The Exterminators of the Year 3000 (1983) poster

The Exterminators of the Year 3000 (1983)

Rating:

(Il Giustiziere Della Strada)


Italy/Spain. 1983.

Crew

Director – Jules Harrison [Giuliano Carnimeo], Screenplay – Elisa Briganti, Jose’Truchado Reyes & Dardano Sacchetti, Producer – Camillo Teti, Photography – Alejandro Ulloa, Music – Detto Mariano, Special Effects – Gino De Rossi & Edmondo Natali, Set Design – Enrico Fiorentini. Production Company – 2T Produzione Distribuzione Film S.r.L./Globe Film..

Cast

Robert Iannucci (Alien), Alicia Moro (Trash), Luca Venantini (Tommy), Alan Collins (Papillon), Eduardo Fajardo (Senator), Fred Harris (Crazy Bull), Beryl Cunningham (Shadow), Venantino Venantini (John)


Plot

It is the future following a nuclear holocaust where the ozone layer has been destroyed and the world turned into a desert wasteland. Water is now the most precious resource. A peaceful community is nearing the end of its supplies. They have sent John out to obtain more supplies of water but he has failed to return. A tanker and an armed convoy is sent to find what happened. After they depart, John’s young son Tommy is discovered stowed away on board the tanker. The convoy is attacked and destroyed by wasteland crazies led by Crazy Bull. The only survivor is Tommy who comes across Alien, a wasteland loner trapped in a crashed car following an attack by Crazy Bull’s gang. Tommy frees Alien with the promise of showing him the hidden location of the water well and the two form a reluctant partnership. As they, joined by others along the way, set out to find the well, Crazy Bull’s gang of crazies come in hot pursuit.


Mad Max 2 (1981) revolutionised the post-holocaust film, creating a brand new type of action film in which society had been reduced to a wasteland fought over by loners, decent-minded community people and mohakwed, leather-clad crazies who spent all their time engaged in roller derbies on dune buggies. It created a new fad that was copied by a number of other films for several years after – indeed, the Mad Max look became the de rigeur fashion sense for the aftermath of civilisation.

The most prolific copiers of the Mad Max film was the Italian exploitation industry who for several years relentlessly churned out copies such as 2020: Texas Gladiators (1983), Endgame (1983), The New Barbarians (1983), Rush (1983), 2019: After the Fall of New York (1983), The Final Executioner (1984), Rage (1984) and Rome 2072 A.D. (1984).

The Exterminators of the Year 3000 was one of these Italian copies. It copies Mad Max 2 with shameless regard – a loner hero; a cute kid sidekick; a peaceful community besieged by punks of the wasteland; the fight for a precious resource – oil in Mad Max 2, water here; a big action sequence where the crazies race to board a tanker. While it does little of interest or originality with its plot, The Exterminators of the Year 3000 at least delivers some vigorous action set-pieces. The opening scene where Robert Iannucci is pursued through the desert in a police car and the subsequent attack on the tanker are all well staged and exciting scenes.

Trash (Alicia Moro), Tommy (Luca Venantini) and Alien (Robert Iannucci) in The Exterminators of the Year 3000 (1983)
(l to r) Trash (Alicia Moro), young Tommy (Luca Venantini) and loner hero Alien (Robert Iannucci)

One of the funniest aspects of The Exterminators of the Year 3000 is the English-language dubbing. It is as though the dialogue were voiced by people who had learned their English from watching R-rated films that had been cut for US television. There are lines that are positively side-splitting to any native English speakers: “Into battle, my merry mother grabbers” and “die of unspeakable violence.” The wasteland crazies are wont to come out with cod-Shakespearean exclamation like “Once more into the breach, you mother grabbers” or “unleash the dogs of war.”

Behind the Anglicised name of Jules Harrison is Giuliano Carnimeo, an Italian director who was a prolific maker of Spaghetti Westerns during the 1960s and 70s. Carnimeo made only a few other films of genre note, including a venture into the giallo film with What Are Those Strange Drops of Blood Doing on Jennifer’s Body? (1972), the horror film Ratman (1988) and the sf film Computron 22 (1988).


Trailer here

Full film available online here:-


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