Raegan Butcher Based on an excellent book called Path To Savagery by Robert Edmond Alter and then butchered beyond recognition in typical Hollywood fashion, Ravagers is a lack-luster film pretty much from start to finish. Unconvincing matte paintings of a destroyed city starts things off and before you know it we are introduced to a forlorn Richard Harris with hang-dog face and soon-to-be-killed wife. After being sniffed out by scruffy "ravagers"and suffering loss of said wife Harris (even more mopey)takes to the road. His journey is not conducted with any sense of urgency but is marked by some striking scenery. The rocket graveyard is particularly effective. So is the ship used as a hang-out for Ernie Borgnine and his crew of authoritarian head-busters or whatever the hell they were supposed to represent. Judging by the names in the cast it is obvious that a fair amount of money was spent on the project. But the film lacks excitement. The pace drags.Richard Harris gives a bad performance. The story meanders. It is all very vague. Fans hoping for another post-apocalyptic adventure like 1975's The Ultimate Warrior will be disappointed. Ravagers is rather flat and dull. What interest it does hold owes to its 70s period flavor.

Coventry Apparently there are good reasons for this film's obscurity status as well as for the low rating on this wondrous website. Richard Harris doesn't nearly whoop as much butt as I expected in this overall dull and completely unmemorable post-apocalyptic Sci-Fi feature from the late 70's. The one strong point this movie benefices from (set pieces) isn't nearly enough to overlook the massive amount of weaknesses (lack of action, miscast players, no script…), but it has to be said the location spotters and set piece designers pulled off an exquisite job. The story may be non-existent and sadly ruining all its potential, at least all the exteriors look very depressing and the scenery appears to genuinely have lived through a nuclear holocaust. The story, as said, is mundane and hardly worth wasting words on. Falk (Harris) and his wife are two of the last few civilized people left in the world, all the rest is either extinct or joined Ravagers clans. When a gang viciously kills his wife (of screen even, damned!), Falk flees towards … nowhere. On his journey chased by the same scum that killed his wife, Falk encounters an army sergeant who went a little mad due to the loneliness, a community of cave people and the new & highly enlightened leader of mankind Rann. "Ravagers" had copious possibilities and could have become a great film, but nothing justifies the script boredom! Falk doesn't even want to avenge the death of his wife? Bah! There may be some famous names in this American production, but without hesitating I prefer the anonymous but violence & spectacle-packed Italian exploitation efforts instead.

Woodyanders Being the hard-core aficionado of post-apocalyptic sci-fi/action features that I am, I naturally was pretty pumped at the prospect of finally seeing this extremely rare, forgotten and elusive genre entry after taping it in its uncut entirety off of cable. I didn't really know what to expect, since this was given a spotty release by Columbia and received extremely negative reviews by the handful of critics who bothered to see it during its fleeting theatrical run. After viewing it I can now say it's neither the best nor worst of its type. Instead, it rates as a strictly middling affair that basically does the trick but never totally amounts to anything truly special or resonant.The plot set-up is standard, but serviceable enough: Following a devastating nuclear holocaust the world has thoroughly degenerated into a bleak, harsh, desolate and dangerous hellhole where all hope has been lost, food is scarce, and vicious vulturous packs of roving ragtag psycho freaks called "ravagers" loot and kill with merciless abandon. A scuzzy band of filthy no-count "ravagers" led by ruthless sleazoid Anthony James viciously rape and murder the lovely wife (bewitching blonde Alana Hamilton) of cagey, cautious, constantly on the move loner Richard Harris, who narrowly avoids getting bagged himself. Harris makes a risky and arduous trek across the dry, barren, perilous wasteland, befriending both a lovably crackpot army sergeant (a delightfully dotty Art Carney) and a sassy lass (ravishing brunette Ann Turkel) during his journey. James and his grimy gang doggedly pursue Harris every step of the way. Harris and his newfound friends discover a heavily fortified redoubt run by benevolently jovial and avuncular dictator Ernest Borgnine. James and his foul flunkies close in to attack the fortress.Donald Sanford's neatly realized script keeps the story moving and further offers a provocative theme addressing the difficulty of regaining hope in the wake of a severe catastrophe which has rendered the world a most feral, unkind and godforsaken place. Unfortunately, Richard Compton's uneven direction runs hot and cold throughout, thereby scuppering a good deal of the sound script's potential. The film gets off to a cracking start, sags a lot at mid-point by becoming much too dull, talky and sluggish, but luckily gets back on thrilling track with a genuinely rousing conclusion. The cast is uniformly solid: Harris does well as the plausibly rumpled and rundown survival-weary protagonist, the ever-slimy lanky beanpole James makes for a splendidly scurvy villain, and both Turkel and Hamilton are quite charming as well as real easy on the eyes. Seymour Cassel as a doomed blind lawyer and the always dignified Woody Strode as a shrewd survivalist contribute nifty cameos. Fred Karlin's stirring score and Vincent Saizis' grungy cinematography are likewise up to par. Tasty trivia tidbit: Gilda Texter, the cute blonde naked girl on the motorcycle in "Vanishing Point," designed the ratty costumes. Alas, the often painfully poky pacing, infrequent outbursts of reasonably effective, albeit rather bland action, much too tame violence, and, most damagingly, a restrictive PG rating which prevents the picture from completely achieving the raw, gritty, no-holds-barred ferocious tone this baby desperately needs to fully work prevent "Ravagers" from being an all-out knock-your-socks-off winner. If it was only more lively and down'n'dirty nasty in both its content and execution then "Ravagers" would have rocked. As it is, very flawed and imperfect, but not without a few substantial merits, it's passable, but altogether nothing terribly potent or spectacular.

DanielKing There are plenty of good ideas here but they are betrayed by lacklustre direction. There is something about these 'last men on Earth' movies that I really enjoy and I am not sure exactly what it is. In common with THE OMEGA MAN and MAD MAX 2, this film posits a future in which a handful of people seem unaffected by that which has wiped out most of the world's population. This is never explained here but it is hinted that a massive global conflict, presumably nuclear, has finished virtually everyone off. It is said that the seas are poisoned and that nothing can grow on land. This gives every opportunity for scenes of scavenging for food and the joy of discovering a couple of unopened tins of peach slices. Unlike NIGHT OF THE COMET and DAWN OF THE DEAD, the holocaust happened many years in the past and thus we have no scenes of glorious looting in deserted shopping precincts. In fact it has been so long that the initial despair has worn off and a new lifestyle has developed. So much so that there are hints of a new mythology: unconnected groups of people all speak of 'Genesis' a place where fish swim in the rivers and fruit grows on the trees. Thinking about it, there is plenty of religious allusion in this film, all the way up to the somewhat abrupt ending.