aka Blood of the Innocent
USA. 1994.
Crew
Director – Bob Misiorowski, Screenplay – Charles Cohen, Story – Anatoly Niman, Producers – Joseph Newton Cohen, Anatoly A. Fradis & Trevor Short, Photography – Yossi Wein, Music – Vladimir Horunzhy, Special Effects Supervisor – Arkadiusz Rosczak. Production Company – Nu Image.
Cast
Thomas Ian Griffith (Frank Wycinski), Joanna Trzepiecinska (Anna Morszytn), John Rhys-Davies (Sergeant Shmuda), Rutger Hauer (Dr Lem), Andrzej Zielinski (Inspector Bielski), Stanislaw Brejdygant (Chief Inspector Morszytn), Aleksander Wysocki (Yuri Brijelski), Dominika Ostalowska (Sonia), Arthur Zmijewski (Marty Wycinski), Jan Prockyra (Zelepukhin)
Plot
Police officer Frank Wycinski is attending the wedding of his younger brother Marty, a fellow officer on the force. Afterwards, Marty flashes his badge to get a vehicle parked in front of him to move. However, the people in the other vehicle are smugglers who turn and shoot him. Frank swears vengeance for Marty’s death. He travels to Poland to track down the killer, a hired thug for the local mob boss Zelepukhin. In the midst of this, Frank falls for lovely surgeon Anna Morszytn, while at the same time falling foul of the police chief who desires Anna himself and wants Frank out of the country. Frank then uncovers a scheme whereby poor Russian immigrants are being abducted and their organs sold on the blackmarket.
Beyond Forgiveness/Blood of the Innocent is a routine action movie/thriller from Nu Image, a company that specializes in low-budget action films. The director is Bob Misiorowski who has made a number of B-budget action films, including First Light/Blink of an Eye (1992), In Too Deep/Point of No Impact (1993) and later works such as On the Border (1998), Shark Attack (1999), Panic (2001) and Derailed (2002), most of these being made for Nu Image and none being of any distinction.
Beyond Forgiveness is routine in most regards, although has some occasional points that make it interesting watching. One of these is that it the filmmakers have actually gone on location and shot in Poland. The shooting around the various castles and markets adds something picturesque and undeniably different to the standard American locations. Misiorowski at least gives a passably credibility to the situation. The plot is not great but the culture clash aspect is effectively conveyed.
Eventually the thriller plot that takes up most of the story develops into an organ-harvesting scheme a la Coma (1978) – in doing so becoming genre material. There is one particularly nasty scene where bad doctor Rutger Hauer has the hero tied up on an operating table and is preparing to cut him open without the use of an anaesthetic.
The hero is played by Thomas Ian Griffith, best known as the king vampire in John Carpenter’s Vampires (1998). Griffith is a trained martial artist – and at 6’5″ tall when he gets in and starts kicking opponents, the results are impressive. Rutger Hauer gives a decent performance.
Trailer here