he's like the Italian Vic Diaz. Here he gets a reasonably good role as the Hemingway-like war reporter named Freeman. Released on VHS in the U.S. on the great Lightning label, Tornado features some memorable music, notably the end-credits tune "Holdin' On" by Chris J. King. It's a GOOD movie - not bad, not great - and it lacks many distinguishing characteristics. Thanks to its director and cast, it's capably handled and rarely boring, but needed something to set it apart. For more action insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

• Not bad, but Margheriti did better

  Leofwine_draca2017-06-03

  I saw this under the title TORNADO - THE LAST BLOOD. It's a follow-up to Antonio Margheriti's quartet of jungle adventures although not as entertaining as them, mainly because Margheriti copies a lot of the action scenes from THE LAST HUNTER so any fan of that particular movie will experience a feeling of deja vu here. The story is a about a tough unit of soldiers who are constantly led into death and danger by their captain, leading the film's protagonist to eventually go gunning for revenge against him. This film features numerous average action scenes, largely uninteresting stock characters, and second-rate actors. The inimitable Luciano Pigozzi has the best role as a volatile reporter constantly flying off the handle. The rest is okay, but Margheriti has done better in this genre.